posted Feb 1, 2008

BlackandAmbered - You a fan of Kilkenny Hurling or something?

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posted Feb 1, 2008

I think given the posts it is probably fair to say that there is no agreement at all on what the likely performances of the team put out for the 6N are likely to be.

Whilst it may be a characteristic of the nation to be unpredictable I think this is stretching it a bit.

Is that the best we can expect? I thought the game in Ireland had moved on since the firming up of the structures under the provinces and that professionalism had taken root in the game.

Wouldn't a professional be expected to put in at least a competent performance?

A lot of people have focussed on EOS as the cause of the problems. I however am firmly of the belief that players are individually performing poorly and this malaise is infectious.

Sack those players who consistently underperform.

Spend the money on new talent.

We shouldn't subsidise failure and mediocrity.

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posted Feb 1, 2008

The problem is, and always has been, coaching. People are right in saying that the players did get bad over 6 months, because it wasn't the players that performed badly, it was Eddie. I don't care what people say about 3 tripes in 4 years. With the golden age of irish rugby all eddie got out of the 4 years was lousy triple crowns, when we should've won grand slams. And has he learnt from his mistakes, no he starts the same old tired team with people like Jackman and Heaslip playing quality rugby and being forgot about. Plus, he states that he's not going to change his opinion on subs. His tunnel vision halted the development of decent players leaving us stuck with countless seasons of stringer (out of four scrum halves from 4 countries going on lions tours, he never went, meanig a second choice welsh or english scrum half was prefered!!!) and unreliable o'gara. Eddie Halted Irish rugby over the years, and it all became blatantly obvious in the most embarrassing form at the world cup. Sack Eddie, Sack him now! I don't care how much it costs!

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posted Feb 1, 2008

jb1974-i didnt realise that about the tax. I have only ever seen the net rather than gross figures so i found that very interesting indeed

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posted Feb 2, 2008

Quote from Simon Best column on BBC Website this am:-

…..I headed down to Dublin to join up with the Irish boys a day later……

Who/what is he then if he is not an ‘Irish boy’ himself? Where does he think he is from or what exactly does he think he is part of?

Why not ‘the rest of the lads’/’rest of the team’ or ‘my teammates’ or even the ‘rest of the squad’

Is this more of the lack of team unity/togetherness that we all have heard rumours about since the World Cup?

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posted Feb 2, 2008

correction to last message: Rory Best column

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posted Feb 2, 2008

mm... give it a break....

stop being a tit

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posted Feb 2, 2008

i think the problem with ireland is that they tend to 'hang on' to players for far longer than they need them. Stringer was kept in the side purely because of his relationship with O'Gara, not because f exceptional talent. In the 6Nations last year we saw how talented Boss is in that position, and what a game he had for Ireland 'A' last night!

The same goes for the backs. Ireland have always had a very backs orientated game, and this shows by how they kept Hickie in the team for as long as possible. Great player as he was in his day, there are much younger and quicker backs out there, and again we saw their talent last night in the Saxons match - Dunne, Duffy, Fitzgerald.

Ireland seriously need to consider starting younger players to integrate them into top level, just like England are doing. We can't have veterans against boys - it won't win tournaments.

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posted Feb 2, 2008

O'Driscoll has got it spot on. A disappointing campaign in France last September has effected a considerable ease in pressure on O'Sullivan's squad. At this stage, the only pressure that lies on the Irish is to improve from the World Cup and not get too ahead of themselves as they have had a tendency of doing in the past during which time expectations were ridiculously high and in which cases they have bottled up so easily. Either the WC disappointement will linger in their minds and the situation will only get worse or, owing to the lift in expectation, they will surprise everybody this season. All they need is a sense of self-belief rather than self-hype and if they find it this year, then they have a very realistic chance of winning the Grand Slam and I think that we should be wary of them this season.

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posted Feb 2, 2008

I don't think you can ever write Ireland off with the talent and player management structures they have in place, and like wales on there day they can beat anyone. Good luck Ireland, from a proud Welshman.

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