Ireland v South Africa

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

Snoop I agree with that Reddan is behind Stringer and IF Stringer continues his form then TOL deserves to be kept out because Stringers pass is a gem.

Agreed. At present Stringer is the best we've got.

Also I think Johne Murphy deserves a chance

In place of whom?

and well Mike Ross should be given shot like let's see what they can do for us.

Most people could see that while Buckle improved a bit in the scrum over the last few months, he's still a liability. Kidney will persist with him but I agree that Mike Ross deserves a chance. There are 10-12 games left before the World Cup. I'd flirt with swapping Buckle and Ross from game to game.

Also Varley and Cronin have to be our 2 hookers now.

Agreed but I'd go for Cronin as first choice.

I like Paddy Wallace but don't see what he'll offer us in fairness at this stage.

Wallace can spin the ball wide and get it into the hands of Bowe, Fitzgerald, Earls and O'Driscoll. D'arcy's only contribution to a wide game is running a wrap around with Sexton. At this point Wallace is the better player. D'arcy like O'Gara and David Wallace is now better used as an impact sub.

One more change I'd make is removing Alan Gaffney from the coaching team. Leinster's back play disimproved considerably with him at the helm and Ireland play putrid rugby thanks to his coaching skills.

 

[Boggle]

Well done Boks!Can't believe that was only Juan Smith's 1st try in test rugby, thought he had scored a few already...and not least an intercept try

Zane Kirchner had a solid-ish game at 13 IMO, his drawing-in of the defender and off-load to Aplon for the try was great to see.

But Juan Smith scored a crapload of tries in the 07 World cup, that couldn't have been his first, perhaps his first against Ireland ?

 

[King_D'Arcy]

A few days ago one of my mates said Tony Buckley is arguably one of the best tightheads in the world. Some of us laughed a bit, others mumbled agreement, but no one dared protest. Now I protest! Had Ireland won yesterday in a convincing manor and Buckley had played well we'd probably all be saying how Buckley is a world class tighthead. We're great at talking ourselves up, the Irish. We refuse to believe there's a centre in the world better than O'Driscoll. We laugh at the idea of anyone having anything on Heaslip. If anyone dare leave Bowe out of their world XV they'll be sent death threats. An on form Rob Kearney could start for anyone. Sexton is the player Carter could have been. I think we don't stop to think often enough about the fact that we're actually really just not that good... Had O'Gara made that conversion yesterday or had we managed to score a last minute drop goal, sure there would've been celebrations, but it would've been no more than paper over the cracks.

 

[Thingimubob]

Did anyone notice that Ireland changed kits at half time? Went from the horrible new one to last seasons one when they came back out. I swear only me and my mate noticed that when we were watching it in the SU. We were pretty damn drunk at the time, but just watched the highlights and they def did !

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Odd that,
I know a lot of teams change kit at half time if it's raining/muddy, but is the new kit that limited edition that they can only give each player one shirt?

 

[TRF_Ezequiel]

LOL Olyy

 

[King_D'Arcy]

Lolyy!

 

[Peat]

Best is just as bad for Ulster when the pressure is on.

I will not deny that throwing to a dodgy lineout his throwing tends to crumble and he has the occasional stinker. But I think most hookers start to lose it when the jumpers and pods start mucking up, which they did big time. I'm not sure Cronin, Varley, Flannery or anyone you care to name would have done much better. Given a functioning line out and generally Best is fine. He's been throwing fine for Ulster this season. He should certainly have been off after 50 or so minutes yesterday, but talk of axing him in general is madness.

To clarify my point - Best definitley went to pot and should have been subbed, but he was certainly not completely to blame for the lineout failing. He was in useful enough form when starting and that would have taxed any lineout thrower. Cronin in particular deserves his shot, he should start against Samoa and if he does well there stick him again the Kiwis. But Rory Best should and will stay in contention for that 2 shirt.

And I know Hayes was dropped and probably rightly so, but he's one hell of a lifter and I think he was missed.

Buckley can prop with a good loosehead. Healy can prop with a good tighthead. Asking them to prop together is asking for a beating to the face though. Not sure Tom Court or Mike Ross is international standard, but Ireland have to find out.

If Ireland are going to play a wide game like they tried to be doing, then surely putting the best distributor at 12 makes sense... g'wan Mincer!

