Rugby videos of tackles, tries, funny incidents and more: Ireland sneak home against England at Twickenham

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Ireland sneak home against England at Twickenham

Tommy Bowe scored twice as Ireland beat England 20-16 at Twickenham, keeping their hopes alive of retaining the Six Nations title.

England had taken the lead at 16-13 when wing Bowe broke the defensive line before stepping Ugo Monye and going over for the decisive try. It was his second try of the night after he'd chased a neatly placed Jonny Sexton kick ahead earlier.

Keith Earls also scored, as Ireland tallied 3 tries to the 1 of England, scored by Dan Cole. Jonny Wilkinson kicked the conversion, two penalties, and a drop goal, but Ireland three tries and their strong defensive effort meant they won away from home.

"We've come back from deficits before," Irish number eight Jamie Heaslip said. "We showed belief and confidence in each other's ability and closed the game out well.

"England had good time on the ball and played territory well but we took our chances. We looked at the France game afterwards and thought we didn't take our opportunities. Today we did.

"For Ireland, it's not difficult to get motivated for an England game," he added.

France lead the standings with six points as they chase a Grand Slam, while England and Ireland both have two less, sitting on four points each.

Great rugby, great game!

By Vassili, at February 27, 2010 11:33 pm
Great game, knew Bowe and especially Earls would come good. Hope D'Arcy and O'Driscoll are alright though!

By Der Tierarzt, at February 27, 2010 11:34 pm
Great game....

Irish Defense and clinical finishing was what proved the difference

By themull, at February 27, 2010 11:38 pm
Thought Ireland could have kicked the ball more.....

By Anonymous, at February 27, 2010 11:40 pm
How Ireland avoided a yellow card in the first half with their constant infringing and penalties I will never know.

In the end they had 16 to 6 in the penalty count.

By Unknown, at February 28, 2010 12:17 am
Yeah Ireland were very sloppy in terms of discipline, ref was a bit harsh on them though....although his reversing of the penalty to ireland over the o'leary incident was ridiculous.

Took bowe off my fantasy team for Danielli.....gutted!!

By Third Centre, at February 28, 2010 12:49 am
the ref was crap he gave a penalty against heaslip coz monye kicked him in the chest and fell, the penalty count shows how biased he was

By Anonymous, at February 28, 2010 1:05 am
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By Anonymous, at February 28, 2010 1:11 am
Genevieve - maybe the penalty count was a sign that the referee was concentrating a bit too much on one side.

As an Irish fan, I think we probably deserved it, scoring three tries to a half :)

But it cold have gone either way.

By Unknown, at February 28, 2010 1:48 am
Ulster boys were excellent: Ferris was immense Bowe too. Esp Ferris - perfect game for him.
Good defense by Ireland, and England had v v little in attack. 3 tries to one. With better kickin Ireland would have been under less pressure at the end.

Ref was harsh enough on Ireland, thou by giving 16 against Ireland, and no yellow, fair enough overall.

Good use of the bench by Irl and silly by Eng to take off admittedly erratic nut still creative Care.

When ROG, Plug (sorry Leo!) and Jennings came on, turned the game.

And b4 anyone starts on Ferris as the third man in: he wasn't the third man. The first man didn't actually do anything significant. And he was worked on twice. A third man in rule (which btw I think is laudable) only counts if 1 and 2 are equally aggressive, or 'to blame' in some sense - i.e. they both act up, even if second person is only reacting. but Bowe didn't do anything other than be thrown onto ground and then pushed. (he wasn't especially slow with the ball)

England have as much imagination as (their former PM) John Major staring at a wall half asleep whilst stand up but not in a state of sleep deprivation.

Any news on the concussion or otherwise of BOD?

for those in ROI, u can now see the clips here:
http://www.rte.ie/sport/rugby/sixnations/2010/0227/highlights_av.html

Thou RD usually has better clips! these are truncated a bit, I'd say.

By mise, at February 28, 2010 1:58 am
Mise,

That would be true, except it was about the 3rd time Bowe had prevented a quick tap pen.

Plus the ref had given a pen for collapsed scrum then mentioned another pen for Bowe holding the ball, yet reverses these 2 penalty offences for 1 minor offence. I miss the days when he would have been dragged into the nearest ruck and had 8 boots go over him, kept the scrummie honest...

Aside from that, Ireland played their chances well, and England did very little with the ball, only seemed to start playing at the 75 minute marker. Too little too late. Gotta feel for Johnson though, he brings on Foden and what does the great attacking player do... kick away his first touch.

By Anonymous, at February 28, 2010 2:07 am
Talking about ref, WTF was that try given to England by video-ref?

By Anonymous, at February 28, 2010 2:15 am
the ball was shown as grounded by the BBC crew after the game, void point.

By Anonymous, at February 28, 2010 2:46 am
England were brilliant in the first 20, shame to concede int the first 5.

Defintely England try but Ireland were deserverd winners.

Just wish they would shut up at the breakdown "Release, release, release!" Let the ref make the decision.

By The Inside Shoulder, at February 28, 2010 2:53 am
Wake me up when Ireland actually wins a World Cup.........zzzzzzz

By JPM, at February 28, 2010 3:41 am
ireland are starting to really suck, you think they'll make it out of the pool stage next year?

