Wales v Ireland player ratings
- 4 Feb 07, 06:07 PM
Millennium Stadium- I witnessed at first hand the thrills and spills of Sunday's Six Nations clash in Cardiff. See if you agree with my ratings for players on both sides.
Wales
K Morgan - 8. Wales鈥 biggest counter-attacking threat; pulled off a stunning, try-saving tackle on O鈥橠riscoll.
H Luscombe - 4. Luscombe鈥檚 talents in the centre are often unfairly criticised, but he showed again that he lacks the pace of an international wing and is only an emergency stand-in in the role.
J Robinson 鈥 5. Although Robinson offers genuine pace at 13 there was a lack of penetration from the Wales three-quarter line.
J Hook 鈥 6. Flashes of his attacking skill came through, but he struggled to handle D鈥橝rcy鈥檚 physicality and had a crucial second-half clearance kick charged down.
C Czekaj 鈥 6. Recovered well from a nightmare start and was unfortunate to be denied a superb try by Simon Easterby鈥檚 illegal intervention.
S Jones - 6. The first-minute charge-down aside, Jones kicked well and probed for the gaps. Failed to really cut open the visitors鈥 defence, though.
D Peel 鈥 8. After a disappointing autumn Peel is back to the form that saw him lauded as the world's best scrum-half. Always a threat, the impetus that Peel brings to the game marks Wales at their best.
G Jenkins 鈥 5. A quiet game when so much was expected from the Lions prop. Struggled when moved to the tight-head in the second half.
R Thomas 鈥 5. A generally solid game was spoilt by too many missed line-outs. Those errors simply cannot be sustained in the international game.
C Horsman - 4. Was brought in to destroy the Ireland scrum and 鈥 despite applying pressure 鈥 could not complete the task. Gave away a needless penalty to O鈥橤ara.
I Gough 鈥 6. A trademark, grafting performance from Gough. Unusual to see him fall off a couple of tackles, though 鈥揳nd he should definitely abandon thoughts of a kicking game.
A Wyn Jones 鈥 9. Confirmed the talent everyone believed he had with a phenomenal performance. More than held his own in the tight against Ireland鈥檚 vaunted Lions locks and was everywhere in the loose.
A Popham 鈥 8. Put in a big performance, catching the eye with his ball-carrying and heavy tackling.
M Williams 鈥 6. Smooth linking work and some good steals on the floor. Somewhat quieter than usual though.
R Jones 鈥 7. Did some real damage with his driving with ball in hand. A little more subdued after his eye injury.
Replacements:
M Rees 鈥 6. A good steal on the floor after his introduction, but he also missed a line-out.
D Jones 鈥 5. Wales would have hoped for a more dynamic impact from the bench from Jones.
R Sidoli 鈥 6. Shrugged off any rustiness in his short time on the pitch.
Gavin Thomas 鈥 5. Had little time to impress.
M Phillips 鈥 6. Came on too late to make an impression and had a tough act to follow in Peel.
A Brew 鈥 6. Looked keen, confident and eager to impress in his first 20 minutes of Test rugby.
Ireland
G Dempsey 鈥 5. Struggled to get to grips with Stephen Jones鈥 kicking and looked somewhat off the pace.
A Trimble 鈥 6. Looked dangerous with ball in hand 鈥 but that rarely happened.
B O'Driscoll 鈥 7. O鈥橠riscoll is not firing at the top of his game, but he showed the ability of a great player by charging down to create the first try and finishing lethally for the second.
G D'Arcy 鈥 9. Confirmed his pre-tournament billing as the form centre in Europe. An outstanding attacking force who gave James Hook a harsh introduction to the Six Nations.
D Hickie 鈥 6. Came close to a first-half try, but was generally subdued.
R O'Gara 鈥 7. A real curate鈥檚 egg of a game. O鈥橤ara had an awful first half, looking hesitant and kicking poorly. But he rallied after the break and seized control as Ireland built towards the fly-half鈥檚 decisive try.
P Stringer 鈥 6. Nothing more than solid. Ireland missed the attacking impetus provided by Isaac Boss鈥 dynamic running in the autumn.
M Horan - 6. Just about contained the danger of Horsman at the scrum, but it meant Horan was less prominent than usual in broken play.
R Best 鈥 7. Angered Welsh fans with his laborious line-out technique, but got the job done professionally and accurately.
J Hayes 鈥 6. Under pressure at the scrum, but used all his experience and knowledge to twist and turn, frustrating Wales鈥 game plan.
D O'Callaghan - 5. Gave away too many penalties, living on the edge and lucky not to be sin-binned.
P O'Connell 鈥 6. A strangely subdued performance from the Irish giant who was overshadowed by Wales鈥 young buck Wyn Jones.
S Easterby 鈥 7. An illegal challenge on Czekaj summed up Easterby鈥檚 contribution. He got away with that, and with plenty of work on the floor to frustrate Wales鈥 attacking tempo.
D Wallace 鈥 7. Always a ball-carrying threat, the Munster open-side also showed his ball-playing skills to keep the home defence honest.
D Leamy 鈥 9. The pick of three outstanding number eights on the pitch. Leamy gave the complete performance, emphasising the better all-round balance in the Ireland back-row.
Replacements:
J Flannery 鈥 6. Good to see the outstanding hooker back from injury.
G Murphy 鈥 7. Looked the biggest attacking threat of any of Ireland鈥檚 back-three players and had a key role in the O鈥橠riscoll try.
Wales 27-18 England
Comments Post your comment
Perhaps it would be better if it wasn't a Welshman doeing the ratings.
The comments on Easterby are harsh!
If he'd been in a Welsh shirt he might have got man of the match!
Like J Davies commentary on the Beeb it is too one sided!
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Geordan Murphy - 10 for being a top-class blood-replacement.
That is how far this Irish team have come.
Dodgy front-row eh ? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
They won the match for us - back-row were crap - except for De Darcy fella - who is fast becoming the one of the best centres in the World. No agrument there. Well, ye can argue amongst yourselves, but I won't listen.
I have been watching him play for Leinster for years. He's the one that makes BOD look good and BOD knows it. SSSShhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Don't tell anyone, it's a wee secret
The best is yet to come.
Leinster mad in the Netherlands.
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I think Easterby's rating is more than fair enough. Ireland should have recieved at least one yellow card during this game; they simply couldn't handle Wales' attacking play in the first half, resorting to slowing the ball down when Wales had clear numerical advantage. I'm rarely one to complain, but many refereeing decisions went against Wales- the scoreline could have been so very different if decisions had gone their way. All in all, Ireland didn't look like 6 nations winners today; their scrummaging was poor, and they will certainly struggle against a strong english side. welsh fans, on the other hand, have much to look forward to this world cup, with several U-21's coming through this year.
