All Blacks EOYT

[macg101]

Ireland Team named... conservative as F***


15 Rob Kearney, 14 Tommy Bowe, 13 Brian O'Driscoll (capt), 12 Gordon D'Arcy, 11 Luke Fitzgerald, 10 Jonathan Sexton, 9 Eoin Reddan, 8 Jamie Heaslip, 7 David Wallace, 6 Stephen Ferris, 5 Mick O'Driscoll, 4 Donncha O'Callaghan, 3 Tom Court, 2 Rory Best, 1 Cian Healy.
Replacements: 16 Sean Cronin, 17 John Hayes, 18 Devin Toner, 19 Denis Leamy, 20 Peter Stringer, 21 Ronan O'Gara, 22 Keith Earls.

 

[Larno]

The Blecks are going to tear us a new one.

 

[Lee Grant]

When I agreed with Larno's post it wasn't so much because of the players, but because of how they played against the Boks and Samoa. The Boks score was close but the visitors contributed more to the closeness of the match in the second half than the merit of Ireland.

Ireland weren't a lot better last weekend and the score of 20-10 was not a reflection of the standard of play from the two sides.

I don't think that Ireland have the defensive qualities to deny the Blacks their share of tries and whilst the Ireland backs are more likely to score tries than Scotland were, a couple should be their ration.

That won't be enough even if NZ is not on song, but good luck to the men in green.

 

[macg101]

I hope the boys give us something to cheer about after a nightmare week!

I just dont think we have the defence as Lee has been saying, Also I dont think our front 5 can give us platform in the lineout, scrum or phase play, therefore its impossible to win a game against any kind of quality opposition.

HAVING SAID THAT...

I hope Ferris breaks a few bones

Heaslip makes some chargin runs

Sexton makes a few yards on the loop

and most of all the team show they have some pride and are starting to grasp the new laws!


COME ON IRELAND!!!

 

[#1?]

How awesome are the Irish Crowds?

Could hear a pin drop when kickers line up for a goal.

Almost as if the Wimbledon Umpire is there on the mike with their usual "Quiet Please"

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Apart from minute 35-55 where The Darkness went in for 3 converted tries, I thought that the Spud Bashers competed very well and could consider themselves unlucky not to have been closer at full time.

How good was BO'D's one handed scoop ups?

Crowd was awesome.

 

[Bullrush]

I'm obviously a little bit biased but I firmly believe the Sky Sport Commentary is one of the best going round for rugby. Listening to them this morning, they called the game pretty much down the line with great compliments going to the Irish players. Not anywhere near as one-eyed as so many other commentators (I should say cheer-leaders) going round.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

With the redevelopment of Lansdowne Road into Aviva Stadium, which looked very swish last night for the Darkness gams, have the retained the Railway station under the Grandstand?

Such a sensible thing for a sporting venue to have to get the crowds in and out in a hurry.

 

[macg101]

With the redevelopment of Lansdowne Road into Aviva Stadium, which looked very swish last night for the Darkness gams, have the retained the Railway station under the Grandstand?

Such a sensible thing for a sporting venue to have to get the crowds in and out in a hurry.

im almost possitive the Dart stops just beside the stadium, I haven't been since the refurbishment but it looks quality... the dressing rooms and med facilities are according to Alex Ferguson the best he has seen... that plus the project was built on time and in budget apparently... which is something to be proud of... you wouldnt have got that in the economic boom!

 

[macg101]

I hope the boys give us something to cheer about after a nightmare week!

I just dont think we have the defence as Lee has been saying, Also I dont think our front 5 can give us platform in the lineout, scrum or phase play, therefore its impossible to win a game against any kind of quality opposition.

HAVING SAID THAT...

I hope Ferris breaks a few bones - Achieved, in a sense

Heaslip makes some chargin runs - Achieved

Sexton makes a few yards on the loop - Achieved

and most of all the team show they have some pride and are starting to grasp the new laws! - Achieved


COME ON IRELAND!!!

On reflection we matched my hopes for the match apart from the scoreline!

Was a great game, I literally could not take my eyes off the screen for one moment, plus I completley embarressed myself in front of my mates when Tommy Bowe made a line break and i screamed in a high pitched srhill TOMMY BOOWWWEE!

Felt as if we really gave it a go, I have to say its amazing how efficient the All Blacks are that every chance they seem to create is capitalised upon, 1 - 15 they are incredible at supporting off the runner and off loading, its a pleasure to watch (perhaps more so if they were playing say... England)

 

[qwerty51]

I'm obviously a little bit biased but I firmly believe the Sky Sport Commentary is one of the best going round for rugby. Listening to them this morning, they called the game pretty much down the line with great compliments going to the Irish players. Not anywhere near as one-eyed as so many other commentators (I should say cheer-leaders) going round.

