Best Match of the Weekend

[UlsterRugby1999]

How good was that. Ireland 20 - Australia 20. We fought hard and made our own luck and never quit and ground out a draw against the mighty Wallabies. And Captain Century himself scored the try to give us the draw. man I'm exhausted.

Looking forward to the Fijians and the Boks. Bring it on.

Well done to England and France. The more we Northern Hemisphere teams grab wins the better our confidence levels will be going into 2011.

[Patf]

Missed most of it, sadly, but saw the last few minutes with O'Driscoll's try - thrilling!

We had on the Cardiff v London Irish match ( which was exciting too), and didn't realise what we were missing.

[Gardian]

UR99 ..............

First of all, good to see the green typeface surface once more. The season starts!

My view is that  the draw was the fair result. Although it pains me to say it, the Aussies were very controlled (almost too controlled) with a strong pack and typically hard backs. They just wanted to play territory and profit from errors, but they did it really well.

Your lot were like the Ireland of old, but with 3x the technique and all the usual passion. You might have nicked it, but you deserved the draw for not just settling for the penalties.  Who got MOM?  Was it your young prop?

Re England - less said the better.

Re France, I've not seen any footage, but by all accounts they were well worth their win - no fluke.

Re Italy, who are more than worth mentioning - 6-20 vs the All Blacks aint bad, albeit a 2nd XV NZ side. Apparently they should have had a penalty try near the end (6 pens near the line)

Re Scotland, forget it (yawn)

Re Wales, didn't see it. 

[UlsterRugby1999]

Ah - good man yourself Gardian -  kind words sir. I've been really busy the last few months so very little posting time but have been following the Forum, not that there has been much in the way of rugby discussion.

Go a wee bit easy on Johnno though, I think he's going okay. He's blooding a few younger guys and there is always the possibility for some turbulence but he's a confident and inspirational leader and I believe he'll do well for the Red Roses.

As for France, I've only read the reports too but like Johnston, Lieveremont is still building HIS team and is still only focused on 2011. France will go into the RWC strongly and will certainly end up in the last 4 if not the last 2.

Agreed re Italy. They are always a danger and we havent seen their full potential yet.

Its going to be an interesting 6N's this year and if I was a betting man, I'd wager on France to win it but not with a Grand Slam.

[dragonrouge]

Saw our game against Samoa turned it off at the end.

There is no doubt whatsoever we have talent but Wales just simply ran out of ideas.

Still I think we have three home games this year including the first Friday game in February against les bleus. Then maybe Ireland and Italy so three home wins?

Still say at least its amongst the best stadium in the world and of course right bang in the middle of a wonderful city.

[UlsterRugby1999]

[quote user="dragonrouge"]Saw our game against Samoa turned it off at the end. There is no doubt whatsoever we have talent but Wales just simply ran out of ideas. Still I think we have three home games this year including the first Friday game in February against les bleus. Then maybe Ireland and Italy so three home wins? Still say at least its amongst the best stadium in the world and of course right bang in the middle of a wonderful city.[/quote]

Aye the art of positive thinking dragonrouge. [;-)] but unless Gatland gets your feet back on the ground and starts to string some decent set piece moves together and gets you guys to think on your feet a bit more you might well struggle against Italy (and at home that wouldnt look to good). As Gardian says, Italy had a decent result against the All Blacks and they are always a handfull to any team.

[plod]

I think Ireland were a tad fortunate though I give them credit for keeping going right to the end. I haven't had the misfortune to see any of England's games but hardly anybody has a kind word to say. Despite the injuries I don't think Jonno picks the right players or else asks people (eg Monye) to play out of position. What do you expect from a team which has Steve Borthwick and Louis Deacon as the second row?

France were good value against SA and it was extraordinary to see a South African scrum under pressure. Early on in his appointment I thought Lievremont was barking but there was method in his madness. He has now beaten NZ and SA in quick succession.

[UlsterRugby1999]

[quote user="plod"]I think Ireland were a tad fortunate though I give them credit for keeping going right to the end. I haven't had the misfortune to see any of England's games but hardly anybody has a kind word to say. Despite the injuries I don't think Jonno picks the right players or else asks people (eg Monye) to play out of position. What do you expect from a team which has Steve Borthwick and Louis Deacon as the second row? France were good value against SA and it was extraordinary to see a South African scrum under pressure. Early on in his appointment I thought Lievremont was barking but there was method in his madness. He has now beaten NZ and SA in quick succession.[/quote]

Mmmmm - Rather a tad harsh plod, I think we contained them pretty well and their game plan didnt deliver the goods they'd expected. Rocky Elsoms reaction post match confirms that somewhat. They expected to run us into the ground and score at will but Healy and Co had other plans. Our backs defence was immense and our ability to break them down in defence was pretty near the best I've seen from a NH team against any of the Tri's for a while. 3 times Bowe got through scoring once, being (rightly) denied as inconclusive and being stopped on the line by 2 fwds.

If it hadnt been for the numbnut ROBOT O'Gara's hideous toss (he doesnt pass at the best of times) to O'Driscoll the Austrailians were only good for the Elsom try. How many penalties did White give against the Wallabies on or around their 5 metre line when we were driving forward. What did Cian Healy show them up as. Unable to think out of their rehearsed set piece mentality. This is where we got back into the game IMHO. We thought outside of the box and went both at them and around them and they were, often, caught flat footed.

Hey, but what do I know [:D][;-)][:D]

[plod]

Yes, but you got pushed off your own ball in the scrum - by Australia!!!

[Gardian]

True .............. & surprising, but not because the Irish were bad.  The Wallabies had just improved enormously, eh?

[UlsterRugby1999]

[quote user="plod"]Yes, but you got pushed off your own ball in the scrum - by Australia!!![/quote]

Mmmmmmmmmm - cant argue with that. Thats a worry. Still not sure if it was down to a better Aussie scrum or our lads.

[UlsterRugby1999]

[quote user="Gardian"]True .............. & surprising, but not because the Irish were bad.  The Wallabies had just improved enormously, eh?[/quote]

Sorry Gardian  - I'd responded to our friend plod before I'd realised there was another page. While plod is correct, we got it back as the game went on (maybe a pride thing as much as anything else) as we used the scrum in the last 10 minutes a couple of times and our try came from a chosen scrum. I guess O'Connell felt at the time that we had regained sufficient control of the scrum.

Their line-outs werent inspiring either. In fact, there were a few glaring holes in them. They had no idea what to do with Cian Healy especially when he made that charge which led to Tommy Bowe's try. Bodes well for more NH wins maybe. [:)]