By Anonymous, at February 28, 2010 4:01 am
Could someone from the RFU please explain to me why this is an improvement on Brian Ashton?

By FrustratedBagggers, at February 28, 2010 11:22 am
BOD is fine i think, he was walking around after the game, i think it was just precautionary

By Anonymous, at February 28, 2010 11:30 am
JPM -

Wake me up when Ireland actually wins a World Cup.........zzzzzzz

What is that supposed to mean? What does that have to do with the England-Ireland game? As it happens, England have won the world cup, but they are clearly not as good as Ireland and have not been for years (Ireland have beaten England 5 times in the last 6 games).

That's a totally foolish comment that contributes nothing to the discussion here. If you have something to say about the game, say it. Otherwise...

By Mike, at February 28, 2010 11:55 am
Good game to watch, better dynamisim and a bit of ambition about england.

Good performance by the irish amazing defence.

By goodNumber10, at February 28, 2010 12:23 pm
thought foden had a good impact when he came on couple of line breaks and a good kick wich is not his speciality even though he looked really nervous
just hope the lawe courtney replaces simon shaw for the scotland game he was awesome for saints against the tigers

By mr mallinder, at February 28, 2010 12:44 pm
Oh WOW this was so boring compared to Tahs versus Bulls.

By Big Al, at February 28, 2010 3:00 pm
Big Al -

I was also boring compared to Boston Celtics and the LA Lakers. There were way more scores in that game.

*sigh*

In the 6 nations, its about winning, not entertaining. If you lose a game, you don't get a second chance. Yesterday England had to win to have a chance at the Grand Slam. Ireland had to win to have a chance at the Triple Crown. It makes the games very tense, very exciting if you have something at stake - but not always very expansive or free-flowing. But it is this tension, a series of last-chance games, that makes it a great competition and I love it.

Other contests are less tense, have lower pressure, and produce more open games - I can also see how people would prefer that.

By Unknown, at February 28, 2010 3:11 pm
For a neutral (french), the ref let irishmen done what they wanted in the rucks without penalize them. His non-interventions were impressive!

England played far better than against Italia but I think Ireland deserved the win though.

By 3/4 centre, at February 28, 2010 3:19 pm
BIG Al! for real tahs bulls was an amazing game!!! GAVIN, what the fuck you on about bascketball, the shear fact that you know it was even played shows you are not a union fan, shut up. You know nothing,
As for the rest of you going on about a great game i think you all must be on the same shit mat stevens was sampling cos england ireland put me to sleep, never seen a ball take so long to get out of a ruck, and did england actualy offload in the tackle the whole game? im not sure cos i fel asleep. Take a hint from big al, tahs bulls game was the perfect game, put it in a box and sell it as an advert fot union. Southern hemisphere rules, nh.... well just watch tahs bulls, both teams would win six nations if they didnt fall asleep at the english rucks.

By SANZAR, at February 28, 2010 3:52 pm
PEOW PEOW , another headshot to the NH .... HA HA

By shuvle it on bob, at February 28, 2010 3:54 pm
I can never understand why some SH posters on here are so obsessed with NH rugby. If you don't like it, don't watch it. Same as I don't watch Super 14 franchises - teams with no history, playing a brand of rugby I don't like. I don't like it, I don't watch it, and I don't comment on it. I just don't care.

So please guys, we really don't care what you think. I know some people have empty lives and try to big themselves up by associating themselves with the success of others. Surely you can do something better with your time than watching a game you don't like and then whining about it on the net??

As for the game - Ireland probably value for the win, but I thought England might sneak it. Hopefully England will really take it to the French in Paris - that could be quite a game.

By Mike, at February 28, 2010 4:20 pm
Yeeeoooowww

By Anonymous, at February 28, 2010 4:31 pm
Big Al, SANZAR, shovel it on bob = same person with different tags.

Fail.

By Troll Alert, at February 28, 2010 5:15 pm
flutey and haskell were pretty much anonymous. foden HAS to start the next game. his running from the back rather than kicking changed the dynamic and gave england abit of edge.

By Anonymous, at February 28, 2010 5:45 pm
SANZAR - the reason the ball took so long to get out of the ruck was because Ireland spent the entire game slowing the ball down (mostly illegally), how they got through the game without any yellow cards is beyond me. And to those Irish fans saying the ref was biased 'as shown by the penalty count' , ALL those penalties were deserved and you were lucky not to have several players carded.

By Rob, at February 28, 2010 6:07 pm
the ruck speed is a big difference between NH and SH these days; but SH is sooo like league now, esp this year, it may as well break away and join up. ;-)

Aggressive, contested rucks are interesting - e.g. Ferris and BOD overturning ball at the breakdown. That's part of the game that's worth keeping.

