Rugby videos of tackles, tries, funny incidents and more: Ireland beat England at Croke Park

Sunday, March 01, 2009

Ireland beat England at Croke Park

Ireland survived a late scare to beat England 14-13 on Saturday and keep its chances for a Six Nations Grand Slam.

Ireland was leading 14-6 with two minutes left when Delon Armitage touched down for the visitors. The conversion pulled England to within a single score but time ran out when wing Mark Cueto spilled the ball in a tackle.

The result leaves Ireland atop the Six Nations standings with a maximum six points from three matches. The Irish are the only team still able to complete a Grand Slam of wins.

England improved vastly on the performance that resulted in a 43-13 mauling on its last visit to Dublin two years ago, but paid for undisciplined play yet again as two yellow cards meant it spent 20 minutes with 14 men.

"It makes life a lot easier when you're playing against 14 men," Ireland captain Brian O'Driscoll said.

O'Driscoll played the whole match despite appearing to be slightly below his best because of an injury and scored eight of his team's points. But his try and drop goal both came after a first half that surprisingly left the teams tied at 3-3.

"It was a hard game," O'Driscoll said. "I'll have to look back at it because some parts are a bit hazy for me…

"I don't think people give England the credit they deserve. They're always a hard team."

Time: 05:08

well march 21 in Cardiff should be huge

By Anonymous, at March 01, 2009 10:50 pm
dissapointing english ill discipline, sack care for now hes proved he doenst deserve the shirt at the moment. johnson should start tait as well and keep andy goode on whos been playing suprisingly well. whould be a wicked finale in cardiff

By Anonymous, at March 01, 2009 10:56 pm
Ireland probaly deserved it but England really put it up to them. The intensity of the match was unreal. Ferris is an absolute monster !

England were lucky not to have a lot more yellow cards now.

Be wary of Scotland in Murrayfield !!!

By Anonymous, at March 01, 2009 11:03 pm
wow just when i thought BOD couldnt get any better he goes an slots a drop goal also his must have had such a head ache after fluteys tackle and armitages hit on him WITHOUT THE BALL!!!

IRELAND for grand slam????

By Anonymous, at March 01, 2009 11:06 pm
As an England fan, I have to say that the score flattered us. If ROG had not missed some pretty easy goals we could have lost by 20 points.

Having said that Ireland seemed to lack a real cutting edge.

Johnson is far too consersative in his selection. What does he have to lose by picking some young bolters. Get Foden in there and throw caution to the wind.

By Jonathan, at March 01, 2009 11:07 pm
gotta love the intensity of the defences. Driscoll was awesome in defence especially. Thats from a munster man so you know something is up. Gara was fierce poor with the kicking, still you can't be perfect all the time any chance of getting some of those tackles up rugby dump?

By Anonymous, at March 01, 2009 11:07 pm
Right the 2 yellow cards were a joke, there is no reason why the ref cannot say go back 10 yards and that is a lesson learned, Danny Care was stupid but the penalty is enough for him, plus the ELVs have destroyyed the game that once was, our biggest asset which was the rolling maul now cannot be done because the southen hemisphere have take it away before the lions tour coincidense ??

By Anonymous, at March 01, 2009 11:18 pm
I hate ping-pong rugby.

By Anonymous, at March 01, 2009 11:20 pm
what a crap game of rugby

tell me why was BOD crashing through like a backrower for that try ??

so creative - bore bore bore

Ireland and England need to spend all of the next 3 weeks training sessions do skill work - the handling and level of ball in hand skill is absolute crap

oh and England need a new captain

By Anonymous, at March 01, 2009 11:29 pm
Dan - you moron

The rolling maul is not gone - the rule is now it can be pulled down

some of the Super 14 teams are doing it - its now harder to do and requires more support - and stronger fitter players ( i think this is ur main problem )

Its not been taken out of the game - you stupid english just need to learn how to do it

instead of being negative - try playing rugby

oh must be Borthwick's fault - must be Danny cares fault

ur all crap - trying playing the game to the rules instead of complaining about no more rolling mauls - which have not been banned - your just an idiot

By Anonymous, at March 01, 2009 11:32 pm
"The rolling maul is not gone - the rule is now it can be pulled down."

Well the law that says it can be pulled down has effectively erased it. So for all practical purposes it is gone.

As for playing positive rugby, the rolling maul made it easier to play because it sucked in forwards leaving more space outside. Now 2 or 2 can pull it down and the rest of the forwards can hang out in the backs.

By Anonymous, at March 01, 2009 11:36 pm
England are victim of the old adgage, "if you say something enough people will start to believe it."

