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[2014 EOYT] Ireland vs Australia

Brilliant Ireland - easily favourites to win the 6N now. How a decent coach can help!
 
Cracking game but I thought Australia were the better team. Irelands players underperformed today but managed to fall over the line in the end.


TommiG88 said:
I've been thoroughly impressed with them since Schmidt has taken over. No other northern hemisphere is any where near them at the moment.
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Its all tiny margins, Tommi. Things can easily change. Thats one of the beauties of rugby
 
Tony Manx said:
I can see what you are saying but the results are on the board and, come RWC 2015, that is what will count, not whether they could have or should have................
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My point is - in RWC 2015, these results will count for nothing.

While it is better to be winning these games than losing them (just as Wales), when SA dropped the ball of their own volition half the time they threatened our try line and when the Aussie scrum was very competitive vs. ours and their backline ripped us a new arse a few times, its hard to point at the results in isolation and say we're heading into the world cup year threatening to win it.

The one unknown factor is the impact injured players will have upon their return. Healy and O'Brien **could** make big impacts, allowing us to generate some momentum from the forwards in open play rather than the Murray-to-Sexton-to-orbit pathway that we are over-reliant on so far.


I'm not blaming anyone, I'm not saying Schmidt should be doing stuff different. Fact is - at the minute we've one player that is consistently great enough to walk onto any other team on the planet - Paul O'Connell. After that, we've a splattering of consistently good players and inconsistently great players.
 
Made my weekend.
And it's nonsense to think that we couldn't keepon form and continue beating these sides, unless you have that kind of mental block about it.
 
Amiga500 said:
My point is - in RWC 2015, these results will count for nothing.

While it is better to be winning these games than losing them (just as Wales), when SA dropped the ball of their own volition half the time they threatened our try line and when the Aussie scrum was very competitive vs. ours and their backline ripped us a new arse a few times, its hard to point at the results in isolation and say we're heading into the world cup year threatening to win it.

The one unknown factor is the impact injured players will have upon their return. Healy and O'Brien **could** make big impacts, allowing us to generate some momentum from the forwards in open play rather than the Murray-to-Sexton-to-orbit pathway that we are over-reliant on so far.


I'm not blaming anyone, I'm not saying Schmidt should be doing stuff different. Fact is - at the minute we've one player that is consistently great enough to walk onto any other team on the planet - Paul O'Connell. After that, we've a splattering of consistently good players and inconsistently great players.
Click to expand...

Add Johnny to that, that was his worst international this year and it was pretty good. Best 10 in the world this year and while Carter remains crocked.
 
cmac95 said:
and it was pretty good.
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Way too many loose kicks. Although he did very well for Zebo's try and off the tee.

Foley looked the more accomplished player for long stretches.


But yeah, on an average day nearly all sides would have him.
 
Pretty good autumn internationals by Ireland so far, looking good for the world cup. The Wallabies have been meh.
 
We win playing ok, missing guys and for first time ever having extreme competition for places. We are not there yet but certainly loads of positives with areas to work on.
 
I feel pretty similar to Amiga.. I'm delighted we beat Australia and South Africa this November, but when you look past the result and look at our play, we aren't actually that convincing. Given frequency I can see us getting beat. Stretch our backs and we can be opened up. Our defence and opportunism with those dinky kicks etc are winning us games. We don't offer any incisive movements across the backs. Also the SA side we saw in Dublin was a shade of what we saw in the Rugby Championship. A 3 point win over a struggling Australia at home also shouldn't be that impressive. Maybe Healy and O'Brien will bring some line breaking ability but I'd rather see our backs produce some of that line as well. Anyway, like I said, I'm delighted with our performances this November, but I can see the press and majority of the fans getting carried away over the next couple of months. I hate heart palpitations. When we gave up that 17 point lead and on that final passage of play from Australia happened I just kept thinking about that AB loss hohhhhmygod.
 
Just reading through the G&G thread some hilarious comments, the casual racism is also...interesting.
 
Congratulations Ireland.

Reckon Australia would have sorted out their mess come world cup time.
 
ruggabee said:
I feel pretty similar to Amiga.. I'm delighted we beat Australia and South Africa this November, but when you look past the result and look at our play, we aren't actually that convincing. Given frequency I can see us getting beat. Stretch our backs and we can be opened up. Our defence and opportunism with those dinky kicks etc are winning us games. We don't offer any incisive movements across the backs. Also the SA side we saw in Dublin was a shade of what we saw in the Rugby Championship. A 3 point win over a struggling Australia at home also shouldn't be that impressive. Maybe Healy and O'Brien will bring some line breaking ability but I'd rather see our backs produce some of that line as well. Anyway, like I said, I'm delighted with our performances this November, but I can see the press and majority of the fans getting carried away over the next couple of months. I hate heart palpitations. When we gave up that 17 point lead and on that final passage of play from Australia happened I just kept thinking about that AB loss hohhhhmygod.
Click to expand...

Like while I agree with some stuff but on opposite side. Those dinky kicks are part of Schmidts gameplan and it's going well. To say that SA team was shadow of rugby championship is BS though. That was the team that beatNZ and we simply didn't let them perform. I don't think anyone will get too ahead of themselves as form goes up and down Ireland deserve credit and are going I right direction. I for 1 have been critical of Schmidt and have always said he struggles to beat big teams etc with Ireland but I can admit I was wrong and he deserves huge credit as does his coaching team. I'm sure also he won't allow any player rest on their laurels and well bar POC Murray and Sexton I think every other player will think they have to perform to keep spot. Fact is while Healy has been out McGrath and 2 Munster lads are going up levels fast and are all getting to international level so the heat will be on. Also SOB hasn't played consistently due to injuries in a long time so can he reach his old levels and he is in a battle as back row is getting more and more competitive by the month.
 
Honestly, I think that both SOB and Healy only have one or two more campaigns in them unfortunately. I just hope that one of them is the next WC, same can be said for Fitz although that's less likely.
 

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