By mise, at February 28, 2010 6:25 pm
yeah ireland will make it out of their pool were in a pool with italy and austrailia the usa and poibly russia or georga i dont think it will be anything like 07 if we win our pool we get wales if they come 2nd in pool d and if we come second we play prob south africa england has to play argentina then play scotland and if the win they will play france in the quarters prob and if they come 2nd they have to play all blacks so u eng fans better pray for a fuckin mericle that u win that pool other wise it will be a rough time for u but i think if u actualy attack and get a controler of the game u can get somewhere ireland have a good chance of 1st in the pool or 2nd eather way we know we are well capeable of wining the quater the rest is up to the team but lets be honnest france arent all there cracked up to be they were mad look good by irish mistakes and fumbles and the same with the welsh mistakes the welsh deserved to win that .and now i cant believe im actualy going to ay this but england its up to u to put the french down and and ah i cant believe im sayin this il be chearin 4 u that match.ah christ that was hard to type and even harder to say but i actualy hate the french and hve respect for eng better not let us down otherwise were all fucked

By Anonymous, at February 28, 2010 6:28 pm
look im a NH and il tell u SH is faster but its borin for 1 reason the abs nearly always fuckin win so wats the piont of watchin sa won this year a change but the next tri nations will be the same as all blacks win again and the S14is the only SH competition that is exiteing to watch cause anyone can win thats why the 6 nations is and im i the only 1 getting impressed by italy and cotland they are improveing admitledy scotland can win if they make better decisions like agenst wales they threw the game away but othrwise impressed with there back row

By Anonymous, at February 28, 2010 6:37 pm
Anonymous above me - have you heard of punctuation? I gave up trying to read that mess. Don't they teach this stuff in schools anymore? Do you notice how you can tell when these sentences begin and end, and whether they are questions or statements?

On another note, observe how I use paragragphs to mark when I change topic.

I hope we all have learned something from this.

(preaching fail)

By John, at February 28, 2010 6:38 pm
^^^^ Maybe he just has an excellent lung capacity, talks really fast, and writes the way he talks? Either that or he's on drugs.

By Phil, at February 28, 2010 7:08 pm
@ MIKE

England have beaten France 5 times out of the last 5 - so what? but they are no way close to being as good as France. Your stat is meaningless. Until Ireland win in the World Cup, they won't be truly 'great'.

By Edmund Scott, at February 28, 2010 9:45 pm
What a match great game!! I'm sick of this NH and SH rubbish. There was over 81,000 people at this game. Most super 14 games are half empty and the atmosphere is shite! A close contest with good try's and good defensives.

By paddy, at February 28, 2010 9:52 pm
Comrade Mongubu -

where did I, or anyone else, say that Ireland are 'truly great'? They are not, and nobody is pretending they are. The only reason I mentioned that we have beaten England 6 times out of 7 or whatever it is now is that England HAVE won the World Cup - but does that mean they are 'truly great'? (although I would argue that the team from 7 years ago was a great England team)

I don't understand your point. You are disagreeing with something that nobody said.

And I personally don't think Ireland will ever win the World Cup - rugby is a small-time sport here, behind soccer, Gaelic Football and Hurling, and our population to start with is about as small as New Zealand's where rugby isn't just the number one game, it's a religion.

So what should we do? Say 'hey, we'll never win the world cup, let's never play rugby again!' Or do we try to do the best we can with the resources we have?

/end of rant :)

By Mike, at February 28, 2010 10:15 pm
I remember the days when you could come onto this site and talk about the game instead of listen to people bitch.

Those were the good old days.

By Anonymous, at February 28, 2010 11:31 pm
I remember the days when you could come onto this site and talk about the game instead of listen to people bitch.

Those were the good old days.

Agreed. Why do we have these idiotic 'SH is better'/your team is crap 'debates' every freaking time. Total waste of breath.

By Unknown, at March 01, 2010 12:36 am
The last 10 minutes of this game were absolutely gripping. I don't think I've ever been so nervous. And England were mauling their way to the line, and then...held up, turnover, scrum Ireland. But then there was the lineout and the defending, God I was shaking. I don't know what it was like for a neutral, but it made my weekend.

Ditto for the end of Italy vs Scotland.

By Kearney for tests, at March 01, 2010 1:02 am
Rugby Dump comments section........more fights than french rugby....

By Anonymous, at March 01, 2010 1:44 am
lol......actually thats a good point i just made...at least we're finally off the french conspiracy topics!!!

By Anonymous, at March 01, 2010 1:45 am
awesome game, enjoyed every minute of it, but like one of the posts above I was shaking with nerves for the last 10 mins.
Bowe is a legend, Earls has endeared himself to me greatly, Ferris is unreal I hope he can stay injury free.

By Anonymous, at March 01, 2010 4:49 am
am i the only one to have found the ref really odd in that match? he kept whistling defensive offsides around the side of the ruck but never actually took a look at the ruck itself! ireland slowed every single ball down, that's what won them the game (that and shit english tackling). As an englishman i was dissapointed at first, but looking back on it, the irish simply took advantage of the refereeing, credit to them. (still pissed off that we lost though)

By maxo, at March 01, 2010 11:38 am
British nerds and Italians won't stop France. 6-nation bosses need to bring in Bulls to do the job. :)

By viva africa, at March 01, 2010 12:44 pm
Umm, no... rugby is huge in Ireland, quite possibly bigger than Gaylick football. No excuses, spark plug! The Irish LOVE their rugby.

By Anonymous, at March 01, 2010 12:47 pm
^Your some muppet
My home county has a population of 50'000 and one rugby club. Ireland has a very small player base compared to it's national sport Gealic and soccer dickhead. Your getting confused between playing and supporting.

By paddy, at March 01, 2010 1:05 pm
Paddy,

Don't feed the troll mate.