The idea that England are the bad boys committing offenses while the other teams are all choir boys is absolute tripe. Does anyone think that forwards in the other teams do not enage in the dark arts just as much as the Engalnd forwards? Come off it.

When one team is gettin twice as many penalties as the other in a close game, to me that means that the ref is looking out for them and is predisposed to giving penalties against them.

Having said that, England deserved to lose.

By Anonymous, at March 01, 2009 11:39 pm
jamestheconvict is an idiot

By Anonymous, at March 01, 2009 11:54 pm
James the needlessly foulmouthed:

Munster too have reinvented the rolling maul recently.

Watch, I'm going to say that and not call anyone an idiot.

Not even u

A really ground out win for Ireland, not the best to watch, but sometimes matches can go that way - england had done their defensive analysis well.

Ireland did cut loose against the the French, so its not like England WC 2003 borefest rugby - horses for courses as they say

The sin bins may have seemed harsh, but they were for culminations of illegal play, not the individual foul. England could have had another (e.g. the hands in the ruck that caused the pen when BOD scored that drop goal)

Buit the ping pong is awful these days (that french game notwithstanding, there has been waaay too much of it since the ELVS came in)

By Anonymous, at March 01, 2009 11:59 pm
"jamestheconvict is an idiot"
Agreed!!

By Anonymous, at March 01, 2009 11:59 pm
correct Munster have also started using it

if its moving the forward cant hang in the backs - if you dont pull it down you find urself offside

u guys call me stupid ???

England suck - y am i stupid for pointing that out ??

Also rolling mauls are not gone - y am i stupid for pointing that out ??

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2009 12:02 am
England have deserved to lose both games, and the test matches too. All as a result of their poor discipline. I have seen them play the better rugby, and appear rock solid in defence, but the stupidity of players like care and others does them no help.

For me there are too many young players who are too cocky for their own good. For me the players who are on their game are goode, tait, flutey, worsley and armitage. Borthwick has been poor and should be showing these boys the way, having a go at them for their discipline, not constantly trying to plead with the ref, it just looks pathetic.

One other thing, anyone think england are a bit too slow to the breakdown?
Oh and that rolling mall comment is bollocks, you have to adapt. It may have been a strong point for england back in 2003, but with the forwards we have now it's unlikely to be our strong point.

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2009 12:05 am
jamesthecon knows his rugby, he only critics NH rugby to get a reaction.isnt that right jimmy?

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2009 12:51 am
James you're called stupid because you can't articulate without calling people a moron.

Dan, I wouldn't say the yellow cards were a joke. England were killing the ball and not listening to the ref for the first, and the second was just infantile in my opinion, ball was gone. They could have got a third for the late hit on BOD if the ref had been as 'harsh' as the one in the Wales game.

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2009 12:52 am
i criticize NH rugby because it deserves criticism

i admit to enjoying the reaction - but the game is shit - ur all going to get destroyed by boks/nz/wallabies

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2009 12:55 am
James its pretty sad what you do really...But i suppose for a 12 year old what can i Expect..and last autumn i do believe its was 6 wins to 3 wins in favour of the SH big four against NH big 4...Hardly like you's are miles and miles ahead of us and last world cup if i recall correctly the top four finishers included 2 NH and 2 SH..Of course SH is better but not unbeatable, AUS and NZ learned that the hard way during the WC...

Anyways pretty defensive, hard hitting game, sometimes tehy go that way.. and Ireland attack is much to slow with O leary at SH, Stringer or Reddan need to be brought back in, they feed the ball out much much quicker..

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2009 1:13 am
"Right the 2 yellow cards were a joke, there is no reason why the ref cannot say go back 10 yards and that is a lesson learned" sorry dan but the referee clearly stated that the next time it would be a yellow (in vickery's case) and that within a minute vickery was killing the ball.....i guess you didnt see the game, or didnt hear that.

as for Care, well that was stupid play and it was more personal, there was nothing to be achieved there really, and in any case his attempt at rucking as the commentators said was poor, he didnt use his arms which was illegal, hence the yellow....

In all honesty i think any england supporters should be gracious in defeat, ireland played well and so did england, and i think as the game goes it was a close one, although ireland seemed a lot more inspiring.....england should not forget that had ROG been on usual form the score line would have been a lot less in englands favour!....

Would not like to be facing martin johnson after that game! he was pissed off......(wouldnt have like to be sat in front of him either...(regarding the punch he did))

Englands discipline was piss poor, i saw borthwick man handle someone on the touchline (not a player) i saw vickery using his hands in the ruck, i saw vickery using his boots on people on the floor (this video shows him do it), i saw vickery being a cock in general....really, the guy is not an asset, he caused more penalties than he did good......

would like to see more on Borthwick grabbing some guy on the touch line, anyone else notice it?