And I'd stick Fitzgerald at full-back for next game and give Johne Murphy a go on the wing. Much as I like Trimble, he's not putting himself forwards at the moment and Kearney needs a big boot up the arse.

 

[coonor]

Best needed to through quicker and not give time for SA to work out our lineout. The scrum was better than it used to be and we were up against a top scrummaging front row but Court really looked good when he came on and he won Ireland their first penalty from the scrum in ages. Reddan didn't control the game at all, he should have given the ball to the forwards more, especially our back row who showed they can make ground every time they get the ball. We need to give Duffy more game time because we need better full backs. D'arcy doesn't fit into our game plan.

 

[Intercept King JDV]

But Juan Smith scored a crapload of tries in the 07 World cup, that couldn't have been his first, perhaps his first against Ireland ?

Haha yes I did check on SARugby.net and Juan Smith had scored 11 test tries and 0 against Ireland before this match, so that was his 1st try against Ireland...Could have sworn that when they put his name tab thingy on the screen it read:"1st try in 66 matches" or something like that...

 

[Duckdee]

Did anyone notice that Ireland changed kits at half time? Went from the horrible new one to last seasons one when they came back out. I swear only me and my mate noticed that when we were watching it in the SU. We were pretty damn drunk at the time, but just watched the highlights and they def did !

At the rate the new shirts were tearing up, I was wondering if the contract could be cancelled.

 

[Thingimubob]

At the rate the new shirts were tearing up, I was wondering if the contract could be cancelled.

Apparently they did at half time

 

[dangandan]

A few days ago one of my mates said Tony Buckley is arguably one of the best tightheads in the world. Some of us laughed a bit, others mumbled agreement, but no one dared protest. Now I protest! Had Ireland won yesterday in a convincing manor and Buckley had played well we'd probably all be saying how Buckley is a world class tighthead. We're great at talking ourselves up, the Irish. We refuse to believe there's a centre in the world better than O'Driscoll. We laugh at the idea of anyone having anything on Heaslip. If anyone dare leave Bowe out of their world XV they'll be sent death threats. An on form Rob Kearney could start for anyone. Sexton is the player Carter could have been. I think we don't stop to think often enough about the fact that we're actually really just not that good... Had O'Gara made that conversion yesterday or had we managed to score a last minute drop goal, sure there would've been celebrations, but it would've been no more than paper over the cracks.

I completely agree with this. Ireland haven't looked good for a long while now and comments on this forum lead us to go into each game with extremely high expectations. Kearney is an average player. If you're an outside back you need to be able to beat a man, which he consistently doesn't do. To me D'Arcy looks like a winger in the midfield. I've never rated his passing or offloading game where all i see him do is dart and try to burrow through like a hooker. BOD is solid but needs to be at 12 so he can make space for someone like Earls. I think the only threats we have in the backs at the moment are Bowe and Fitzgerald... and maybe Sexton with BOD along side him. Also our front five have been shown up enough times now to show that they're crap. If you look at our team realistically, the only units in the team that would cause worry for another world class international side are our wings and backrow.

 

[munstermuffin]

Snoop I think Johne Murphy deserves a shot but instead of who I don't know but just think overall having watched the game again we have to make changes and see realistically who will sink and who will swim.
We tend to leave these things until big games that mean something when now is the time

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

I was optimistic 2 weeks out but when the Bok injury list kept getting longer and I saw the Irish squad I was expecting them to win by 5. We beat them purely because of our tight 5. Matfield did his magic but the Irish should have taken a look at the 3N replays to see how NZ quite effectively countered him. For me another big thing was the return of Bismarck who replaced a seriously out of form Smit at hooker. Ireland shouldn't feel that they lost against a 2nd string Bok team as our tight 5 was probably our best except for bringing in Steenakmp and moving Mtawarira to the bench.

Barring injuries and really bad fortune I can't see either team not make the RWC 2011 QFs.