I wouldn't say they are the best going around. Normally they can be pretty biased - just listen (or lack of) when they were shown Mealamu's headbutt! However, there were great this match.

 

[Bullrush]

I wouldn't say they are the best going around. Normally they can be pretty biased - just listen (or lack of) when they were shown Mealamu's headbutt! However, there were great this match.

Agreed with the Mealamu headbutt comment. I think because they know the guy more personally than the average punter, they don't always seperate the person from the act if you know what I mean especially in the moment. Kevvy is a great bloke it's pretty hard to believe that he would deliberately go and head-butt someone.

But yeah, thought they did a great job of the Irish game

 

[DPK]

I thought the NZ crew that called the Hong Kong game did one of the best jobs in recent memory. They called it as a epic game of rugby, not a NZ loss or an Aus win. Very professional.

 

[Lee Grant]

Konze - I think Johnson and Kamo were involved in that one and are a lot easier to take than Nesbitt. Johnson is bad in full moan sometimes but he was very fair in Hong Kong in the excerpts I saw with Kiwi commentary. He does his homework better than Nesbitt and calls our players a lot more because he recognises them better. Kamo is always fair.

Sometimes Nesbitt's comments when a Kiwi transgresses are too mild and he is silent too often on them.

 

[Lee Grant]

On the Ireland game: I think Ireland fans can take heart from that. Those Kiwi killer tries before and after oranges were the real difference in the result, but ýou have to stop them doing those kinds of things as we know, to our cost. In particular, like us again, they have stop feeding the All Blacks mistake ball, because they will convert that into tries better than any other team.

But Ireland played their best game of 2010 IMO which is not saying a lot, and if they play like that for every game of 6N, they could win it. I wouldn't have thought last week that I would be saying that now after their performances against the Boks and Samoa.

The All Blacks did enough to win and had some brilliant moments, but you can say that about any Kiwi team of recent years, I suppose. I thought that Boric played well, as did Whitehouse when he came on. Mils looks like a different player from the Super14: thinner and faster. His kicking from hand is not the best but he's having a resurgence otherwise. Gear looks like the starting All Black winger for the RWC.

I didn't think that McCaw had a great game by his standards and scrummie Ellis took too many Gregan steps. Read and Kaino had good games; in fact Read would have to be challenging Harinordoquy as the 8 for those World XVs we are fond of picking after every EOYT.

 

[undercoverkiwi]

How awesome are the Irish Crowds?

Could hear a pin drop when kickers line up for a goal.

Almost as if the Wimbledon Umpire is there on the mike with their usual "Quiet Please"

Funny you say that, cause I was sat among a whole lot of them on Saturday. And the whistling and booing starts while the kicker's on his run up. And they book and hiss at every percevied sleight against them. And moan and moan and fuckin moan the whole game.

That said, there were a load of top blokes among them.

 

[Bullrush]

The All Blacks did enough to win and had some brilliant moments, but you can say that about any Kiwi team of recent years, I suppose. I thought that Boric played well, as did Whitelock when he came on. Mils looks like a different player from the Super14: thinner and faster. His kicking from hand is not the best but he's having a resurgence otherwise. Gear looks like the starting All Black winger for the RWC.

I didn't think that McCaw had a great game by his standards and scrummie Ellis took too many Gregan steps. Read and Kaino had good games; in fact Read would have to be challenging Harinordoquy as the 8 for those World XVs we are fond of picking after every EOYT.

**Fixed

This is a good summary of the stats from the Test.

 

[Thomond78]

Funny you say that, cause I was sat among a whole lot of them on Saturday. And the whistling and booing starts while the kicker's on his run up. And they book and hiss at every percevied sleight against them. And moan and moan and fuckin moan the whole game.

That said, there were a load of top blokes among them.

Yeah, but you're a) ginger and b) go to matches wearing white shoes and cravats. Therefore, your opinion is of no consequence.

God, that I gave up the power to smite such as these, all unknowing of what the future would bring...!

 

[Bullrush]

To put the RWC and the All Blacks in perpsective, here are some interesting numbers.

Should the All Blacks win on Saturday they will:

* Have an all-time win rate of 75%. SA are next closest on around 64%

* Have completed their 3rd Gland Slam in 5 years and 4th overall. Impressive considering -

1. Apart from the AB's no other team has completed a Grand Slam in 26yrs
2. SA's last successfulGrand SLam was in 1961
3. They will be one of only 9 out of 26 teams who have come from the SH to complete a Grand Slam.

For all our failures at the RWC, would we give up this kind of winning culture and record for a William Webb Ellis?

 

[Jnor]

Yeah, you would.