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2009 1:16 am
James the convict, what is wrong with you? on every page you post something (and its always something negative) you seem to leave numerous comments on each video, that means that you are repetitively going back to the same page looking to see if anyone has replied to your stupid comments. You have a little too much spare time on your hands, get outside and do something.
(I'm from the Southern Hemisphere as well), but what your doing is just shit, grow up

anyway aside from that, thanks for the video rugbydump

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2009 1:46 am
Bit of a scrappy match, kind of ten man rugby. Alot of passion and alot of focus on possesion rugby, hitting it up the middle retaining possesion of the ball.
Not alot of flair.

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2009 2:10 am
It would be good that someone starts to block NH SH posts. That starts to be really boring..

We talk about a high intensity game and a big asshole comes and tell us the reality of, that english suck, BOD sucks and SH rule the world.

Still didn t accept that Australia has been eliminated in WC 07. Really a kid.

I don t know why you loose your time in watching 6 nations game. That must be so boring for you...
Jus wait the next world cup and elimination of Australia in quarter finals and I'll send you some handkerchief from France. We make good ones.

Nevertheless, it s true maul are no more able now and that's a shame to me. Rugby is a fight and I don t want rugby union to become rugby league. No fight, no defense and sissys are for australian cying babies.

Munster...oooooh sorry, Ireland forwards are really impressive. The game was great and pressure was here too. Just too bad England waited for the injury time to play.

Anyway, don't worry my English friends. Bastareaud and Co will offer you a thirs loss in this tournament.

:p

By K, at March 02, 2009 2:20 am
Wasnt the best of games by any means (a lot of kicking in the 1st half) but the intensity in the hits was incredible. BOD had one of his best games evr in an Irish jersey, he pretty much carried the team. How Stephen Jones (the Sunday Times columnist) can only giv him a 7/10 and say he didnt take his chances is ridiulous.Besides that it was a tense last few minutes.O'Connell & Ferris were phenomenal aswell.

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2009 3:30 am
Goode needs to be in the first XV. The only thing Flood has one him is a more stylish haircut. He has created his side's only 2 tries in the last two games. Tait should be in there as well. BOD played amzing in defence and was able to impact immensely in an offensively stunted game. All in all, a fairly shiten game though. And this from a Canadian!

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2009 3:52 am
Gunnery Sgt Hartman once told Pvt. Leonard Lawrence (aka Pvt Pyle) that he climbed obstacles like "old people f**cked"

After watching this match, I knew exactly what he meant.

Two weeks in a row, the referee warned Phil Vickery "don't do X", and stood right next to him. Sure enough, he didn't listen and got pinged. ENG look to be their own worst enemy. Delon Armitage is class, Tindall was decent, everyone else was about as useless as tits on a bull.

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2009 5:58 am
2 thins need fixing

O'Gara's feet

English discipline.

By Don, at March 02, 2009 6:25 am
yeah stephen jones (journo)is unbelieveably biased.his report in the sunday paper had henson down as a definite lions player ahead of o'driscoll!!

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2009 6:43 am
I'm an Aussie who loves sucking cock and moaning about the northern hemisphere due to me being so depressed from living in my hut in the bush.

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2009 10:02 am
I couldnt care less about any hemisphere all ill say is a great team knows how to win both ways, pretty and ugly and im afraid this was an ugly win but a win is a win and 3 out of 3 wins for Ireland makes them favourites.

Pre-judgment is always ill advised and could lead to egg in the face after future games.

Now that certainly is a tomatoe in the fruit salad!!

By Kenny, at March 02, 2009 10:27 am
And guys ive already said this james loves to leave comments that incite anger and sits and waits for the replies, just ignore a cold sore and it eventually dries up, turns into a scab and goes away!
So next time he blogs simply ignore, he is not stupid or ignorant, just annoying and he knows it.

By Kenny, at March 02, 2009 10:32 am
All I keep hearing is 'O'Gara's usually reliable boot'
O'Gara's boot is only reliable at club level I'm afraid.
His arse seems to go unless everything is going perfectly in front of him.
Danny care needs a slap from Johnsons big old mitt's and what the hell was Borthwick doing with the poor ball boy or whatever he was? Hopefully Borthwick will get banned or something to force Johnson into a change...

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2009 11:26 am
Oh, and completely agree with the earlier comment about Vickery. He is a liability who takes more from the game than he gives.
I saw an interview he gave before the game and he was saying what need to be done regarding discipline (listen to the ref etc.) but then doesn't even take his own advice. Probably couldn't hear the ref the cauliflower eared idiot...