By Unknown, at March 01, 2010 1:15 pm
That said mate, he does have a point. Rugby is arguably the biggest sport in Ireland, it has really grown over the last 10 years. It's just that the Irish are naturally more "runt-ier" than their superior English and Welsh neighbours. This is due to centuries of rabid inbreeding.

By Gavin, at March 01, 2010 1:59 pm
its brilliant that super 14 is racking up 60 point games week in week out,bring that same game to a test in the summer and see how far it gets the teams.Test rugby is about intensity,not a glorified game of tip rugby

By BODisgod, at March 01, 2010 2:35 pm
'That said mate, he does have a point. Rugby is arguably the biggest sport in Ireland, it has really grown over the last 10 years. It's just that the Irish are naturally more "runt-ier" than their superior English and Welsh neighbours. This is due to centuries of rabid inbreeding.'

wow......that was a bit strong, no? Funny to see that stupid comments have now spread into registered members...

By Anonymous, at March 01, 2010 2:37 pm
"I remember the days when you could come onto this site and talk about the game instead of listen to people bitch.

Those were the good old days.

Agreed. Why do we have these idiotic 'SH is better'/your team is crap 'debates' every freaking time. Total waste of breath."

Agreed!

By cp85, at March 01, 2010 2:52 pm
I should have been starting at ten for Ireland, when will Kidney recognise my skill!!!

That said.....Up yours england, you have been awful since you won the world cup, your media consistantly hypes you up better than you are, wilkinson is not your savior and despite statistics from when he was good, he has not been good in a long long time. Stop taking all your information from the bias BBC panel who know nothing, The current English team is a joke who play a boring game plan, of kick kick kick kick......maul.....kick kick kick, get some Flair in your game like earls and the king...aka. tommy bowe. Nice try by the way england...you will make up the barbarians team showing running rugby like that...pause....nat.
also whats with ugo monye kicking up and unders, running into a player and falling over, is he looking to play with england in the football world cup?
also Ferris would kill Haskel in a fight, first man was o'leary, second man was english 9 (some rat attacking from behind) then ferris in as thirds man, then bothwick came in, so peno defo to ireland.
England = Epic Fail
Ireland = Epic Win

also read in a paper..."Ireland destroy English hopes for Grand slam"

thats a laugh, did England actually really think they could get a grand slam, thats a laugh, they really are delusional.

The End.

BOD = legend

By Ross O'Carroll-Kelly, at March 01, 2010 2:58 pm
"England have beaten France 5 times out of the last 5 - so what?"

Sorry but England won only 3 times in the last 5 England/Fra...

But as a french rugby fan, I know that even when England plays "bad" in the tournament, they rise up their rugby level against France... Wilkinson will play his better game of the tournament against France. It's always like that. I can't wait for this game, for our revenge!

"lets be honnest france arent all there cracked up to be they were mad look good by irish mistakes and fumbles and the same with the welsh mistakes the welsh deserved to win that .and now i cant believe im actualy going to ay this but england its up to u to put the french down and and ah i cant believe im sayin this il be chearin 4 u that match.ah christ that was hard to type and even harder to say but i actualy hate the french and hve respect for eng better not let us down otherwise were all fucked"

waoh, I think you have to accept your defeat!! Yes, Ireland made mistakes and France not. We were simply better on this game. I wonder what some french people have done to you for being hated like that...

By 3/4 centre, at March 01, 2010 3:12 pm
Yawn! sick to the teeth of all these moaning our competition is better than your competition arguments.
Why cant people just talk about the game in hand? To many arseholes with an ego to fuel.
Did anyone else notice how many times Mark Lawerence got in the way? Its pretty bad to be an international referee and getting in the way of the play constantly.

By Stop Moaning (sounding like a bunch of footballers), at March 01, 2010 3:13 pm
absolutely not surprise that some players wants to hit Ferris on a rugby field... He's a fuckin agitator on and out the field

By Anonymous, at March 01, 2010 3:23 pm
Ferris is an agitator alright. He was responsible for 15% of all Ireland's tackles in that game, and he is famous for being a very hard hitter. I don't think it is a bad thing to be an agitator on the pitch? I think it would be bad if guys loved to play against you - then you have a big problem.

By the way, I don't think the problem was people hitting Ferris, the problem was people sticking fingers into his brain or stamping on him. I don't think anyone has a big problem with hitting :)

Congratulations to France, who should now win the 6 Nations without a problem - they are definitely the best team in the competition this year.

By Unknown, at March 01, 2010 3:42 pm
Good win for Ireland - shouldn't have left it so close though.

The penalty count being mentioned above (16-6) was heavily influenced by possession stats obviously. Also a couple of fairly harsh calls (the one v Heaslip for getting Monye's studs in his chest was wierd).

I didn't think there was any given penalty which merited a yellow card against Ireland - showed pretty good defensive discipline in the red zone.

If you wanted to look at yellows, that high & late shot by Armitage against Sexton following the kick through for the first try was ridiculous and cheap. On an irrelevant note, Armitage has form v Ireland anyway. More substantively he should be cited for it.

By Eoghan, at March 01, 2010 3:42 pm
yeah also the penalty for tackling care was harsh considering he was tackled after the required distance.

Armitage has been quite disappointing recently.

