2011 RWC - What we'll be facing

[Balls_SlanderandRuck]

Oz have had the wood on Ireland in the RWC to date. The 1991 Quarter Final had an historic ending and the 2003 pool game was scarcely less exciting as David Humphries only just missed a droppie with a couple of minutes to go and Ireland lost by 1 point. The 1999 game was a close run thing for a while also.


It could be their turn this year: Ireland rugby is on the rise.


Ireland started slowly in the 6N in2011 but finished with a hiss and a roar and thrashed England in the last round. They lost two games but scored 3 tries to two against France in losing by 3, and could have won that had not their hooker stuffed up before the bell. Then they suffered two egregious incidents against Wales who won by 6. One incident was when Wales got a try from a quick throw-in with the “wrong” ball. They “could have, should have”, got another Slam.


Before and after that Leinster became the strongest club in Europe and some of their players are at the top of their game.


From this side of the world we have noticed two main drawbacks to the Ireland team: the fading of their experienced flyhalf ROG and their scrum.


New flyhalf Sexton had a few demons in 6N but he has matured into a considerable player and he brought Leinster home in the 2nd half of the HC Final to add to the other fine performances for his club during the season


In Mike Ross Ireland now have a good THP to replace Hayes, who was never a great scrummager at his best. He had problems against Tongahu'ia in the first half of the HC final last week but the big Tongan was allowed to bore in all the time and you could see his arse sticking out sideways all the time - but the referee was Romain Poite, as he knew. Ross sorted things out after oranges though. Their LHP Healey is not as good a scrummager but makes up for it around the pack.


POC of is one of the finest locks in the world on his day and the competition for the backrow from a small pool of pro players is extraordinary. 8. Heaslip and 7. Wallace are well-known, but the rise of hard running 6. O'Brien, voted the best player in Europe, has been outstanding.


He got three Man Of The Match Awards during the Heineken Cup : one as a 6, one as a 7 and one as an 8 – and I can't work out why folks can't tackle him. He was in the 6N Team of the Tournament, and the same for the Magners League and Heineken Cup.


O'Brien didn't tour in to NZ and Oz last year in a makeshift team, and Wallace was soon hurt. They were also missing POC, Leamy, Ferris, and their best two hookers, yet Oz was lucky to beat them by 7 points. They were saved a few blushes by a brilliant intercept try by Burgess.


Ireland don't have anybody like Genia at scrum-half nor anybody of the type of Cooper at flyhalf, but the Leinster midfield of D'Arcy and BOD will be more than match for ours. They have some young galacticos for their back three but I would not be surprised if they used old stagers like Horgan and Bowe on the wing and Murphy at fullback, if fit enough, or some of them, for big RWC matches.


The Ireland v Australia game could be one of the highlights of the RWC in the pool stages.

Couldnt of summed it up better :yay

I find Ireland to be our 'twin' in a sense in the NH. Dodgy scrum thats slowly but surely becoming good. Great backrow. Backs that are arguably the finest in their respective hemispheres. Although France and the AB's will have some choice words to say about that!

The individual battles will be great. Sexton Coops. O'brien elsom. Ahhh

RWC > Christmas

 

[Riptide]

Ireland havent won a significant game away from home for some time. Their openside (Wallace; it will be Wallace) is 35. They literally ahve only one tst quality TH and he was butchered in the opening 40 last Sat.

D'Arcy falls off more tackles than QC (Quade Cooper), and O'Driscoll was skinned for speed twice on the outside last weekend. Both have lost considerable pace, and Ireland often struggle when their midfield fails to break the gain line.

The best that can be said about Ireland is that they have a some good up and coming players who have not been proven at Test level, and some experienced (read "old") players who can step up and produce the occasional big performance

Yes, Ireland always fronts up against England at home, and they dispatched them easily this year. But Ireland are just a team fraught with inconsistency and lack the quality to win consistently on the road.

Leinster are a very good side, and Ireland will trouble Australia if they can get their set-piece right, but they will not beat the SH giants playing merely an uptempo game, and they no longer have the tight 5 capable of managing the opposition out of a game.

As another poster said, Ireland are being bigged up here without much foundation. They will cause some trouble but they have little depth and an injury to Ross, POC, BOD will have them rightly screwed.

 

[Lee Grant]

Wallace is Wallace, and 35 or not he is a real hard bastard and that's the type of player you want in a RWC. One thing that Ireland teams are short of is fetching 7s. The best is probably O'Brien, but he plays his best rugby from the blindside of the scrum and should stay there. It's possible that they could pick somebody else at 7 and Wallace come from the bench for impact, and he will have it.

I grant you that D'Arcy has had some defensive lapses this year. Drico has lost some speed as all players his rugby age have but he was playing the HC fiinal on one good leg, as you probably know if you watched the semi against Ulster and he couldn't answer the bell for the 2nd half. I don't think he should have played in the final, as I wrote in the HC thread, but nobody wanted to stop him and Foden skinned him. He was picked in the 6N and Heineken Cup teams of the tournament; so he's still got it. If he were available for Oz he would be one of the first picked.

Agree, like Australia, Ireland don't have a lot of depth, and that is because neither nation have a lot of pro players. We both punch above our weight in that respect, but below what the Kiwis do with what they have. Depth will be the major problem for both teams in the tournament if they have a few key injuries

It will be a enthralling match but I am glad that is is being played when it is, where it is. If it were played over there in some of NH conditions they get in Dec, Jan and Feb, as in the game when the Oz dirt-trackers got beaten by a Munster team of 2nds and 3rds, we would be like babes in the woods.

 

[Riptide]

Fear of drowning has always been a major concern when Aus have played Ireland in recent years in the NH. The manner in which Ireland dispatched England so convincingly in a big grand slam game for them, and the inconsistencies in French selection and approach under Lievremont are indications that no NH team will win the WC. They can all win a big game here and there but not string three big ones together in a row to beat the SH. Whether Aus can do it is another matter but IMO they are a better bet than any of the NH teams.

 

[potogold]

irish fan here, cant wait for our crunch pool game!

yeah our back row is pretty solid, what some, not many have been saying here is ferris at 4, with heaslip o brien and wallace in the back row....seems pretty lethal alright, ferris can be used as a jumper its just his ruck time that o callaghan would normally be doing, the dark arts as they call it, that could be the imbalance in the team. however no one has really focused on ferris's ability at ruck due to his immense carrying soooo....im just glad im not declan kidney, tough calls have to be made.

i think you should also be worrying about our back 3, kearney bowe and keith earls ( who will start ahead of fitz) they are very dynamic as is the australien back 3. it should be very interesting!!! sexton ahead of o gara, he hits people no worries and can score tries, and referring to the earlier point above about o driscoll getting skinned,,,he was not fit at all he only trained the thursday before saturdays match as he had a knee injury, he has lost pace but he was very slow against northampton