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2009 11:30 am
Average match, where's the flair?
Defence was good, but where was the creativity to get around it?
Kicking was almost purely for field position, I would have loved to have seen some attacking kicks, into the corners, more grubbers and chips. It's one of the best ways past a defensive line.
Alot of passion though, pretty physical. You can tell how much it meant to them. But on this form, the Lions are in trouble against the Boks on the high veldt.

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2009 12:35 pm
sack care and bring foden he can cover fullback,scrumhalf and wing!

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2009 12:55 pm
BOD is a cheat.i cant remember the last time i watched a match and he hasnt been on the floor.fair enough armitage was a fool to block him but he went down like a sack of shit.there is no room for that sort of thing in rugby.

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2009 12:56 pm
"But on this form, the Lions are in trouble against the Boks on the high veldt."

Yeah very worrying seeing as how they tore scotland and wales to ribbons in autumn.

I think they beat both teams by 5/6 points in both games = your talking a load of monkeys balls

How about wait till the games and then comment on less you look foolish afterwards.

"BOD is a cheat.i cant remember the last time i watched a match and he hasnt been on the floor.fair enough armitage was a fool to block him but he went down like a sack of shit.there is no room for that sort of thing in rugby."
Maybe he should go down like a sack of something else hmmmm very silly statement.

Yeah he dived after he was body checked both times, he should really stop sprinting in to people who are jumping into his way on purpose.

How about get your captain to stop assaulting 12 year old ball boys like an angry paedo and give your non drug taking first team prop and ear horn so he can hear a ref screaming at him to get his fat mits of a ball in a ruck.

Jeezz the cheek!!!

By Kenny, at March 02, 2009 1:15 pm
Care~!
would someone please send him back to high school and learn how to behave? He let the whole team down.He doesnt deserve the enland jersy for such a poor discipline

as a england rugby fan,I feel england's backs still aren't playing for each other. a few occasion of 4 against 3 or even 4 against 2 rather. is it that hard to draw the defender in and pass the ball before taking the hit?

Tait and Goode played very well despite that they only played no more than 20mins.

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2009 1:29 pm
Poor James the Convict can't even make friends on the internet. I bet he's shite at rugby as well.

We should have lost by more and we are going through a bad time at the moment. Our players aren't good enough, simple as that. Perhaps our back row but that's it.

One thing you can slate Andy Goode all you like but he's single handedly assisted/scored most of our points for England so far this tournament and he hasn't even played the full games.

Brian O'Driscoll, oh my god. He's immense, i reckon you could stick him anywwhere except the tight 5 and he'd still be a world class player.

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2009 2:11 pm
LOL james since when have australia played exciting rugby?

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2009 3:09 pm
Does anyone know what Care was carded for? as in the actual offence. It's just that although it looks bad, in theory he was hitting the ruck and you're allowed to do that with just the shoulder or pushing with your hands. it wasn't late either as the ball was passed only a fraction of a second before he hit the guy.

Don't all go mental at me, i'm just wondering that's all.

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2009 3:11 pm
Funniest comment so far: "BOD is a cheat.i cant remember the last time i watched a match and he hasnt been on the floor."

What a stupid thing to say. I guess there is no chance that opposition teams target O'Driscoll physically to take him out of the game? No, that would never happen...By the way, did you see the hit on his head that he got from Flutey? Do you think he tried to tackly O'Driscoll with his head to be gentler? From that time on O'Driscoll was clearly struggling, but was still the best player on the pitch. Think before you embarrass yourself friend.

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2009 3:38 pm
Andy I think the technical offence was 'Being a lairy little c*nt and potentially costing us the game'.
Hope that helps...

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2009 3:43 pm
Kember, if he was being punished for what sort of bloke he is then surely he sohuld've been given a straight red?

What was the actual offence though? because despite it looking illegal i'm sure you're allowed to do that.

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2009 4:33 pm
OK Andy first offence was leading with the hands out and making no attempt to TACKLE which usually involves wrapping the player between shoulders and feet, secondly he pushed and then shouldered the player in the back wchich is deemed dangerous play....basically the guy was out of line in so many ways but worst of all, it was totally unnecessary as the ball had left the ruck and play had moved on so again the tackle was late.
Everyone feel free to either add to the list of convictions or correct me if im wrong, either or all are welcome.

By Kenny, at March 02, 2009 4:40 pm
But it was a ruck, he wasn't tackling the player. So you're allowed to push/shoulder barge the guy.

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2009 4:57 pm
Yeah not in the back though and its called tackling you cant dive in with your hands out, you have to make a decent attempt at wrapping, not jumping at players backs.
This doesnt seem to be sinking in.
The ruck had finished when the ball left and then he jumped on Horans back.