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A Win is a Win is a Win.
Ireland lived on the edge of the rules a lot of the time and got away with it. We will hardly conplaim. Out two big names, BOD and POC, were quiet but Darcy and Leamy carried the fight to wales and eventaully were the two who really won the day for Ireland.
Roll on next week and a first day out in Croke Park.
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Not wanting to sound biased but I thought Ireland looked ordinary after some of the great wins they had in the Autumn. Wales were their own worse enemies with some costly errors during the game. I think both teams will learn from this match and improve during the tournament.
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Well done to ireland and new zealand team effort today !!! . i would be embarrassed to take that as a win
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To the John Cooke fella.
You've been watching D'Arcy playing for years and you reckon he plays in the back-row! Must be a different 'Darcy'.
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Would have to give Easterby a 3 or 4. The number of times he killed welsh ball was incredible! But, he got caught, and the only reason he was still on the field is because the ref forgot his cards. The Czekai incidden for me sums up the irish rugby attitude atm...kill all opposition ball and play the ref with little regard to the actual laws of the game. If they get away with it, fine, but people are starting to think that the luck of the irish is quite real... It was pretty poor by the welsh, why oh why do we always make things so difficult for ourselves!?!? Well played Ireland?...Not so sure, we'll have to wait for the France match, who look pretty tasty themselves.
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The comments above about the refereeing performance is reserved in the extreme. His performance was diabolical. It's one thing to be street wise but another to be cynical and negative as the the Irish were. A stronger and more competent referee would have identified the problem area of the breakdown. Thats the problem of using these premadona referees from the southern hemisphere. An English refere would have identified this persistent tactic from the Irish, as they see it every week in their league, and yellow cards would have been shown. The WRU should mae an offcial complaint regarding this referees performance. With regards to Easterby, he committed two blatant professonal fowls - kicking the ball out of Peels hand whilst he was still on the floor and tackling Cjeka without the ball, and he should have been sent off, simple as that!
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My scores are:
K. Morgan - 8
Luscombe - 4
Robinson - 5
Hook - 6
Czekaj - 6
Jones S - 6
Peel - 9
G Jenkins - 6
R Thomas - 5
Horsman - 5
I Gough - 7
A Wyn Jones - 9
Popham - 8
R Jones - 8
Williams - 6
- - - - - -
M Reesd - 5
D Jones - 5
Sidoli - 6
G Thomas - 5
Phillips - 6
Brew - 6
***
Ireland:
Dempsey - 6
Trimble - 5
D'Arcy - 9
O Driscoll -7
Hickie - 6
O'Gara - 6 [an extra point for the try].
Stringer - 5
Horan - 7
R Best - 5 [minus a point for time-wasting]
Hayes - 5
O Connell - 6
O' Callaghan - 4 [ why wasn't he sin binned in the first half and sent off in the second half???]
Easterby - 6 [ should have been sent off]
Wallace - 7
Leamy - 7
THE REFEREE - oh dear, excellent for 80% of the game but some simply dreadful decisions. which should keep him awake at nights.
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Geordan Murphy's amazing kick and catch and offload in the same movement leading to Bod's try was pure class. Why he wasn't in the starting line up I don't know?
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Wales had 2 things against them today. The first, yet another Southern Hemisphere referee who is simply not good enough for a local club game. When are we going to stop appointing these officials for our championship when they clearly do not understand the meaning of forward passes, professional fouls and scrummage laws?
The second, if we do get a weak referee again then a player from the opposite team who is deliberately killing the ball and slowing down our attacking play should have the shirt RUCKED off his back. The players and coaching staff need to get nasty - legal rucking is a skill that is fast disappearing in Wales. Unless we get that mentality back into our players, the streetwise teams on this planet will always have the upper hand on us. So next week against the Scots, lets see a few bits of flesh under a blue jersey if it is on our side of the ruck - knowing the Scots, they will have seen Easterby and O'Driscoll get away with murder today and will fancy their chances as well!
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Its clear that the author is Welsh :)
Very much disagree with your rating of Dempsey, Hickie and Hayes, they had fine games.
Ireland so far have looked the only team who have the edge to put away most point scoring oppertunities, its a sign of class that they only got a glimmer of the welsh line all game, but every time they did....5 points, 7 points!
The best is yet to come, to play far from your potential and win away against Wales makes you consider what they are capable of when they play well ;)
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As a neutral Scot, the TV coverage of this was absolutely ruined by the bias from Jonathan Davies. Please please 91热爆 either tell him to be neutral or get rid of him. His stupid biased screeching in the background totally spoiled a good commentary by Nick Mullins.
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To Iwan:
You complain about Easterby...but thats his job!
If it was Popham or Ryan Jones slowing down irish ball you would be winking to your mates and giving him a pat on the back.
To Richard Jones:
I agree the referee was awful...the amount of players (from both sides) obstructing the ball, slowing it down, not rolling away, illegally binding on scrums....well i dont know where to stop lol.
Complaining about certain players isnt too clever tho, because players as experienced at Easterby know exactly how to play a ref...how far they can push before they start getting in trouble. They clearly latched on pretty fast that the referee had little or no grasp on the breakdown and played it to the limit.
Had the referee been strict about this do you think they would have slowed so much ball down? Not a chance ;)
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The sign of a great team is being able to win whilst not playing well at all, which is what Ireland did today.
Ireland are a much better team than their performance today suggests and as for the Welsh, sour grapes?
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Wales can complain all they like about Easterby, slowing the ball down etc and how Ireland couldn't handle Wales attacking etc but a 19-9 win and by 3 tries to nil says it all. Wales need to learn to play ugly. All well and good looking good at home but had they been playing away to Ireland they'd have lost by 30 points plus.
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are you absolutely blind? or do you just not understand the complexities of rugby? 5 for dempsey? girvan was an absolute rock today. his tackling kept ireland in the game in the first half.
these ratings are, i swear to god, even worse than those published yesterday.
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I'm astonished at how poorly these Welsh fans are responding to today's defeat. As a Celt, with Welsh in-laws I am normally supportive of the Welsh against anybody bar Ireland and I felt that at times they played some good rugby today without ever really managing to finish it off - I would agree that Czekaj was robbed though. Ireland didn't play too well and it could easily have been very different but ultimately they took the chances that they got and really looked controlled when in possession.
As for the earlier suggestion that their scrummaging was poor, aberwristwatch must have been a little distracted at the set pieces. I hope Wales go on to give the new 'World Cup favourites', England a good hiding but for Ireland I can only dream of better things to come.
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Asa neutral. I was amazed at the number of bodies on the wrong side at rucks. More so with the Irish, but both were guilty.
Wales lacked pace and good lines to exploit the breaks they made.