What do any England fans think the chances are of Foden starting next time ?

By Third Centre, at March 01, 2010 4:00 pm
Im an Irish fan and i cant see what all the hype is about. Average game with an exciting ending sums it up for me to be honest. I think alot of people commenting here are "Fans" and have never actually played the game.Some ridiculous comments being made that suggests this. Ireland showed great heart but i reckon they got there by the skin of their teeth. They were in their own 22 for the last 5 mins of the game and had there been another set piece i think the outcome couldve of been very different.As for the World cup....I wont be holding my breath!!

By Unknown, at March 01, 2010 4:16 pm
paddy 87, im not sure what country you've been living in for the last 5 - 10 years but rugby is almost certainly the biggest sport in Ireland at the moment, far more so than gaelic and soccer

By Anonymous, at March 01, 2010 4:45 pm
I'm English.

England got a leg up on other teams in the late 1980s because they embraced the sports science and fitness regimes under Geoff Cooke and they were simply bigger, faster and stronger than other European teams. This was enough to usually beat Scotland, Ireland and wales, with the odd exception. Although they had less skill than France they could simply turn the screw on them and starve them of ball. That's why between 1989 and 1995 England beat France 8 times in a row, 7 times in the 5 nations and once more in the 1991 World Cup. Ackford used to say that if you could weather the Irish storm in the first 1/2 hour or so they would tire and you could put them away. That's no longer the case.

Professionalism means that the top teams are all fit and these old differecnes have gone.

Also England had 2 'golden eras' when they did produce a number of world class players, culminating in learning how to win and get to the 1991 WCUp final and finally winning it in 2003.

These things come and go in cycles and right now England simply are not producing these players.

I have no problem with foreign players in the Prem, but when you have a side like Saracens which is full of South Africans....it certianly doesn't help the national team. Look at the Irish teams. Munster and Leinster do have 2 or 3 foreign players but the majority of the team is Irish.

By JPM, at March 01, 2010 4:51 pm
Arian,

To beat the English in their own backyard is nothing to turn your nose up at. Also they say the best form of defense is a good offense, but having played the game myself for a number of years, I find that the best offense can be a good defense. The Irish defense was better than good, I'm not sure how many turnovers, but 99 tackles with 1 missed is phenonminal. The conditions weren't good for ball handling yet we managed to score 3 lovely tries and IMHO, never really looked like loosing that match, we seemed comfortable soaking up the pressure as the confidence was there to go back down the field and score.

I'll definitely be at the next world cup, you say you know rugby, look at the experience we have with the incoming talents of Healy, Cronin, Heaslip, Ferris, O'Brien, O'Leary, Sexton, Bowe, Kearney, Fitzgearld, Earls. All we have to do is beat the Aussies, which is very doable, and we'll be plain sailing to the semis.

By Darren, at March 01, 2010 5:32 pm
I'm an England fan and I'd definitely like to see Foden start. He seems much more dynamic and exciting as a runner.

By Phil, at March 01, 2010 6:15 pm
Anonymous 3 above me - having actually played the game at schools level (in Cork) and followed the game for more than 20 years, I can tell you that it is nowhere near as popular in terms of audience or participants as the 3 main field sports in Ireland. In Cork, there are 2 rugby schools. In all of Cork, the biggest county in the country! Outside Christians and Pres, you have a couple of schools where the game is on the same level as the ping-pong team (e.g. Rochestown, Bandon). And that's about it. When I was playing under 14s in CBC, we didn't have enough players for a B team - and that was before loads of guys quit due to studies etc. And that is in one of the strongholds of the game in Munster. You also have a few decent schools in Limerick (Munchins, Crescent, Castletroy), plus Rockwell in Tipperary. And that's it. For all of Munster. How many schools in Munster are GAA schools? 200?

I think what is going on here is that people are confusing the phenomenon of bandwagon fans following a team enjoying some success with a game (like soccer or GAA football) where there is massive participation at underage level. As soon as we lose a few games or Munster and Leinster slump, we'll see pretty clearly whether its 'the biggest game' or not. I think I already know the answer. (having said that, I wish you were right)

JPM - good points re. England's fitness & professionalism.

By Mike, at March 01, 2010 6:17 pm
anyone else think that bowes second try was o gara??

By The Caped Crusader, at March 01, 2010 6:26 pm
Dear John I dont use full stops because we are on the internet and I have no fuckin intention of being formal.But if you wish me to waste my time puting a fuckin dot down I will in spite.As for the person under John,I dont use drugs and have a excellent lung capacity.Oh and I can talk non stop about rugby.Oh and you cant make paragraphs while typing on a playstation 3,bet you feal like a retard huh.i dident meen any insult to the SH when typing anonymous your rugby is quicker than ours.When I said it's boring I ment that mostly one team wins not that it is boring rugby.Justed wanted to clear that up

By ciaran, at March 01, 2010 6:50 pm
Darren could not agree more!

By Conor, at March 01, 2010 8:37 pm
"JPM said...
I have no problem with foreign players in the Prem, but when you have a side like Saracens which is full of South Africans....it certianly doesn't help the national team. Look at the Irish teams. Munster and Leinster do have 2 or 3 foreign players but the majority of the team is Irish."