Actually whether he had done it to his front or back it was all late and possible dangerout tackling and it was right under the touch judges nose.

I mean if your going to cheat do it away from ref or touch judge.

Why isnt this making sense to you?

By Kenny, at March 02, 2009 5:22 pm
Don't get shirty with me. I'm not sure why. It just seems to me that is was a RUCK (albeit a very messy one) and he was in theory rucking which you're allowed to do with your hands or shoulder into the front or back of the guy. Yes i know it looks dangerous but was it in fact illegal? Also isn't that late if you look at the timing.

Anyhow i'm backing down as i seem to be the only one that's asked about this.

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2009 5:38 pm
Does anyone think the last try England scored should have been a penalty to Ireland . Tindall got isolated after the tackle , he then positoned his body over the ball to prohibit Carney from getting quick ball????
Didn`t think much of the referee , he had a poor game

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2009 5:46 pm
The last try scored by England should have been a penatly to Ireland. Tindall after making a good break became isolated and when tacked he positioned his body over the ball to stop Carney getting quick ball, Armitage when he arrive flopped on top of Carney and made sure it didn`t come out on the Irish side. The referee positioning was poor here anyway and beside that he had a very poor game

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2009 5:49 pm
yes yes i win i win

Ireland 2 England 0

Only messing wit you Andy wasnt getting shirty wit u, just having a laugh.

To be honest i thought the yellow was a bit harsh and if he hadnt done it under the nose of the touch judge he prob would have gotten away with it.

By Kenny, at March 02, 2009 5:52 pm
What puts the boot in is that we (England) will realisticly only have a few starting Lions, maybe Sheridan, a back-rower and maybe sneaking a back. England self destruct again, 10 yellows in 4 games, that an average of about a third of each game with 14 men, The Leigh Halfpenny try could have been stopped easily had there been the proper no. of players, England must sort it to salvage some pride.

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2009 6:10 pm
jamestheconvict

It's a law not a rule
Your probably South African cacking yourself.
cant wait for the Lions.

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2009 6:12 pm
I can give a bunch of reasons (no attempt to bind, etc.), but this pretty much covers it:

Law 10.4(k) -- "Acts contrary to good sportsmanship. A player must not do anything that is against the spirit of good sportsmanship in the playing enclosure."

It's a great law IMHO, and one that makes rugby a positive, gentleman's sport.

For example, in soccer, you can beat up your own teammate (the law only penalizes foul play against an opponent). I've seen it happen in soccer, and the referees can do nothing.

Law 10.4(k) give the ref the leeway to make sure the game is positive. It is also reflective of rugby union's overall mission and attitude. Unlike soccer where guys dive, get in referees' faces, etc.

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2009 6:31 pm
im irish and i say english defence was admasing they should be proud of the fight they put wasent happy bout the sly hits on BOD wats up with o gara needs to sort out the fuckin kickin its ridiclous to miss that much if he dident feel confident u have rob kearney or paddy wallace to have a crack at the posts both played fly half but realy has to work on that if he wants the top 6n pionts scorer record

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2009 6:51 pm
oh james the convict lads u know the drill fuckin start ignorein bot now sorry there are no pricks in the six nations take it somewhere else

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2009 6:54 pm
ireland should heve put england away much sooner.....scoreline flatters england in fairness! nice try by armitage though...ireland to beat wales in cardif

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2009 7:40 pm
"jamestheconvict is an idiot" he should go back and watch soccer with those kind of opinions. And the guy who said BOD is a cheat mustn't know the rules of rugby if he throws out those kind of accusations.

Hugely physical game though, some massive hits put in by both side. The game kind of ended up as a stalemate due to the 2 high quality defenses.

Martin Johnson's reactions during the game were priceless though!!!

By Unknown, at March 02, 2009 8:04 pm
Andy,
Apart from Law 10.4(k)....

Care did not bind going into the ruck, it was a straight-up shoulder-check.

Law 10.4(i) -- Dangerous play in a scrum, ruck or maul... "Players must not charge into a ruck or maul without binding onto
a player in the ruck or maul."

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2009 8:34 pm
anyone see borthwick push the ballboy???

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2009 8:42 pm
In South Africa, playing like this, the Lions will not win. Running rugby is what works in SA, not forward orientated, penalty rugby.

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2009 9:53 pm
That makes sense. Thanks.