In the Hieneken cup and the GP, yellow cards would have been shown for cynical penalties in the red zone. Why none today when Wales had a clear try scoring opportunity? Also Peel's 'knock on' close to the try line was an Irish hand. The refereeing and line calls were not the best.
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James G. I'm afraid doing your 'job' is quite different to committing cynical professional fouls which NO ONE wants in the game, apart from the team who are now becoming renowned for it along with the All Blacks. Any half-competent ref would have sent him off for the Peel incident, which would have (fairly) changed the game, and then, had that happened, he prbably wouldn't have involved himself with Czekai. As a welsh fan I wince when professional fouls are committed by welsh players...I bet EOS will have being praying on his knees that nothing came of it. His prayers were answered though, and easterby lived to be cynical another day. I respect easterby greatly, I am a scarlets fan, but now I've lost some respect for him-he almost put his team in a horrendous position-by the law, a penalty try and sinbin should have happened. That could have been a disaster for the Irish, as Wales were piling on the pressure at that moment. If you are Irish, I would only hope that you feel a cetain humility and a great deal of good fortune to see your side victorious today, through sometimes, shall we say, dubious methods. France is next for you...
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I would say that your player markings are pretty much spot on and I would agree with your comments about Wales' lack of penetration through the middle ( I'm Welsh, by the way ). Tom Shanklin might have made a difference. However, it's a pity you didn't mark the referee who I felt had a poor game. They play a different game in the southern hemisphere and I don't think SH referees should referee 6-nations games. A no-nonsense Englishman or Scot would have been more appropriate. There were too many delaying tactics, falling on the wrong side and hands in the loose to allow a flowing game. A yellow card here and there would have sorted it out. The referee was far too lenient.
It was a good game but could have been a classic had the referee taken the control he should have done.
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Good win for ireland.
Youre always going to be favorites to win a game when you keep the opposition to only 1 opportunity to score a try.
Wales competed well at the breakdown and were on the fringes of the law like ireland.
Our backrow did a superb job at slowing down the welsh ball and all 3 should take the plaudits for the irish win today.
All in all wales never really looked like winning the game despite the very close scoreline for almost the entire match.
When you have a Leinster backline that plays behind a pack on the backfoot and put them behind a pack that can get at least parity if not more, like today, you will always have them as favorites.
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Great teams win when they play badly. Ireland played badly today and won, simple as that. Winning is as much a habit as a skill and I'm glad to say Ireland are now in that habit. If wales could accomplish the same feat they'd be looking at another grand slam, a lot of the skill levels certainly seemed good in terms of handling in what was basically a second string team in a lot of areas. However wales played well for the most part and lost. That's the difference.
You can say what you want about the terrible reffing, I'd certainly agree as an Irishman. But don't think you're the only team to have bad decisions against them. That's naive at best.
And what's this about giving S easterby a 3 or 4? He slowed the ball down illegally over and over again and killed off welsh attack time and again and managed NOT to get sent off. Had I been standing beside him on the pitch I'd have been shaking his hand. Much as I HATED Neil Back intensely when he slapped the ball out of P stringers hands at that famous scrum in the Hein. final a few years back, I had to hand it to the guy, he sealed the match, and did a damn good job.
Personally I felt there should have been yellow cards for several Irish players today, but they tested the ref and got away with it and they got away from Cardiff with a win in doing so. Job done.
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To Shev.......
That's why we have referees to allow fairplay - with a competent referee the score would have been so different, believe me. The Irish won't win the GS - they are overated and will be found out.
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"There's no doubt Ireland have another gear, what they showed today without giving a big performance was resolve and endeavour. They are very streetwise, we have to admit that." That is what Wales coach Gareth Jenkins had to say about it so whatever you say about sending off or yellow cards, it doesn't matter!
Wales played at home yet didnt score in the second half and didnt score a try in the whole game! So before ye welsh boys give out about the referee, find some answers for those questions!
"They got three tries out of the game and you have to ask yourself where did those come from? How did they get three tries? But they did!" - Gareth Jenkins sums ups Irelands Performance!!!
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Wales were a little unlucky today, to be fair. But the fact is they lacked a cutting edge and never looked like breaching the game line in a significant way - Dwayne Peel apart.
Ireland were reasonably poor and very inconsistent, but to come to Cardiff and win (and outscore Wales three tries to none) is a result that shouldn't be questioned. While playing poorly, they had cutting edge and created and finished two well worked tries. The third was created by poor Welsh fielding.
I thought the ref was lenient on O'Callaghan and a yellow card should have been given. I thought Easterby's challenge on Chekaj was a penalty but didn't warrant a yellow card. It looked like a legitimate effort to play the ball, albeit a foul in the end. The referee didn't penalise deliberate killing of the ball with yellow cards, but penalties were given and Wales got their only points of the game from those penalties. Otherwise they never really looked like scoring.
Blaming the ref is an easy out. Wales lacked real penetration despite some lovely interplay between backs and forwards at times - it was often lateral and too infrequent.
If a few of their backs return from injury and suspension, they should bounce back, but they were well beaten today.
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ref was shocking, easterby should have been off. the first irish try was a balls up by wales the second was a balls up by wales, hook letting the ball roll out by the flag and the third was a good try it may well have been a different game had wales been given the try that was quite clearly going to happen before easterby's illegal tackle, rather than give ireland a scrum
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I see in the previous posts, many no doubt from disgruntled Welsh fans, that there is an awful amount of criticism of the Irish and Easterby in particular and the way they played the breakdown ball and killing the opposition ball. When the All Blacks play this style they are lauded for playing on the edge, but when the Irish do this they are lambasted for it.
The fact is they read the ref at a very early stage and their experience told them how far to push it, that is what experience is!
Granted this was far from a vintage performance but anytime a team goes to Cardiff and comes away with a 3 tries to nil victory is a good day at the office. First game down, full points in the bag, another week together to work on things, bring on next Sunday's game.
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To L Walker.
If your game as a neutral Scot was ruined today by J Davies imagine how I felt yesterday as a "neutral" Welshman when my Saturday afternoon was ruined by Brian Moores orgasmic ramblings over a certain Mr Wilkinson.
The truth of the matter today was Wales missed to many first tackles allowing Ireland to get over the gain line again and again.
They were also given a lesson in defense by BOD and Darcy.
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How Peel can get 8 I've no idea, he delayed the service at virtually every ruck and maul. Phillips came on and we had two of the best attacks of the game. Stephen Jones was awful, he can't kick out of the hand, has no vision, no pace and no threat. Hate to say it but Austin Healey was right, they should have brought him off and moved Hook to 10.