This is true and its great to see, but Ireland only have 1 first team international (Tommy Bowe) actually playing outside the country and because of this you have possibly world class players in the making like, Denis Hurley(Munster), Ian Dowling (Munster), Fergus Mc Fadden (Leinster), Sean O' Brien (Leinster), Mike Ross (Leinster), Devin Toner(Leinster), Donnacha Ryan(Munster). Who sit on the bench week in week out because they can't put up a fight against the likes of BOD, Paul O' Connell, CJ Van Der Linder, John Hayes, Shane Jennings, etc etc. But that in turn leaves the young lads without experience for the big games. So although I wouldn't like to have 14, 15 teams in Ireland it would be nice to have another 1 at least.

By Conor, at March 01, 2010 8:51 pm
Id like to point out i only took into account Leinster and Munster sorry to all Ulster fans you guys also have some good talent seening the bench because of Irish internationals seening first team spots!

By Conor, at March 01, 2010 8:54 pm
just in response to mike above. I've got to say I think you're way off the mark. You say that there are only 2 rugby schools of any repute in cork, thats nonsense, and just to give you an indication of how broad the appeal is. I've been playing since I was a child. I played in Tralee which is about as out of the way as it gets and we've always been able to put out two teams at every age level. This is also at a pretty good standard given that we have a couple of guys who I played underage with now in the munster academy. I also played for trinity where we would easily put out 4 senior teams overy week as well as 2 under 20's teams and a ladies team.
Also is there another sport in the country that consistently attracts the crowds that munster and leinster do. Sure GAA gets a few big games a year but thats it, whereas in terms of the consistent strength of support leinster are probably the best supported rugby team in Europe.

By Anonymous, at March 01, 2010 8:59 pm
Anonymous above, Trinity have 4 teams, Stellenbosch College in south Africa has, wait for it, 64 rugby teams, no shit.

To conor re. up and coming players not getting their game. Let me just quote ya:- "Denis Hurley(Munster), Ian Dowling (Munster), Fergus Mc Fadden (Leinster), Sean O' Brien (Leinster), Mike Ross (Leinster), Devin Toner(Leinster), Donnacha Ryan(Munster). Who sit on the bench week in week out because they can't put up a fight against the likes of BOD, Paul O' Connell, CJ Van Der Linder, John Hayes, Shane Jennings, etc etc."

You're obviously one of these "fans" that doesn't think the Magners league is up to the required standard of rugby to be entertaining, because all these players play week in week out, so I haven't or you haven't a clue what you're on about. Good man!

By Darren, at March 01, 2010 9:39 pm
most of you are a bunch of whiners

this match was quite boring

By remember, at March 01, 2010 9:56 pm
Eoghan, can't believe you're the 1st to mention it.

Completely agree with you about Armitage's charge on Sexton, and think he deserves a citing. No arms and late. Sexton was banged up and it clearly affected his conversion attempt.

Would have been interesting if it hadn't lead to a try, if it was noticed by the officials. Similar in a way to O'Driscoll's drop goal last year, when it was clear an Eng player (Armitage again I think), was about to be binned for offence and ref forgot after drop goal.

Also agree with some of the comments re: boring game. As a spectacle, no it wasn't exactly edge of seat stuff (bar last 10 and after Earls try when Eng got momentum). But, then again the Tri Nations didn't set the world alight last year. As most have pointed out, Internationals are closer, tighter more pressurised affairs.

England threw the ball about all day between their own 22 and 10m lines, yet the minute they got into Ire's half, they changed to pick and drive.

Eng fans saying Ireland slowed down ball, well of course they did. When you've got slow plodding forwards not clearing out rucks that tends to happen.

Some of above may seem out of context, I kept going back adding more. Mae Culpa.

By Huh!! the 3rd, at March 01, 2010 10:28 pm
What a boring match, NH rugby is boring

By Anonymous, at March 01, 2010 10:40 pm
Hi - to the anonymous guy above who disputes that there are only two serious rugby schools in Cork, answer me this question: when did a Cork school other than CBC or PBC win the Munster Senior or Junior Cup? Answer? Never.

And as I said before, please do not confuse bumper crowds turning up for big Munster or Leinster games with the fact that almost any county in Ireland (there's 32!) could get a crowd of 30,000 for a big GAA or hurling game.

And do not confuse the numbers watching a game with the numbers playing! Right now we have decent numbers watching rugby, very few participants.

By Mike, at March 01, 2010 11:09 pm
SH rugby is so much easier to play in, for the majority of the NH season its either lashing rain or in this seasons case frozen by snow. in the SH the super 14's is played in perfect conditions for running rugby, the only things you guys give out about is it being too hot...boo hoo. NZ is the only SH country playing rugby that gets the weather similar to that experienced by the NH countries, and at that its only during the tri nations that this weather comes around, and thats when SH rugby isnt all is cracked up to be.
Plus id rather have average matches and then a few exceptional games that you'll always remember, club or country, NH rugby isnt just a game the fans know how to support their team, create an atmosphere, something which is surprisingly lacking in the SH game, considering you have the best teams, and i'll readily admit that, you may aswell be watching the game on TV at home coz the SH fans contribute nothing at all to a game. the best thing about SH fans is that fact that the girls are very hot, and never mind your "cheer leaders" coz you guys never cheer...they're basically tame strippers...which is probably why not people go to Sh games

back to what we should really discuss the game...ireland played well, england played well, but were unlucky. it was the best game of the 6N weekend i thought. the irish scrum was crap, but we expect that anyway. armitage was in with another late hit this year, this time on sexton. we were lucky to get the penalty that lead to the earls try but you take what you get. ireland were just more clinical on the day, if only the same could be said of us in paris the championship could look a lot different at the moment if we were