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2009 10:30 pm
Heres the problem with england:

commintator says, "englands 7th flyhalf in 10 games." gosh, a team like the all blacks has had one flyhalf in what 40-50 tests, dan carter, and before that, carl spencer. in that position u have one guy, and 2 maybe 3 training under him. and if the starter gets injured u dont put one of them up, u put one of the other starters, a center perhaps. the guys training behind him, need years of preparation. its like american football in high school. the only real year u should play is ur last senior year, the three before should be spent watching and watching, training and sprinting, i dont care how godly the new 19 year old kid is, something can always go wrong.

second: frankly the northern hemisphere is quite snaughty to the careers. in south africa u DREAM of becoming a springbok, and sticking with them. say in england u already get paid a couple million to play for some club, playing for ur national country, ehhh just a bonus. and with attitudes like that, expect inconsistency in ur lineup!

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2009 10:47 pm
Victor, good point about how in SA people dream of being a Bok, and the status it brings. I imagine it is the same in NZ too. This is a problem in the NH, that rugby has a lower status than other sports. For example, in Ireland it is only the number 4 field sport. In most of Britain, it is probably only number 2 behind soccer. (I'm talking about RL and RU combined here as rugby).

By Anonymous, at March 03, 2009 2:29 am
no one noticed that Armitage was a couple of yards offside when the kick went thru and he scored?

By Anonymous, at March 03, 2009 2:31 am
England are 8th in the world - wow

By Anonymous, at March 03, 2009 2:53 am
I love the fact that Ireland is winning this 6N so far, but this was a bore of a match.

Haha, the best part was the 10 or so straight kicks in a row...and Eddie Butler said it looked like a Wimbledon match. It certainly did.

Brian Moore isn't really all that bright sometimes, is he?

Man, the more people who get their panties in a knot because of jamestheconvict's comments, the more I start to side with him. I really dislike NZ and hope to hell the Lions are successful in their upcoming tour, but watching these...I just don't know.

I realized something this match - in the 1st half - when Ireland went through a number of rapid phases, really threatening the English line, but ultimately failed to get the ball out wide and do something with it. I got the feeling that if it were NZ playing, they would have had the stamina to power through and would have come out with a try...

For the life of me, I wish they'd get Stringer in there earlier so Ireland can get some fast ball and get the GD show on the road!

By Anonymous, at March 03, 2009 3:38 am
wales vs ireland will be the decider chaps, i doubt ireland will get the grand slam though

By Anonymous, at March 03, 2009 3:53 am
elliot - my man - seeing the light !!

By Anonymous, at March 03, 2009 4:02 am
Strange but couldnt halp notice that jamestheconvict never posted anything for the Wales victory over Australia....wonder why???

Please help people, its really wrecking my head!!

By Kenny, at March 03, 2009 5:08 pm
You see Ireland don't do the "favorites" tag very well eg. 2007 WRC.. That's why we performed poorly.. Wales in Cardiff will be a different story (i hope)! But the pressure will still be there if we win against Scotland and are going for the Grandslam.. Time can only tell!

By Anonymous, at March 03, 2009 6:51 pm
One victory in 20 for the NH sides, and with the help of a terrible reffing preformance from Alan Lewis does not make Wales a great team, and certainly doesn't validate NH rugby.
The fact is, this game was a demonstration of what's good and bad about NH rugby.
The good is the amazing atmosphere, the huge crowds and interest, the rivalry steeped in hundred of years of history (I mean the rivlary between Ireland and England needs no explanation does it?), the passion with which the players apply themselves. The set pieces are good, the field position kicking is good too, the dfence, while not technically the greatest, is hard and strong.
The bad is the alck of creativity, the lack of attacking kicking options, the lack of speed in clearing the rucks and feeding the ball to the backline, the lack of clinical execution in terms of passing and taking scoring chances and the slow speed of the hands in the backline. Lack of speed is the main thing, plus the technical passing and handling skills need to be improved. There needs to be more offloading in contact and better hands to take advantage of it.
I was amazed by the Irish coach coming out and blaming the ELVs for the constant kicking of posession away by both sides. Surely there's needs to be some personal responsibilty on behalf of the teams, the tri-nations was certainly not a kick-a-thon, statistically there was roughly the same number of kicks in play, but more running rugby as well, as the ball was in play more. The teams need to lift their skills under the ELVs, speed up the ruck and use kicking not just for field postion but to get in behind the defensive line. It means more tries when the teams realise this, not less. You can really run another team off their feet under the ELVs, if your good enough.
By the way, the Boks, particularly at home, are definatley good enough to run any side off the park, ELVs or no ELVs.
They will run at the Lions, they will offload in contact and get runners thru gaps. They will make breaks, they will score tries. They have big strong, extremely physical and fast players all over the park, who will run all game.
The Lions need to match that with running rugby of their own if they are to have any chance against the Boks, particularly at altitude.
Keeping the ball in tight and playing for field position won't work, the Boks will just blow them off the park with their strike runners. The Lions need to fight fire with fire, try for try. Wales is the only team playing the kind of rugby needed at the moment.