The referee was awful. He made a scrum reset because he hadn't said "touch" - the front rows had done everything correctly but he hadn't said "touch", so let's disrupt a perfectly good scrum to show 'em who's boss. Meanwhile he can't see a tackle off the ball that cost a try, the Irish killing the ball at every breakdown and no binding in the scrums. Let's hope Kelvin Deaker never gets another international game
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What about all the times Ireland turned the ball over at the breakdown only for the ref to give the scrum to Wales?
Irelands backrow are specialists at the breakdown more so than the Welsh. Today Ireland got no fast ball which is because of the Welsh cheating. It annoys me to see Welsh say the opposite.
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Sean Davies says that Stephen Jones 'kicked well' - what match was he watching?! Apart from slotting three easy penalties, he missed touch on countless occasions and put Wales under a lot of pressure. Not sure what gaps he probed for either. All he did was ship out passes, miss tackles, give away a try...just about everything to warrant being substituted. Criminal that Sweeney or Hook weren't tried at 10 for the last 20 mins. 2/10 for Jones is a fairer score.
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Would just like to say to any Welsh fans how ye can think that ye were robbed today begs belief. Ye never ever looked like scoring bar the knock on by Czekaj, and as far Esterby been sent off for that incident if you actually look at it properly besides listening to that bias git on the beeb (Davies) you can clearly see that he made an effort to get to the ball.
Awasome defensive performance by the Irish and the finishing was outstanding yet again. Bring on the French in Croker.
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Sean Davies says that Stephen Jones 'kicked well' - what match was he watching?! Apart from slotting three easy penalties, he missed touch on countless occasions and put Wales under a lot of pressure. Not sure what gaps he probed for either. All he did was ship out passes, miss tackles, give away a try...just about everything to warrant being substituted. Criminal that Sweeney or Hook weren't tried at 10 for the last 20 mins. 2/10 for Jones is a fairer score.
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I agree with your correspondent who refers to Jonathan Davies - he knows his stuff, but he is oh so biased when it comes to summarising. I cannot understand how an Irishman living in England should be subjected to Davies's one sided comments - it contrasts with Keith Woods' comments which are fair and impartial - good for you Keith for your fair and balanced summaries. Shame on you 91热爆 for employing such a biased summariser as JD.
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Would just like to say to any Welsh fans how ye can think that ye were robbed today begs belief. Ye never ever looked like scoring bar the knock on by Czekaj, and as far Esterby been sent off for that incident if you actually look at it properly besides listening to that bias git on the beeb (Davies) you can clearly see that he made an effort to get to the ball.
Awasome defensive performance by the Irish and the finishing was outstanding yet again. Bring on the French in Croker.
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I agree with L Walker who refers to Jonathan Davies - JD knows his stuff, but he is oh so biased when it comes to summarising. I cannot understand how an Irishman living in England should be subjected to Davies's one sided comments. I remember Bill Maclaren's superb commentaries.100% neutral, and JD's irritating biased comments contrast with Keith Woods' comments which are fair and impartial - good for you Keith for your fair and balanced summaries. Shame on you 91热爆 for employing such a biased summariser as JD.
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I agree with L Walker who refers to Jonathan Davies - JD knows his stuff, but he is oh so biased when it comes to summarising. I cannot understand how an Irishman living in England should be subjected to Davies's one sided comments. I remember Bill Maclaren's superb commentaries.100% neutral, and JD's irritating biased comments contrast with Keith Woods' comments which are fair and impartial - good for you Keith for your fair and balanced summaries. Shame on you 91热爆 for employing such a biased summariser as JD.
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The 6n brings out the rugby fans that only follow rugby for the 6n.... you can tell....
Im sorry but the job of the backrow is to slow down ball as much as they can by any means possible.... ITS WHAT THEY ARE IN THE TEAM FOR
Wales bar that one incident where easterby was stretching for the ball and the welsh player fell over him had ZERO try scoring opportunities. You are not going to win games that way.
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Sorry,but I think the only way Wales will progress is to give Hook a chance at ten. Other than his defensive abilities Jones for is not the best 10 we have. Creatively, Hook will offer us more in the long run. Sweeney outside him would be a better option as well !
Alun Wyn jones today was outstanding, Aled Brew looks like he could break plenty of tackles given his speed and strength,if injuries persist I would like to see him have another run out.
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Have a look at Law 21.8 (e) and (f). Opposition players who have retrearted the 10 metres are permitted to charge downa free kick and even prevent it from being taken. Match commentators should be held accountable for their irresponsible comments about the "rules" and laws - they incite the viewers!
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I agree with L Walker who refers to Jonathan Davies - JD knows his stuff, but he is oh so biased when it comes to summarising. I cannot understand how an Irishman living in England should be subjected to Davies's one sided comments. I remember Bill Maclaren's superb commentaries.100% neutral, and JD's irritating biased comments contrast with Keith Woods' comments which are fair and impartial - good for you Keith for your fair and balanced summaries. Even Brian Moore - English through and through - was gracious enough to say that an England 'try' was not a try. Shame on you 91热爆 for employing such a biased summariser as JD.
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@Kevin Kelly - Point well made, if you look at all the top teams, present and past, there has always been the beleif that its better to commit a proffesional foul and stop the game in a dangerous situation where the opponent might score than let the opposition rack up 5 or 7.
With a player off (and you might not even get that)you can always play damage limitation and terrirory rugby for 10 mins, with 7 points coneded you have to go out and take risks to make a score happen just to make up the ground.
All Blacks, England...they all do it, and in the past i feel that ireland have held back from fouling in such siutations back when it was alright to go out and 'have a lash' and aslong as you played well it didnt matter if you lost.
Im glad to see that agressive and competitive edge now in the team that wasnt there before.
And to those berating Easterby.....what would you have your flankers do? Their role is pretty much 2 simple things. In attack hit every ruck and provide fast and clean ball for the half backs, and in defence to do the opposite and slow the opposition ball down. The Welsh back row, with the exception of Ryan Jones pre eye-injury was completely outclassed in the breakdown - end of story.
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@Kevin Kelly - Point well made, if you look at all the top teams, present and past, there has always been the beleif that its better to commit a proffesional foul and stop the game in a dangerous situation where the opponent might score than let the opposition rack up 5 or 7.
With a player off (and you might not even get that)you can always play damage limitation and terrirory rugby for 10 mins, with 7 points coneded you have to go out and take risks to make a score happen just to make up the ground.
All Blacks, England...they all do it, and in the past i feel that ireland have held back from fouling in such siutations back when it was alright to go out and 'have a lash' and aslong as you played well it didnt matter if you lost.
Im glad to see that agressive and competitive edge now in the team that wasnt there before.
And to those berating Easterby.....what would you have your flankers do? Their role is pretty much 2 simple things. In attack hit every ruck and provide fast and clean ball for the half backs, and in defence to do the opposite and slow the opposition ball down. The Welsh back row, with the exception of Ryan Jones pre eye-injury was completely outclassed in the breakdown - end of story.