For SA moving forward I would like to see:

1 Fourie du Preez fit again with Pienaar and Hougaard the back-ups and no Januarie. And no playing Pienaar out of position.
2 Lambie and Jantjes get as much gametime as possible to develop depth at test level behind Steyn (even if we drop a game)
3 Our centres fit; my preferred combonation being Juand e Jongh and Jacque Fourie. de Villiers and F Steyn to deputize
4 We have depth at the back in Aplon, Jantjes and Kirschner. Wouldn't mind seeing Louis Ludik there. Habana, Basson, Mvovo, Pietersen wings.
5 Tight 5 is pretty settled and we have depth (though I would like to see John Smit retire and prefer Strauss/Liebenberg to Ralepelle)
6 We should settle on a proven combonation in the backrow. With a dedicated fetcher; Brussouw being my 1st choice.
7 Pierre Spies is no where near the no1 no8 in SA or our options abroad; he doesn't defend well, runs laterally and losses to many balls in the tackle. Low workrate throughout.

 

[Jer1cho]

I actually thought Spies had one of his better games. He did lose the ball in a tackle now and then, but always made it past the first defender. Incredible strength he has. When Heaslip did his 'roll-up-roll-up' thing he eventually ran into Spies. Heaslip was driven back like a scrum-half.

Kirchner almost lost the game for us thanks to his mediocrity. Other than that, it was 8 against 7. Our forwards, with Irelands pack nowhere, versus Ireland's backs, with our back-line nowhere.

Some ferocious tackling though.

 

[TRF_Ezequiel]

Nice post s2010, as always.

I agree we should stop playing people out of position. No JdV on the wing, no Kirchner at centre, no Pienaar, F. Steyn or Lambie tossing around the line-up.

Pierre Spies is not the man he used to be. I prefer Kankowski or Vermeulen for that position who both have been excellent this Currie Cup season once again. For the lock-position we have a bunch of backups if they're fit. Bekker, Rossouw, van der Merwe and maybe even Hargreaves are there for the future. The front-row shouldn't be a problem. Bismarck is a much better hooker than Smit at the moment and Steenkamp is a true gladiator up front. van der Linde, Jannie and Mtawarira are good choices for the prop-positions.

Keeping an eye on the future we should definitely hope Daniel and Alberts get game-time together with Stegmann, what an amazing flanker that guy is. Man o man. With Schalk Burger not even coming close to his old form, we only have Juan Smith with reasonable experience and I prefer him taking over the captaincy when Matfield retires after the 2011 World Cup. Knowing Fourie du Preez will move abroad after the WC as well, we should keep an eye on other scrumhalfs. Hougaard is the best option for the future but the way Charl McLeod surprised even me is something to keep in mind for the next couple of years. Januarie shouldn't be called up at all, even when there are 5 scum-halfs missing.

At the back I prefer Elton Jantjes over Lambie for the half-back position. Lambie is not a decent enough kicker to have on that spot. I prefer him as a center. With Morne Steyn however we have an amazing kicker for the time being.

Like you said, for the wings we have Habana, Pietersen (both World Champions already) and the new arrivals Basson and Mvovo. I'd like to add van den Heever to the list if he manages to outgrow his talent and become a top winger.

As a center-partnership I prefer Juan de Jongh and Jean de Villiers simply because I think Jaqueline Fourie is massively overrated. That guy is too worried about his shirt getting dirty and is to afraid to dive because of his boobs hurting afterwards. No, let Juan de Jongh and Jean de Villiers be the center partnership with Lambie as a backup.

Fullback we have an amazing Aplon. Louis Ludik and Conrad Jantjes are good replacements. Better than Zane Kirchner who will be a decent 4th choice for that position.

 

[lynam1104]

I think Spies proved that he is a buff ( i would say fat but hes not he is very athletic) tub of lard.

 

[Nicola Bro]

Good match with 2 teams with big ambitions for next world cup. South Africa has the best scrum in my opinion. Also n. 11-14-15 are champions but i believe that Ireland has scored 2 tries for their mistakes when the game coul be over. Ireland has a great leadership in O'Gara-Stringer; they will not be future because there are old for rugby but for the next world cup Ireland has 4 good fly-scrum half who there aren't in other teams.

 

[Conal]

There have been some comings and goings in terms of playing personnel this week. Five additional players have been brought in - Leinster's Isaac Boss, Mike Ross and Fergus McFadden, Ulster back rower Chris Henry and Munster hooker Damien Varley.

these lads have been brought into the ireland squad (curtisy of irish rugby .com)
well i think reddan may have just lost his spot best may have just lost his. buckley is injured good news ross
not sure about the other two though