By Anonymous, at March 04, 2009 12:46 am
Eire for the Slam

By Anonymous, at March 04, 2009 3:15 am
Scotland pushed the "running and offloading" boks all the way in murrayfield in Autumn anonymous so thats a load of bollocks your talking about the boks "blowing away NH teams"

By Kenny, at March 04, 2009 10:36 am
I agree with alot of what anonymous (put a name, dammit)is saying. Which is basically we don't have good enough players, and i think that's what it boils down to. If you compare every player with his opposite man in a SH team, they just aren't as good. Except maybe a few back rowers and wilko if he's alive? That is down to grass roots and we all know in SH rugby is massive and everyone wants to play it. Not the case here at all.

Disagree with all you guys saying the Lions are going to get wooped. Very unwise of you. Lets just wait and see.

By Anonymous, at March 04, 2009 2:48 pm
My name's Jon.
Can't be bothered signing up.
I didn't say the Boks will blow th Lions off the park, I said they will if the Lions play ten man rugby, keeping the ball in tight and playing for field position. They need to outscore the Boks by scoring tries, and that means more attacking, creative play.
And I'm sick of hearing about how some NH team almost beat the Boks, or really took it to the All Blacks. A loss is a loss.
The gap isn't that big, but it's the way the NH sides play that I'm critisizing, not the indiviual ability. The playing philosophy's too conservative. Against South Africa at home, it won't work. They can destroy any team at home.
The kind of rugby played in this match won't cut it.

By Anonymous, at March 04, 2009 3:20 pm
I think your generalising way too much Jon..IMO neither France Nor Ireland and defo not wales play 10 man rugby..In fact Wales forwards are pretty poor and they wouldnt be able to do so, France have always played a very very expansive and exciting game and Ireland are getting much more expansive recently...With a mixture of Irish and Welsh backs and english and irish forwards the Lions will be a force to reckoned with if they are prepared properly..

By Anonymous, at March 04, 2009 7:28 pm
Not sure about all of the Care haters out there, he's been one of the only bright spots for England recently. Stupid penalty to give away but that's all it was, a penalty. Can't remember any other instances where that type of offence has resulted in a card? Can't complain about most of the other decisions or the result though.

Can anyone tell me the point of bringing in Armitage for one game, giving him no ball, then dropping him again? And why is Foden not playing? Hate to say it but Jonno is beginning to look a little clueless and, dare I say it, sackless. It's alright whinging about discipline but when you set up a team to go out and minimise damage in the hope of sneaking a win, of course pressure is going to tell and your team are going to give away penalties.

Can we see some rugby next time please because, despite what some people would have you believe, England still have some very talented players.

By Anonymous, at March 04, 2009 9:13 pm
Anyone who calls this game boring knows nothing about rugby union

By Anonymous, at March 05, 2009 12:12 am
Jon- you don't have to sign up, just put Jon where it says Name/URL.

By Anonymous, at March 05, 2009 1:04 am
Irealnd doesn't play exciting, running rugby mate. NBot by SH standards. They play a very simple, low risk game. It might work well in the 6 nations but it would never work against the Boks at home. They are can be terrifying at home.

By Anonymous, at March 05, 2009 4:59 am
Thats where ur wrong above and if u had watched the Ireland V France game at the start of th SNations u wud see that ireland can and do play exciting rugby. The way the english played the last day not even the All Blacks wud have been able to play exciting rugby, they played such a high line of defence they were basically offside:)... So get ur facts right before making comments like that...

By Anonymous, at March 05, 2009 12:50 pm
The All Blacks would have torn this England side a new areshole. They did not long ago. Guys like Carter putting guys like Nonu thru gaps results in tries. Ireland have nothing like that to offer.

By Anonymous, at March 05, 2009 11:42 pm
Wrong man..Alot of that team didnt play the all blacks and if they did it was there first cap so were never going to be defending like they did against Ireland..

By Anonymous, at March 06, 2009 2:04 am
pfft, to even compare Ireland to the All Blacks is ridiculous. Irelanmd has never, ever, in over 100 years of trying, ever beaten NZ. That's not a coincidence.

By Anonymous, at March 06, 2009 5:35 am
lets not forget that the try of the year last year came from ireland versus australia,so they do play exciting rugby.infact ireland can play many different game plans depending on oposition.there a very wel rounded team

By Anonymous, at March 06, 2009 11:25 am
"Irelanmd has never, ever, in over 100 years of trying, ever beaten NZ. That's not a coincidence."

Well done with the reminder mate, nobody knew that one.

Total transitional Ireland team playing NZ, who beat everbody in the world.