And to those having a go at the ref...yes i agree he was shocking, but quite frankly it was a constant for both sides. You cant accuse him of bias, just ineptitude. Saying you lost because of him is nul and void, because he was as poor for us as he was for you :)
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Have a look at Law 21.8 (e) and (f). Opposition players who have retreated the 10 metres are permitted to charge down a free kick and even prevent it from being taken. Match commentators should be held accountable for their irresponsible comments about the "rules" and laws - they incite the viewers!
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Iwan, a 'cynical proffesional foul' is only one if you get pinged for it.
As i said before, against a well known referee like Kaplin or Jutge i seriously think there would have been less than half as many of these 'fouls' that werent pinged by the ref today.
At the end of the day, If Ryan Jones or Martyn Williams had been doing exactly a carbon copy of Easterby you would be happy with them and we (irish fans) would be angry at them :)
As was mentioned earlier - Niel back in HC final in that very stadium, an action that had Munster fans raging and Leicester fans joyous...your never going to be happy when the oppositon pull a sly one over you.
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I was utterly disgusted at the level of biased commentary we were subjected to on 91热爆ni! In my opinion commentary should be in the hands of two neutrals! A good word about any of the Irish players was rare but Wales players were getting credit for everything! I thought it was a brilliant game, intensity, competition, passion, but the commentary we had to listen to ruined a great game
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O'Callaghan should have been binned for pulling down a maul 3 metres from his own line. A penalty try could easily have been given too. And the ref had the number because he identified him as the one pulling down the maul.
Easterby should have been binned for his tackle on Czekaj. Again, a penalty try would not have been harsh.
So Wales could have had at least one, if not two penalty tries.
Saying that, I always felt Ireland had an extra gear if needed. They did play badly and made silly mistakes but still had enough for Wales.
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Ireland need to up the tempo big time. Markers for this years 6N were laid by France and England... fair enough both of their opponents didnt perform as they can and should! Wales can rightly complain about refs etc but they also need to improve to justify being 2nd favs.
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Well said Lisa. Jonathan Davies makes a mockery of 91热爆 claims of impartiality. I found it pathetic to have to listen to his continual one sided comments - Keith Woods knocks spots off you as an impartial summariser - and as a player. I was so impressed to hear Keith constructively criticise the Irish - why can't we have Keith as match summariser, to complement the excellent 91热爆 commentators, and confine JD to the stands where he belongs?
As for you griping Welsh fans - your team played well, fair play, but you were beaten by 3 tries to nil - enough said?
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Well said Lisa. Jonathan Davies makes a mockery of 91热爆 claims of impartiality. I found it pathetic to have to listen to his continual one sided comments - Keith Woods knocks spots off you as an impartial summariser - and as a player. I was so impressed to hear Keith constructively criticise the Irish - why can't we have Keith as match summariser, to complement the excellent 91热爆 commentators, and confine JD to the stands where he belongs?
As for you griping Welsh fans - your team played well, fair play, but you were beaten by 3 tries to nil - enough said?
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I think the logic of using "outside" refs as it were is to help all our teams get used to differing refereeing conditions with a world cup not far away. The fact that these can then be substandard refeering performances is a mere detail - an european ref could have had a total nightmare like this ;)
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Wales were their own worst enemies today... despite some odd refereeing decisions two tries came from bad decisions in defence.
Had the ball gone out for the first try Wales could have defended it, but they kept it in play. For the second try Hook should have taken the ball and dealt with it rather than hoping it would go dead, from then on they were out of shape.
How many times did they get turned over after displaying some skill to break down the Irish? Just as they were getting the Irish on the back foot they would lose concentration and give away possession.
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nothing to do with being a welshman Easterby is a cheat thats a good 6 for you i suppose but i feel that The referee had an absolute nightmare and when i found out how experienced he was, i was even more shocked. His decisions over the hook penalty and the czekaj-easterby incident were horrendous he also doesn't know what a yellow card is for o callaghan. I dont agree about leamy thaught he was quiet. i also thought hook finally was shown what international rugby was all about and could'nt hack it. Matthew Rees has to start next week Rhys Thomas had a nightmare and Horsman well what a waste of space. Although overall with the injuries Wales had it was a fantastic performance
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Credit where it's due, the modern game's result owes as much to what goes on the field as it does to what happens off it.
On the field today the main diferrence between the two sides was welsh errors.
Off the field irish homework and it's execution in one particular area made all the diferrence.
Mr Kelvin Deaker (hereafter referred to as the ref) is from the Southern Hemisphere, to be precise New Zealand.
A nation who often provide scintilating open rugby, and 'from time to time' employ the spoiling tactics seen today.
The ref is the band leader. He calls the shots, it's his whistle that plays the tune that starts or stops the 30 piece ocrhestra.
If you know his musical preferrence your more likely to to be in tune and put on a winning performance. Congratulations Ireland.
I enjoyed the show and left the stadium encouraged with Wales and (based on today's display) doubtful of Ireland's chances as pre tournament favourites.
As long as we truly compete,
Win Lose or Draw I remain Welsh and proud.
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There is always much praise for the French when they win the 6 nations... more times than I care to remember. Their third row comprises the most cynical players in world rugby. I am astonished that players like Betsen ever get to finish a match! To get to the top, you either have to be just like them, or else surprise everyone with excellent attacking flair, often a one off (the Welsh slam !). The French choose their team specifically in order to do what Ireland did today against Wales, although in the case of the Irish, it seemed to be a last resort because they were not firing on all cylinders. It was nonetheless a fine game to watch.
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It is a bit rich for Welsh fans to sour grape about Irish offences that went unpunished. What about the Welsh being on the wrong side of rucks all day and illegally spoiling and slowing ball and high tackling? If you are going to be critical at least be balanced. Ireland did not play well and committed more fouls than usual (usually very low penalty count), and got away with a couple of potential yellow cards, but Wales did also. There were several ridiculous decisions given against Ireland also. A really crazy offside callback, a bad forward pass decision, and some bad decisions to give Wales the scrum. One linesman gave Wales an additional ten metres on every line out or more to the point reduced Irelands gain on their kicks to touch - the guy nearest the camera in the first half. Ireland scored three very good tries against none by Wales. Wales just could not penetrate. Ireland payed to about 60% of their ability and were still just too good.
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To be honest with you I can't understand some of the comments made about Easterby and O'Callaghan.The great locks and back rowers all live on the edge of the law,just look at Richie McCaw or Martin Johnson.It's part and parcel of the game.Great teams have to be able to play the ref and win ugly as well as doing the pretty part.
