posted Mar 10, 2008

Why, oh why, oh why when Wales win, the plaudits always say the other team played badly? Any chance of credit where it's due? Any other Taffs out there who feel the same?

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posted Mar 10, 2008

Wales deservedly won this match. Their players were sharper and are definitely the best team in the Six Nations. As an Irish fan, I can clearly see that our team is on the decline. I dont know if EOS is the man to handle the rebuilding of the team but, his refusal to develop a 22 man squad until he had to has to weigh against him. The team as it now stands appears incapable of changing its game plans and plays a very limited game.Brian O' Driscoll's best days are behind him as he has once again been hit with the injury bug. Both he an Johnny Wilkinson seem to have spent more time on the sidelines than on the field in the past 5 years. Personally I would love to see the IRFU approach Jake White to handle the redevelopment of the team.

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posted Mar 10, 2008

Ireland didn't play well but could have nicked it at the end which would have been a travesty but shows that while Wales are the best team in the 6 nations this season by a distance they are far from the finished article. It is only a reflection on how bad the standard of international rugby has gotten in the northern hemisphere. Bring on the rule changes so that a bit of speed can be injected into the game, it is embarrassingly bad at the moment. The standard of club rugby is improving dramatically but one has to be lead to thinking this is due to the influx of quality southern hemisphere players who are more skillful, more intelligent and more inclined to take a risk. I have a ticket for Twickenham next weekend but the 'spectacle' of finding out who is the 7th or 8th best team in the world is not that enticing and certainly not worth the huge cost.

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posted Mar 10, 2008

First time in Croker in 30 years. Brilliant stadium, shocking team- sorry, shockingly coached team. The good parts of the day included meeting the 4 "JPRs", sideburns and stethoscopes, and the renditions of Land of My Fathers and Bread of Heaven. Of course, that meant we were getting hammered.
The biggest disappointment for the Welsh fans must have been the total lack of atmosphere created by us Irish. I know the tactics were dreadfully boring and ultimately disastrous but, even when we did have the ball for the first 30 mins, there wasn't a whimper from the "prawn sandwich" brigade. There are simply too many people going to these games who know NOTHING about rugby- kind of reminds me of one EOS.
Cheer up you Welsh. Who cares what Fleet Street thinks. The fact is that you can enjoy the type of game ye play and can stick the proverbial 2 fingers at the media after next Sat while we will still suffer that awful pit in the stomach feeling.
The next time I go to Croker it will be to follow a team in red except they will play with a small ball and have a hurley in their hands.
There should be no rating of an Irish player, except for Kearney, because none of them were allowed play anything near a normal game. As for the Welsh, everyone gets 8 except for Ryan Jones-9- and Mike Philips who is deducted 1 for sheer stupidity.
Who cares what team we put out next Sat- The only match worth watching is at 5.30. Bring on the Heineken Cup!

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posted Mar 10, 2008

I’m surprised that the majority are questioning the player ratings, I think its pretty much spot on apart from ROG and Heslip. Yes, Ireland only lost by 4 points but they were defending for at least 50 minutes of the game and I can’t even recall hearing half the team’s names by the commentary team. In the whole 80 mins we only had one attack which was an individual effort by Horgan.

Ireland seemed to have one game plan, keep the ball close quarters and bore the Welsh into making a mistake! Which actually worked for the first 20 minutes I really don’t understand these tactics, because I think Ireland suit an open game as much as Wales. I have never really been a fan of EOS, I think he has underused many of the quality players’ that Ireland produce. A triple crown is all well and nice but it isn’t a massive achievement beating the home nations, because collectively they’re pretty useless. The big guns are France which Ireland have always struggled against, sometimes embarrassingly so.

I mean seeing Wales get their 2nd grand slam in 3 years is great for Wales and fair play to them but as an Irish man it is enormously frustrating because we have finished 2nd 5 times in 7 years. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a sore loser but if you analyze the Wales’ squad and Irelands’ of the past 7 years I honestly think Irleand’s has been consistently much stronger and we pretty much have nothing to support it. EOS has stifled this team for long enough, and his tactics, useless comments are becoming so annoying… his time should be up and this seems apparent to everyone bar the people that count. Irish rugby seems to becoming an international joke and this is definitely affecting the players’ performances, I think half of them don’t even want to be playing under EOS.

If it was anybody else but England I’d be supporting them on Saturday against Ireland just to ensure that should definitely be it for EOS. But I just can’t bring myself to support the English I’m hoping the damage has been done and EOS is let go after the six nations so Ireland can move onwards and upwards!

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posted Mar 10, 2008

I do think that Wales played well in case I'm accused of belittling their achievements. I thought Henson was superb and is well on his way to establishing himself as one of the best rugby players around. I think he needed Gatland and Edwards to focus his attention and now the sky is the limit. Ryan Jones has also re-established himself after a couple of indifferent years (due to injury). They are a good side that is building a winning mentality and with the resources available could develop into a great side but let's not pretend that they are world beaters yet.

As far as Ireland are concerned EOS points to his decent win/loss ratio and the fact Ireland have won a few triple crowns, with Scotland in the doldrums for years, the decline of England and Wales's inconsistency his achievements do not stand up to scrutiny and it is a indication of how poorly run the IRFU is that he is still in charge, they went for the cheapest option available to them and are now reaping what they have sowed.

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posted Mar 10, 2008

Two things from a continuingly down hearted Irish man:

Firstly, well done Wales apart from the first half against England you have been the best team of the tournament.

Secondly and lastly, can we please sack Eddie O'Sullivan now?!

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posted Mar 10, 2008

"I think Ireland suit an open game as much as Wales."

"if you analyze the Wales’ squad and Irelands’ of the past 7 years I honestly think Irleand’s has been consistently much stronger and we pretty much have nothing to support it."

As a Welsh fan, I would go a fair way along with both of these statements. It looked as though Ireland have some good runners. And I agree that, on the whole, Ireland has been stronger than Wales over the last 7 or 8 years. Having said that, we have suffered from not really having some key players like Henson and Ryan Jones since the 2005 Slam, and Gethin Jenkins went walkabout for a couple of years.

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posted Mar 11, 2008

BBC must be stuck for money, maybe they should start showin adds as the journalist rating the players has nt a clue. Look at his profile, he does nt even like rugby. I will highlight one example, D Wallace 3, BOD 5???? Wallace top tackler with 20, BOD 7, Meters gained wallace = 16, BOD = 5, know i dont believe wallace had a good game but this guy believes BOD was close to twice as good as him, how many kicks did BOD side foot into touch?? Hate to highlight a poor performance by BOD as he is one of Irelands all time greats, but Im just trying to highlight the fact that too many opinionated journalists offer their uneducated opinions when they should nt, people expect them to perform some kind of analysis on the game, rather than blind opinion. John haughey as a journalist you should be ashamed of yourself.

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