[2014 EOYT] Ireland vs South Africa

[austingtir]

While I think Ireland are a better team than France, I'd still be more worried about playing France in a WC knockout match, as an All Blacks supporter. Unless Ireland can maintain these good performances until the World Cup (and not just sneak through the Six Nations with a win but comfortably batter the other competitors) then I will still only fear England, France, South Africa and Australia (and perhaps Argentina, depending on how they do in next year's RC). That being said, playing in England is a great way to even up the competition as it takes away the All Blacks' (and Australia's) biggest advantage, which is in their backs.

I dunno about this... To me France are on a downward spiral if they loose Dusutoir (who's getting past it anyways) its going to take them a while to find another player of his calibre imo.

Ireland since 2011 has been showing signs of being incredibly competitive. As you said they just need to learn to string it together.... will have to wait for the Australia game to get a gauge... but I suspect Australia will be pretty smart coming into that game. As the AB's found out last year if you let Ireland play their game at home you can get yourself into alot of trouble.

 

[TRF_heineken]

Congrats Ireland! What a performance by you guys! Absolutely fantastic.

Chin-up my fellow Saffas, "Een mielie maak nie 'n oes nie".

We were rusty, cold and showed no communication between players.

Hougaard was shocking, I hope he gets his **** together. Our forwards let us down terribly. The only forward doing a good job was Jannie Du Plessis at scrum time.

I have nothing more to say about our performance as I've sweared too much this weekend.

Oh and Poite again had a brainfart, well actually him and his one Assistant. Adriaan's yellow was very harsh, it was a penalty yes, but there were no warnings issued to the bok-team prior to that incident. Poite mentioned to JDV that this is the 2nd offence, but the other penalty was for Duane Vermeulen's high tackle. It's not like the Boks consistently tried to take out players in the air. Horrible call!!

Also, the Assistant referee missed a foot in touch by Murray, and immediately thereafter, Ireland got a penalty to make the game 9-6 in favour of Ireland. I might be petty here, but dammit, it's to bad calls. And the consistency of these poor calls in international test rugby is growing at an alarming rate!!

Once again, Congrats Ireland, you were deserved winners.

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Strauss' yellow was a bit ridiculous, yes but it hardly effected the outcome of the match, maybe the score could've been a tad closer but Ireland were winning well before Strauss went off and things didn't feel like changing.

 

[TRF_heineken]

Strauss' yellow was a bit ridiculous, yes but it hardly effected the outcome of the match, maybe the score could've been a tad closer but Ireland were winning well before Strauss went off and things didn't feel like changing.

I agree...

We were well and truly beaten.

 

[FrenchFan]

I dunno about this... To me France are on a downward spiral if they loose Dusutoir (who's getting past it anyways) its going to take them a while to find another player of his calibre imo.

Ireland since 2011 has been showing signs of being incredibly competitive. As you said they just need to learn to string it together.... will have to wait for the Australia game to get a gauge... but I suspect Australia will be pretty smart coming into that game. As the AB's found out last year if you let Ireland play their game at home you can get yourself into alot of trouble.

They're on a downward spiral with or without him anyway (he is not the leader they've made him to be). Les bleus are going to crash and burn this season.

There is no will and no plan at FFR to steer them back into the right direction.

 

[munstermuffin]

Just on the yellow. Ye all realise it was actually for continuous dangerous fouling not the single foul. The high tackle on Heaslip, the late tackle in air in 1st half and few others. Yes I know all different players but it can hardly be seen as harsh when they got plenty of team warnings. The tackle was late and fact Strauss didn't look at ball but kept eyes on man whole time showed clearly he knew what he was doing. It was a clear penalty and he then took the plunge for all the team fouls.

 

[korn1]

Ireland played much better than us Well done to them

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Munstermuffin, I here you and the ref said as much but calling that lazy and instinctive arm brushing an already leanining backwards Kearney a tackle is a bit of a stretch if we're being fair much less a dangerous tackle surely? Even then, I don't think anyone here is saying it's a yellow out of nowhere as much as we're saying it's a bit of a harsh call.

 

[TRF_heineken]

Just on the yellow. Ye all realise it was actually for continuous dangerous fouling not the single foul. The high tackle on Heaslip, the late tackle in air in 1st half and few others. Yes I know all different players but it can hardly be seen as harsh when they got plenty of team warnings. The tackle was late and fact Strauss didn't look at ball but kept eyes on man whole time showed clearly he knew what he was doing. It was a clear penalty and he then took the plunge for all the team fouls.