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these idiots who are mouthing off about easterby obviously dont play rugby, its his job to slow the ball down. ireland won well playing in second gear, that says alot about the welsh.
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Dave, give it up you sore loser...Wales at home couldn't manage to score a point in the 2nd half...pathetic. They were beaten by a side who were far more clynical in every area, scored 3 tries to nil, and in the end ran out deserved winners, all without coming close to top gear...Justified favourites for the 6N!
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Where to begin...as an irishman I am happy that we won...all too often in the past we would have lost a game like this. As others have noted previously, when NZ play as Ireland play they are feted as the best in the world and unstoppable, when Ireland do it they are cheats. I can see both sides of the Easterby argument and the only explanation I can think of is, at least in the coverage I saw, he made an attempt to play the ball, not the man. If he had done the same for Llanelli would the welsh be so quick to point the finger? The Irish were subpar today, but both France and England played weak teams and benefitted from some questionable refereeing at the same time. This tournament is still wide open, luckily for the Irish they have France and England at home.
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Had a look for comment on game, some of the posts would actually have me thinking that you thought you actually knew the game, please do us NZers a favour and dont talk about rucking or forward play in general! it was you whimpy nth hemp that brought in the new scrum rules of touch etc, because none of you have a scrum. Enjoy the 6 nations and the little comp that you can win, as only one team in the world will win the world cup, actually if we sent 2 teams we would have to play ourselves in the final!
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Dont understand what game you were watching.Ireland line outs were awful until Flannery came in. But in saying that Wales would not have scored a try if we were still playing.
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Ireland 3 tries Wales none. Bad Reffing comments galore. Please have a closer look. Breakdowns, Welsh players off their feet and over the ball. Look at coming in from the side Wales were the biggest offenders. Come on Wales stop the excuses you lost. Now please play the wonderful rugby you played in the first half in the games to follow and we will all love you.
John
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Stephen Jones has got to go!
Apart from penalties and conversions (if ever we get over the try line that is), he brings very little to the game. His tackling is abysmal, and he has no creative skills whatsoever. Stick Hook in at 10 and Henson at centre please. Popham and Peel were fantastic and it was nice to see them both back on form. Although it was obviously disappointing to lose yesterday, as long as we beat the English......
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OK couple of comments about various points. Simon Easterby off, difficult to call heres why, arguably should be penalty try because chekaj well ahead of rest of cover defence coming laterally and ahead of easterby would have made it. if penalty try given then counts for 7 as would not miss kick in front of posts. Then feel no need to send of Easterby, you don't see front rows getting sent off after conceeding penalty tries on their own line very often now do you other alternative, yellow card him penalty kick to corner but not both as some suggest. O'callaghan should have been yellow carded for the most blatant of professional fouls in the first half. if done here and authority stamped on game would not have happened again, further would have been a more entertaining game from both sides. Wales will learn where they strength lie and where they don't. Lacked cutting edge out wide Chekaj much better than yesterdays performance but needs to be brought on with experienced midfield and backline around him i.e williams, morgan and shanklin or thomas (to gee him up and keep his head up and more balance in terms of the physicality)more to come from him, though might have been tempted to start with Brew looked good when came on, big strong and fast, or gone for darren daniel (pace, strength and flair). gonna stop now as could write pages on the match, remember not full stength yet in most departments bring on scotland with our cutting edge back
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The issue here is not one of bad losers or weak referees for even the most biased of commentators could not devalue this enconter for commitment and passion. As a neutral I found the English Scottish match the most polluted by biased commentary. I very much enjoy Eddie Butler's commentary, but how he shares a box with Brian Moore without the two coming to blows is a mystery. I really thought it might happen this weekend. The phrase rose tinted glasses is so apt and there's no let up when it comes to Jeremy Guscott. He is so mean in his appreciation of anything non English that even when England are not playing everything he says is evaluated against what it will mean to England's chances. Please 91热爆 pay JG and BM more to coach kids and fill up their timetable so they can't reach a microphone. On the subject of referees, good or bad, we have got to have them from the southern hemisphere - only that way, when we meet NZ or SA, can we compete at the core of all possession, the breakdown. Overall it was a really good weekend for the 6N, England the new invinsibles, will take the pressure off Ireland who as former favourites now have just one major hurdle to overcome - France. Should it be a home win then England will arrive for the decider, except that England will still have France and Wales on their diaries.
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great game to watch. i felt that the game was badly judged by the referee, but then again that happens to the best of them and we must forget about it and carry on with the tournament. the welsh have a lot of positives to look at in the aftermath, and i think the irish will need a bit more luck if they are to play like they did for the remainder of the tournament. saying that they have more than enough talent to go through without losing a game. the centre partnership is unbeatable when on top form, darcy was on sintelating form and we struggled to deal with him. all in all i think the welsh can be happy with the performance, even if justice was avoided by the referee on occassions, we musnt be too bitter about it, and considering we fielded a relatively inexperienced side, it could have been a lot worse! i think that the refereeing decisions would have gone down a lot worse had it been against the english, the welsh and the irish have a good bond
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Referee was poor - but that is still no excuse for the whingeing Welsh players to spend time arguing with the officials(especially when clearly correctas atthe late defensive lineout) or trying t get Easterby (who at leaast had one hand somewhere near the ball) sent off.
As a recent English referee said, any more of that willbe a penalty against.
I would give the referee 4/10, one less than the referee in the Englnad game
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I don't believe that Darcy should have been man of the match. That award should have gone to either the ref, who seemed to be playing for Ireland, or Easterby, not just for blatantly taking out Czekaj, but also slowing the ball down in every ruck.
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Excellent exciting match all round.
Believe the match could easily have
gone other way had Easterby been sin
binned. Did not hear Jonathan Davies
commentary on 91热爆 since I watched
the match on cable abroad. However,
the Setanta commentary was equally
biased (and patronizing to boot).
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I agree with most of the ratings, but the one for Leamy as the best No.8 on the pitch!!!! I have been impressed with Leamy whenever I have seen him play, but yesterday he had no impact on the game at all and Ryan Jones and Popham were head and shoulders above him!!!!
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as a welsh man i was very gutted about the result, but for gods sake the irish won fair and square so pick ourselves up and move on to the next game bring on the jocks
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Yes PL, those are one-sided ratings (as most of our comments are, we just can't help ourselves can we?) -
but Jonathan Davies one-sided? ABSOLUTELY NOT!
He's the best rugby commentator BY FAR - he's completely un-biased and his appraisal of the game is always spot-on.
Pity we can't all share Jonathan's unblinkered approach.