By Anonymous, at March 01, 2010 11:13 pm
i think leinster munster and ulster should send their young players who cant break into the first team to connaught, have them as an up and coming irish team. at the moment in all fairness connaught dont have top class players and their best seem to have come from other provinces, namely ian keatly and sean cronin. now worryingly they seem to be taking in more SH players. keatly is excelling in the west, he basically beat leinster last year all by himself. by putting the younguns in connaught they can develop their talents get match time, and play in the challenge cup against quality english and french teams who should be in the heiniken cup. and the irfu wouldnt have to spend money to SH players who wont be able to or be good enough to play for ireland

By Unknown, at March 01, 2010 11:24 pm
to be fair terry that has happened the odd time with Keatley and Carr there from Leinster but the bigger 3 provinces do seem to want to keep everything in-house with their academy and A teams.

IT would be a great idea though. Or maybe even do a bit of a John Hayes on it and send a few down to New Zealand to get a different view on things.

By Third Centre, at March 02, 2010 12:08 am
Ireland got lucky, they were dominated in most facets. They're an average and aging side.

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2010 12:35 am
"You're obviously one of these "fans" that doesn't think the Magners league is up to the required standard of rugby to be entertaining, because all these players play week in week out, so I haven't or you haven't a clue what you're on about. Good man!"

Too Right Darren.As for your comment on the the world cup and beating the aussies down South.I'm not convinced im afraid.Yes i cant deny that we have some great talent coming through but until i see an Irish team go down and take it to them up front with the same aggression and intensity i will not be convinced.It is a different game down there and we all know they have absolutley no respect for us especially when we travel down there.

By Unknown, at March 02, 2010 12:44 am
To the dude arguing that Rugby is more popular than GAA- you're wrong. Totally wrong.

I come from Limerick, and I can personally tell you that Rugby is even't the biggest sport here...and there's probably a far higher percentage of people playing here than anywhere else in the country.

I'll give you an example. I'm sitting here at a computer in Castletroy, which is probably the rugby heartland of Limerick. Within four square miles of me, there is only one rugby team, UL Bohemians, which has three senior men's teams. Within the same vicinity, there are no fewer than four GAA clubs, each with no less than two senior men's teams. The discrepancies are even bigger in some other areas of the county.

Now you take a county like Waterford, which has maybe three rugby clubs in the entire county, noe of which has more than three senior men's teams...contrasted with 51 GAA clubs, each with at least two to four senior men's teams in Football OR Hurling, and this situation is FAR more representative of the country than Limerick, it is pretty clear that Rugby is nowhere near as popular a sport in terms of sheer playing numbers as either of the two GAA sports.

By Michael, at March 02, 2010 12:49 am
paddy87 said...
A close contest with good try's and good defensives.

Both aspects of the game as shown on the highlights looked very average to me.
The spelling is well below average.

By RNH, at March 02, 2010 1:46 am
rugbydump. love this site..... but... i live now in asia and dont get to see much live rugby.. so i need this web-site.. but 3 minutes highlights!?... come on... 6 minutes at least... please...

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2010 3:35 am
btw... all thick paddy cu*ts above... no one wants to read your life story.. so keep it to a minimum boys please. (I am also Irish I'm embarrassed to say so relax on the patriotic ramblings)
mullas

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2010 3:43 am
@Huh the 3rd yep I thought it would get more notice (Armitage's shot on Sexton - the angle I saw on the replays looked like he caught him with his elbow/lower arm above the neck.

@this anonymous person :

"Ireland got lucky, they were dominated in most facets. They're an average and aging side."

Hee Hee *hiccup*...dominated. Sure. Lineout, defensively, offensively, one-on-one match ups, units - we were taken apart. Very lucky to only miss one tackle and outscore England 3 tries to 1 in the circumstances.

Other interesting stats - Ball Won in opposing 22 England 7 Ireland 9. Turnovers won England 1 Ireland 8. Line Breaks Ireland 4 England 1 (bear in mind we only had 19 mins of possession v 28 for England on that one - including only 8 in the second half).

eh I'm not going to talk about the scrum much though. Or the total lack of an off-loading game.

By Eoghan, at March 02, 2010 9:24 am
Mullas - I think you may be confusing personal experience with 'life stories', and tbh I don't see a whole lot of 'patriotic ramblings'. But thanks for your valuable conribution to the discussion.

By Unknown, at March 02, 2010 10:12 am
"paddy 87, im not sure what country you've been living in for the last 5 - 10 years but rugby is almost certainly the biggest sport in Ireland at the moment, far more so than gaelic and soccer"

You are having a laugh right?

What country do you live in? GAA and hurling account for 60%ish of all attendence to sporting events in Ireland and if you are sharing the other 40% with soccer and varoius other sports. I think you need to get you facts straight man!

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2010 10:31 am
And could someone explain to me how crowds turning up to watch would help you if you have a tiny number of players?