The tackle wasn't late, it was early!! if Strauss made the tackle half a second later, Kearney's foot would have been on the ground, and then it would have been a legitimate tackle.

I'd like to see the many other tackles you are talking about, I only saw the Vermeulen tackle prior to that, and that was the only tackle Poite mentioned when he spoke to JDV.

 

[munstermuffin]

@heineken you are correct it was an early tackle. But you get my point. He referenced the tackle in 1st half on Kearney (the 1 under posts), the 1 on Heaslip, a hit on Sexton too was mentioned. None were yellows on their own but by law all were pens and well Strauss was just the 1 that broke the camels back.
@Stormer I know it may have been harsh but Strauss did commit the foul and was just extremely unlucky that he was the "1 too many". But as was said I don't think it made slightest difference because we were on top of our game and SA just couldn't get going at all. They were very complacent with passes etc. What summed it up was the 9's knock on where he was looking at 10 before having ball in his hands and well dropped it forward. It was 1 of those days that it just wasn't happening at all.

 

[Peat]

A team yellow without warning is more than harsh. And I did not hear a warning.

 

[Big Ewis]

not in a patronising way just complimentary: but it's very nice to see so many South Africans just hand it to Ireland and congratulate wholesomely, not with backhanded posts. That's how Rugby should always be, and most certainly isn't always.

 

[TRF_heineken]

not in a patronising way just complimentary: but it's very nice to see so many South Africans just hand it to Ireland and congratulate wholesomely, not with backhanded posts. That's how Rugby should always be, and most certainly isn't always.

We are actually nice guys. We hate losing, but we take it on the chin when the other team was better than us on the day.

But like I said, "een mielie maak nie 'n oes nie" - Roughly translated means: One corn doesn't make a harvest.

This was a bump in the road in my opinion and we had a bad day at the office, and Ireland was just clever and precise.

 

[munstermuffin]

A team yellow without warning is more than harsh. And I did not hear a warning.

After the high tackle on Heaslip there was definitely a warning given and when yellow was issued he mentioned previous offences. Also I presume when there was a scuffle (if it could be called that) and he called in JDV and POC that that was classed as warning also.
@heineken I think you are right in that it was just a bad day at office like some players just seemed lost at times and not a true reflection of themselves. But was a learning experience for some younger guys who learnt about need to adapt playin NH teams compared to SH teams.

 

[sharkfan]

With Ireland having won the six nations, and with their performance over the weekend, what are the chances of them reaching the semi-finals of the worldcup for the first time ever next year? Who do they have to overcome to get there?

 

[TRF_heineken]

After the high tackle on Heaslip there was definitely a warning given and when yellow was issued he mentioned previous offences. Also I presume when there was a scuffle (if it could be called that) and he called in JDV and POC that that was classed as warning also.
@heineken I think you are right in that it was just a bad day at office like some players just seemed lost at times and not a true reflection of themselves. But was a learning experience for some younger guys who learnt about need to adapt playin NH teams compared to SH teams.

that can't be classed as a warning as he had to explicitly warn the team that the next to infringe is going to the bin. When he talked to both captains after the scuffle, he just said that the captains must go and talk to their players. No warning whatsoever.

But there's no need to hammer on about this. it happened, the Yellow didn't have such a big influence on the end result, and the better team won. let's leave it at that.

 

[Mrs. Peter Quinn]

South Africa will get back on the horse - I just hope it isn't next week. Ultimately would you rather beat New Zealand lose to Ireland, or the other way round? With the greatest of respect to Ireland I suspect you'd rather it were this way round if you have to choose.

My only word on the yellow would be I'm dubious that a high tackle could contribute to a cumulative team yellow card? It's something that happens almost always by accident and is not sufficient a warning in itself.

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

My biggest question after the weekend. Where was this Sexton for Racing Metro the last while?!!?!! *pitchfork out*

 

[lynam1104]

My biggest question after the weekend. Where was this Sexton for Racing Metro the last while?!!?!! *pitchfork out*

Not being coached by Joe Schmidt!

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

With Ireland having won the six nations, and with their performance over the weekend, what are the chances of them reaching the semi-finals of the worldcup for the first time ever next year? Who do they have to overcome to get there?

France and Italy in the group and then we're matched with New Zealand's group. I think it's our best chance to do it but I'm not going to be confident as it is Ireland in a World Cup, a tournament in which we've constantly choked in.