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Wales were competing very well in the breakdown, however Ireland did get away with giving up several cynical penalties in their own 22, something which they'd better concentrate on. BOD and D'Arcy were praised for doing well at the breakdown, and acting like forwards. They had to do that mainly because Ireland's forwards for large parts of the match weren't getting it done, and so the midfield were under pressure to do far too much. O'Gara kicked ok and scored a good try, however his positional kicking was mostly dreadful, and when he managed to drop the ball from an easy pass it summed up that whereas he is good ten he is not anywhere near the best in the world and never will be.
Peel v Stringer was interesting, Peel killed him. Ireland need a better 9 if they want to do well in the world cup or beat NZ, as Stringer is too slow and unimaginative. His constant whinging at the breakdown belied the fact that he wasn't doing much to help his forwards out.
Basically Wales did well with a fair few inexperienced players. If they had had HLF and Ickle playing they would have made Ireland work a lot harder, and converted more chances. The Irish did well, however they played at their limit for long periods and could not quite break wales down. Czekaj was obviously fouled going for his try, and it should have been a penalty try. He had one arm around his chest and one wrapping his legs up before he even got close to the ball, and by the time he got it the irish player had completed the tackle.
I would have prefered Hook at 10, Henson at 12 and Brew at 14 with luscombe at 13. It took 3 players to bring Brew down because of his strength and pace. The welsh forwards were a lot more aggressive and the lineout was like a machine for most of the match, something which we hadn't managed for years!
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Easterby playing close to the wind? well boyos - he's been learning from the masters - stop the sour grapes and move on.
And the numerous comments about Jonathan Davies being one-sided? ABSOLUTELY NOT!
He's the best rugby commentator BY FAR - he calls it as it is whatever the colour of the player's jersey.
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As a welshman it was a great game to watch, but there were alot of offences from both sides that went unpunished. The worst ref decision was the czekaj near try, if we'd got the try things might have been different. But unfortunately wales weren't good enough today. I don't think you can compare JD with KW, KW has time to think about what he says and commentating is much harder. I didn't notice JD being biased, but that's not to say he wasn't, Brian Moore is often biased, so what? If we can't win the 6N, I'll be cheering on Ireland.
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I am stunned by the sour grapes and implication that the Welsh played like angels. The don't know how to foul? Who are you kidding? I genuinely thought the Welsh were better sports than that. More than once a Welsh fist was thrown and I see no calls for the sin bin there?
If they had played well they would have beaten an off colour Irish Team. They didn't. NEXT!
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Oh Lordy Lord. Will you look at yourselves?
Easterby: I'm amazed he got away with it, but that is what he's there for.
What ref? He was in fact a Southern Hemisphere secret agent sent to cause as much havoc as possible before the World Cup.
Remember, in NZ it's not just a game. It's their willy.
Every Wales/Ireland game I've seen has been the same, and I love them for it: you both turn up and run eachother ragged with complete contempt for wind and limb. I'd guess there's more blood spilt at these games than any other - accidental, but indicative of the marvellous way you go at eachother.
From an English perspective I think our tight five will have thought there might be something to work on there.
Personally the stand outs for me were D'Arcy, whom I've never seen play so well; and Kevin Morgan. How the Irish defence stopped him I do not know.
Still reckon Geordan Murphy is the most undervalued FB in world rugby. (grin. possible Tigers bias there!)
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I thought the game yesterday was good. Ireland didnt play too well in the first half but picked up in the second! The Welsh did pretty well. Well done to O'Gara though he did have a few fall backs. Some of the ratings on the Irish side were a bit unfair!
Im glad we one though!! Bring on the next game!!
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Wales were so poor on Sunday they gifted the game to Ireland. Many Irish posters seem to think that their team played poorly, I disagree, they played to their fullest potential and they won because of it. Unfortunately for Wales we do not have the strength in depth in key areas among the backs to exploit the chances we created. The pack were strong and competitive, the backs were woeful.
On the evidence of this weekend, France will win the championship this year. I am sorry to say but Ireland will fail this year, they are a good side but just not good enough to win it this year.
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Contrary to what some of the comments convey, Ireland can look forward to the rest of the tournament knowing that they got through a tough opening game yet playing poorly by their standard, the 3-0 try score should please them. They also didn't moan about key players they had missing i.e. Shane Horgan and Flannery for the whole 80 minutes.
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Wales were so poor on Sunday they gifted the game to Ireland. Many Irish posters seem to think that their team played poorly, I disagree, they played to their fullest potential and they won because of it. Unfortunately for Wales we do not have the strength in depth in key areas among the backs to exploit the chances we created. The pack were strong and competitive, the backs were woeful.
On the evidence of this weekend, France will win the championship. I am sorry to say but Ireland will fail, they are a good side but just not good enough to win it this year.
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Hmmm,
Think your marks for the Irish forwards are a bit overinflated, ok they did work and defend hard but this was on the back foot a lot, and they didn't like the Welsh forwards continually attacking them at speed.
The Game was won in the centres. Not enough experience for Wales, I'm sad to say. Maybe Henson should have been on the bench after all.
The Irish centres were awesome, Yes it sticks in my craw to say it as a welshman but there you go.
I think England are going to have the shock of their lives when they play either of these sides. "KING JOHNNY" (ha) certainly wont get an easy ride then.
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to say that irelands form was not on par with the autumn is irrelevant,lets remember that they played below strenght SA and wallabie teams with at least one eye on the beach back home. the 6N is a different kettle of fish. Credit must go to Irelands props who not only withstood the over-hyped power of gethin jenkins and horsman, but actually came out on top.
wales didnt get screwed by the ref, they just didnt use him aswel as the irish, with constent nagging in his ear not helping. also watch how many infringements M williams commites and got away with.
i cant see how easterby is coming in for so much harsh words, he has been playing like that all season for llanelli in the HC and magners league. Leamy was my man of the match, immense
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everyone knows the welsh game is about quick ruck ball. if the ref is not going to be strong then we are not going to get very far in any tournament. It is up to the coaching staff to breed a much more streetwise team who can play to different ref's.After all one of the first things I got taught was play the ref. BOD stuck his head in the wrong place plenty of times and should of been hit hard. Something brent cockbain does to great affect.
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Ireland rampant in the Autumn with 4 - 6 Ulster players in the team, Ireland hesitant and scraping a win in Cardiff with only two Ulster players in the team. Do the maths. Stringer is a great passer . . . . . .er, that's it. The Boss does the lot.
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Dave,
I think you should stop taking the blue pills and take a few more of the red pills... that might remove the current chemical imbalance in your brain.
I thought Leamy had a fantastic defensive game, and it was encouraging to see O'Gara pull his game back into shape where previously he would have had to be hauled off. Darcy was immense both in defence and attack.
To give Wales their due they gave it a lash, but their backs lacked a cutting edge (apart from Peel - wish we had a scrum half like him). Am pleased with the win - thankfully Alfie, Williams and Shanklin weren't playing!