WTF do fans have to do with playing strength?

*face palm*

By John, at March 02, 2010 11:11 am
lol watch tony buckley in the line out for the last try; (hes at the end of the line out) he totally blocks the rest of the english line getting to O Leary before he passes to Bowe.

Looks totally inoccuous (sorry about the spelling) but is definitely deliberate.

Clever forward play by a not so clever forward!!

By Kenny, at March 02, 2010 11:38 am
@Darren I don't think the magners league is not up to scratch or what ever you implied. I think the magners is a great league! I just think that compared to the likes of the development of some of the french players Ireland are second best. Like answer me this when was the last time Mike Ross started for Leinster. Fergus Mc Fadden is surely going to the bench when O'Driscoll and D'Arcy are back. Yes they play week in week out but they don't start and if they do they don't last the 80minutes. Ok Ian Dowling and Denis Hurley are acceptions but the like od Conway who made his debut two weeks ago against Scarlets i was at this match and the (on TV i can't remember seening it on RD)didn't show half of his work! he prevented a scarlets try at the death single handedly and set up sexton for his try. Like what will happen to him when Fitzgerald is back??

By Conor, at March 02, 2010 11:52 am
happy to see armitage get smashed,dirty prick was hitting players late in this game and the last time ireland played them.nice tackle by o driscoll on flutey

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2010 12:53 pm
damn, mullas above needs to take a valium or something and chill out, no need for that kind of spitefulness here

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2010 3:18 pm
@ Conor,

Well we'll have to agree to disagree. Now that Buckley has been drafted into the Irish squad, Mike Ross should get a starting berth on the Wolfhounds side, as he has been getting off the bench appearances so far, hence why he's been missing from Leinster recently. Granted he should be playing more for Leinster, but I think we can all agree that we have a serious lack of class props in Ireland. With regard to the other players, Fergus McFadden is top class as he showed everyone in the Churchill cup last year and will get plenty of Magners League games, but how can Darcy or Drico be dropped for Heineken Cup games? Irish development has rivaled any countries development in recent years, (hence our blusprint has been adopted by Wales) and our success will just attract younger talents to the game. I personally feel that the new generation of Irish rugby player may eclipse the "golden generation". And these up and coming players are keeping our present world call players on their toes. It's a 4 year cycle, they'll get their chance after NZ if they continue to develop, and playing/training with the current intls can only be a major benefit. The fact that we have Connaught to develop young players and give them a taste of European rugby (as clos as you'll get to test rugby) is another major benefit to Irish rugby development.

By Darren, at March 02, 2010 6:36 pm
Ok no yeah you pretty much got everything right there! :)

By Conor, at March 02, 2010 6:43 pm
Terrible highlights. The game was no classic but have enough incidents to warrant more than 3 minutes highlights.What about O'Connell knocking BOD out!

By Anonymous, at March 02, 2010 7:33 pm
Rare off game for Sexton, I'd say. I know some people say the tackle put him off - maybe so, but he looked a little shaken, whatever it was.

Glad to see ROG come on and do well, though.

By pio, at March 03, 2010 7:17 am
Ireland and England, two third rates teams, yawn

By Anonymous, at March 03, 2010 10:33 am
A fourth rate contribution, yawn.

By John, at March 03, 2010 10:56 am
Another idiot posts a stupid comment that has nothing to do with anything in the game, yawn

By Kenny, at March 03, 2010 5:14 pm
http://www.screwyouamy.com/index.php?c=viral&m=index&id=8040090d000a160ca843e2e28081d843

By Anonymous, at March 03, 2010 10:48 pm
The ref was definately paid in lucky charms. Some shocking calls and misses..

By Anonymous, at March 04, 2010 1:39 am
42-6. Thats how to win at Twickenham.....

By Anonymous, at March 04, 2010 3:32 pm
Ross O Carel-Kelly, you just stooped to England's level with that comment on Haskell....oops???!!!!! Indeed!! Christ there are some moaners and gloaters on this thread!!!!!! As for England's 'over-hyped' media.... the same in every other nations media!!! People who disagree need to travel a bit. Read an Aussie sports paper, or New Zealand paper commenting on the upcoming all blacks game, that will put things into perspective!! Respect in rugby amongst differing fans today? NOPE!!

Ah, miss the good old days when players and fans alike all had respect for the fellows of this great game!!

By Alexander, at March 05, 2010 2:37 am
Alexander

what do you mean? Aussie and NZ media are so one eyed!!! I've been in Oz for 2 years and have been in NZ for a total of 8 weeks on holidays and I have taken in a fair amount of rugby and rugby media in both countries. The most striking thing about it is the unwarrented arrogance and condascending opinions directed at every other union or region other than the one that the imbacile pundit is from!

By Anonymous, at March 05, 2010 5:22 pm
That was my point. They're very one-eyed and have little respect for other nations. So when people say England have an over-hyped arrogant media...well, try reading a paper down there!!! UK papers are far more objective. What I hate about English media is how they slate the English players till no more negativity can possibly be said!!

By Alexander, at March 05, 2010 8:12 pm
Sorry I misunderstood, I thought you meant that aussie media was unbiased and fair... as if :D

By Anonymous, at March 06, 2010 7:11 am