Last few times Ireland have played NZ before that they have lost by 1 score or so including all the games in NZ in 2006/2007.

Infact they managed to maul us in NZ in 2008 18-12, wow Anon!! you ran away with that one!!

NZ are a much better team but Ireland will beat them soon.

As jamestheconvict said Ireland do have it in them but it will have to be one of those once in a lifetime performances where everyone hits %110 for the whole 80 mins.
Ireland have started to play differing games, expansive and quick agianst france, Slow and ungly against Italy n England, difference being they are winning the games now so it will be really interesting to see how they fare against SH opposition. This is why the lions tour will be so exciting as it will show just where NH has got to in the past few months.

By Kenny, at March 06, 2009 3:23 pm
LOL Ireland 7s just beat Aussie 7s still prob going out cause they got hammered by Samoa 35-5!!

By Kenny, at March 06, 2009 3:34 pm
Ireland are a decent team, but not great. Overrated.

By Anonymous, at March 07, 2009 1:17 am
Well if u wanna bring out the history books...
ieland may not hav beaten the All Blacks, But i remem a little Irish province going by the name of Munster beaten them...do u? haha

By Anonymous, at March 09, 2009 12:39 am
Yeah, they beat the midweek All Blacks team, once. That was an amazing thing, great victory.
Pity that's the only thing Ireland has to hang onto, since they have never actually beaten the All Blacks internationally.
It's ridiculous for Ireland to claim being one of the world's best teams until they start beating NZ regularly, like South Africa or Australia.

By Anonymous, at March 09, 2009 7:56 am
Anonymous - Ireland will have a realistic chance of beating NZ when they play them as regularly as Australia and NZ do. As it is, games are not frequent, and NZ have a huge psychological advantage, on top of being the better team.

By the way, Munster's victory is not 'all Ireland have to cling to'. Playing NZ is not all we think about would you believe. In fact, there is even a world beyond rugby! Wow. So relax - and stop sounding like a soccer fan.

By Anonymous, at March 09, 2009 7:57 pm
we apricate ur input and constructive critisim but we will play our game how we see fit and will take no more crap cause at this piont im actualy getin furious im passed pissed at the moment leave irish rugby alone were only findin our feet after 07 and 08 so get lost wit ur compleet bolox cause its realy getten on the nerves now we know the SH are good but we can play well any day and im sick and tired of been constently underestamated

By Anonymous, at March 09, 2009 8:50 pm
Chip on your shoulder there mate?
The Irish team is solid, but unspectacular. Capable of the odd upset over the big three but nothing more and far from able to win a world cup.
If you don't like the truth, then tough. You wouldn't be upset if ya thought I was wrong, you'd just think I was out of my mind. The fact it makes you "furious" just means I hit the mark.
Anyway, I've never met such a precious irishman, and I've lived there for a couple years, even shacked up with an irish lass. Tough as teak, not nearly as sensitive as you.

By Anonymous, at March 10, 2009 8:23 am
"I've never met such a precious irishman, and I've lived there for a couple years, even shacked up with an irish lass. Tough as teak, not nearly as sensitive as you."

wow what a lucky "lass" to have shacked up with you, seeing as your as tough as "teak" or was it her that was tough as teak ha ha sure it wasnt a guy u shacked up with mate haha

By Kenny, at March 10, 2009 12:45 pm
She was tough mate, she was from Blanchardstown though, so I guess you'd expect that.
Not precious like you blokes.

By Anonymous, at March 11, 2009 3:21 am
"She was tough mate, she was from Blanchardstown though, so I guess you'd expect that.
Not precious like you blokes."

She must have been blind too,

Listen mister luver luver, will ya talk about feckin rugby and not some blanch tinker u swapped herpes and crabs with last year in her caravan.

Of course she was tough, she prob had ten kids with no dads and a big handlebar tash lol = onslo

(you wouldnt get the onslo bit unless your either english or irish)

By Kenny, at March 11, 2009 3:14 pm
ha, I actually do got the onslo bit, and she was a bit of a tramp, but I didn't know better, I'm just a poor innocent Aussie.
Anyway, it's still fuckin true that Ireland is damn average at rugby. Damn average, they'll never win the world cup, and deep in your paddy heart you know it too.

By Anonymous, at March 12, 2009 12:54 pm
This comment has been removed by the author.

By Kenny, at March 12, 2009 2:56 pm
well as a true blooded "paddy" i am delighted to be playing the weakest of the SH nations in the 2011 world cup group stages . Im sure the paddys and micks will be able to lift our "average" game and take it to the "Awesome" Australia.......spare me the arrogance mate

By Kenny, at March 12, 2009 3:04 pm