Ireland/Scotland

Foot on their throat after getting back in front with 20 minutes to go.

Scotland out on their feet after massive tackle count, missing leaders (game management) on the pitch to close out the game.

Not much good winning autumn friendlies and not being able to close that out.

Over-hyped team crumbles. Performance littered with mistakes and very poor defensively in opening 30 minutes

Autumn friendlies

Don't know if I will bother tuning in for England vs France, nether teams really make much of an effort in this competition according to rugby guru, Mincer...

I thought not to close out that match today when they were in such ascendancy was inexcusable.

How Heaslip didn't go to ground and recycle that ball was brain dead as Paul O' Connell intimated. Certain penalty with a strong possibility of a try.

Scotland were buried and Ireland couldn't close the door.

Evaluating the match as an individual event and impartially, they weren't ruthless enough at the time where it mattered most.

Scotland were never buried....always within a couple of points.  We were well on top ...but all you need is field position to regain the lead through a penalty given such a scoreboard.

You were watching a different match if you didn't think Scotland were on the ropes.

At that stage in Ireland's mind they were further than a point ahead.

Of course it was still alive, the game was there to be closed ot and and should have been slammed shut, but instead they left the door open and were deservedly punished by a moderate side.

Ireland were well up top but Scotland were not on the ropes from a scoreboard pov as explained.

You are never truly in control of a game, when only a point up.

DJ is spot on in both his posts.
The Autumn friendlies are treated as more by the weaker teams, you can be sure the Canadians treated their game against us like we treated NZ or Oz.
England will be trying alright, and probably France too, because they've fallen so far behind the Southern Hemisphere teams they've nothing else to play for.

Didn't see it as got caught up helping a fella move his sh!t.

From what I've read, I'd say the head and brains of the team, Sexton would have steered them home when they hit the front. I'd say Jared Payne is probably a massive loss when the ball goes wide as well, seriously intelligent player with great fundamental skills.

They will be gutted; must have been a massive drop-off from the autumen for all Scotland have been coming a while.

Jackson had a really good second half as it happened, Neill.

It was lost in the first half with a litany of basic, atypical errors.

Great for us IF France can hang on.

A seasoned statistician like yourself, dj, should not draw any conclusion based on a sample size of one match!

don't follow French rugby especially closely, but there is little doubt over their individual ability, application, fitness and organisation more the thing

agree re Sexton, Neill.

Fingers crossed for France and that their fitness holds up.

Sh!t

Perfect example of a superiority complex and an inability to comprehend my posts.

Ireland had their foot on the throat of Scotland and released that pressure by not finishing off a legless Scotland. They played as if they were 10 points clear and not one.

Your argument reads like I know my rugby so I am correct, I haven't read anything that would substantiate your self-proclaimed assessment of being a rugby expert.

Kindly indicate  my "self-proclaimed assessment of being a rugby expert"

I actually thought France had won..so busy  squabbling with DJ....

need a lie down!

Maybe we could get Betfair funding for some type of dormitry thingy(myself included haha)?

I had my lazy eye on this(between racing and early pga), i thought they were destroying them in the build up BEFORE going ahead, once they went ahead it was just very disappointing they didnt continue in the same manner before they went ahead, very poor.
No vitriol please, i'm not really a rugby head.

To take up DJs issue of us ballsing it  up and not closing out  the game…….

We  managed to go 1 point ahead with a full 17 minutes to go and were very much on top.

From there on, we continued to dominate territory and and possession, despite Scotland freshening their lagging team from the bench.   We didn’t go loose or over-play in the  hope of chasing a 4 try bonus point, we didn't take unnecessary risks or play from deep.  If we had, I think DJ would have a valid point.  Whilst we did try and largely succeeded in keeping the ball, we didn't go completely into our shell and just pick and go….it's not as if there was just a few minutes to run down.  Nor did we simply kick deep to the dangerous Hogg, we couldn't as we were camped in their territory anyway.  We broadly maintained our style of play which had dragged us back into the match, it is conservative  in nature anyway and we were so dominant by that stage that  a 4 try definitely point  definitely looked possible.  But, for re-emphasis, we never forced it.

We eventually gave away a holding on penalty at ruck time (it happens, credit to Scotland) …Scotland finally got some second half territory , then Jackson got over zealous trying to force a turnover at a ruck and Scotland kicked the penalty (a huge individual error tbf) .  2 penalties in quick succession….and Scotland had smashed and grabbed the lead.

For me, that really amounts to one inexcusable error in many minutes of Ireland trying to do the right thing.

Which is why, whilst ultimately we didn't close out and win the game from being one point up, I don't think in the overall analysis that one individual error represents poor game management,  or a poor  overall strategic approach from the 63rd minute on.

My critical focus would be the catastrophic first half which seems to tally with the overall reaction from on and off the pitch.  I haven't heard it voiced that we blew it by taking the wrong approach to closing it out.

Apologies for my, err, length.

The most interesting and entertaining part of this thread for me, was the battle of the giant Egos .