Hook showed promise for Wales but has a bit to learn about the international game yet.
As for the ref - I was surprised he didn't send O'Callaghan to the bin for collapsing the maul. He let a bit too much go at the breakdown which made it frustrating for everybody - Irish hands in ruck and Welsh off their feet and coming in from the side.
Anyhow - hoping for a much improved performance in Croker against the French - it will have to be!!!!!
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Looking at all the comments on the page.... few i agree with and a few i disagree with. Yeh Ireland did slow alot of the ball down but then if wales took all there chances and finnished them off it could of been a different story. Aslong as we beat the english thts all that matters.
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Ok. I am an Irishman and very happy with the win. But....I must admit the ref did give us an easy ride particularly in the first half. We didn't play at our best and Wales were fantastic. Ireland were nervous for this first game and rightly so. But I think we have a great chance against France. The next game will be a very different affair. And you know what they say...if you can win when you play badly, imagine how you will do when you play well. For what it's worth I think Wales will overturn England, Scotland and Italy. I think the winners of the Ireland V France game will be champions and possibly grand slammers! England think they are back in the frame after the Scotland game, but lets get real, it's a toss up between Italy and Scotland for the wooden spoon and I think Italy will win their first game against them. The Scotland game was no yardstick to judge England by.
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For some strange reason there seems to be a bit of bias about the inadequesies of southern hemisphere refs and that a norhtarn hemisphere ref would have reffed this match differently....Not a great scenario in a world cup year!!
Ireland played poorly yesterday and beat what I consider to be a better Welsh side than people give them credit for.
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Compared to Saturday's boring game this was a lightening display. The pace was a lot quicker and there was some good rugby. The ref? His decisions were good...he spotted a lot of forward passes and didn't sacrifice the pace of the game for little misdemeanours.
Infact I would say he helped the game along.
Both teams looked miles better than the invisible Scotland team and the creeping death which is English rugby.
At least it was entertaining and I didn't fall asleep.
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The irish team are very much over rated, no way is this team the 2nd best in the world and no way will they win the grand slam. Given all the problems and the amount of players that was missing from the welsh team this week ireland sould of won with ease.
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Despite being a Welshman I do try and take an objective view of a game and my sincere, unbiased view is as follows.... The ref should have awarded a penalty try for the Czekaj incident and should have shown at least 2 yellow cards to Irish players. He simply didn't have the bottle to do so and fair play to the Irish - you've got to play the ref until he takes definitive action and if he doesn't you might as well keep slowing the ball down and interfering at the breakdown. The Welsh contributed to their own downfall by selecting Hal 'Lewis Moody' Luscombe (all enthusiasm but limited effectiveness) on one wing - and Czekaj (very green and one-dimensional) on the other, when Dafydd Jones and Aled Brew would have offered so much more. We also failed to convert possession and territory into points and paid the price. Whilst they were playing the weakest teams in the tournament, on the evidence of last weekend I would still fancy France or England to win the 6N but of course both sides have to play at Croke Park so who knows. You can attribute it to a bit of rustiness but most Irish fans must agree that their team were disappointing - still an away win is an away win and that is the most important thing at this stage of the competition. One other thing - Ireland must start Murphy at FB rather than Dempsey who is simply a very good club player.
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message to Iwan - grow up, stop being such a bad loser and stop moaning about Easterby. If we had picked Charvis that is what he would have been doing. Easterby got away with it - move on.
As for R Jones, im i the only one who thinks he is overated. Ok great 1st half but didnt see him at all 2nd half, the same happened when the Ospreys played Sale. we cant afford players to play just 40mins.
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Bad referee, Ireland and Wales were cheating, they were find out referee was poor. Come on Wales and Ireland, play fair in next match. Ireland needs more careful, if they want to win the Grand Slam
Come on Wales!
We will all love you
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My God I have never heard such a pack of sore losers as you Welsh. Yes Wales played quite well and yes Ireland played average. But 3 tries to nil and a ten point win says it all. Ireland were clinical. Wales helter skelter rugby was easy on the eye but they ran out of steam in the second half. They made no impact on the Irish scrum as was mooted and Ireland controlled the game in the second half. No point in complaining about the ref. Ireland deserved to win because they took their chances. Wales didnt
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It was a great game, and a high intensity which the saturday games lacked. The chekaj incident was surely a penalty try but the reason why its being talked about is because we didn't produce any other great chances. Ireland played well i thought and i can see both these teams getting better and winning more matchesthis tournament.
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Well done Ireland and Wales!
Shaky start by Ireland in 6 Nations but took their chances. they might not have looked like Champions but winners take their opportunities when they can.
Wales performed admirably, looked adventurous when moving the ball but had no-one to finish off the chances, hard working display that nearly caused an upset.
Easterby-why all the stick for him, that's what he is there for, if he can get away it without the ref seeing then he's doing his job well-I thought he had a tremendous game.
Ref- aren't we used to that dismal level of refereeing week in week out in the Magner's. Unfortunately Wales have to modernise and play the ref like everyone else does.
Obvously gutted by the result but proud of the display. I've seen far better Wales teams lose by far greater scores to far worse Ireland teams so I'm happy enough.
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Having read all these comments, I am frankly disappointed with the Welsh fans. The sour grapes are quite something to behold. You lost the match, you scored three penalties, Ireland scored three tries, simple as that, and we didn't even have to play well to do it.
Please get over yourselves and show some dignity in defeat. The constant moaning is quite pathetic.
And as for you Jonathan Davies' commentary, it's amazing how he always managed to spot mistakes made by Ireland, but missed anything the Welsh did wrong. His small minded commentary was incredibly biased. It ruined the game, and he should never be allowed to commentate on a rugby match involving Wales again, at least until he takes his red tinted glasses off!
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I think if the game was to be replayed both teams would want a different ref.
Not one penalty given for holding on the ground or coming in from the side.
I think both teams gave up on the rules at the brake down when it became clear that the ref did not consider it a issue for a player on the ground to hang on to the ball until support arrived this allowed the game to slow down more so than any individual player.
Players from both sides were allowed to come in from the side is it any wonder none of the teams got quick ball. The only reason Ireland scored 3 tries was because Ireland are much better of the set plays the only way in that game to get quick ball.
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Compared to the Autumn internationals, Ireland under-performed against Wales. I noted from previous postings the varied complaints about killing the ball. The Irish foul play was the more obvious although I'm sure the Welsh were doing similar but better. That doesn't excuse the Ref for being typically SH i.e. blase about certain misdemeanours. The obvious misdemeanour on Czecak should have been a penalty try or a penalty and a sin binning. That nothing happened was criminal. These decisions often prove to be pivotal to the end result.
Still, onto next week. If Ireland go on to win the Grand Slam then I hope it's the result of better rugby than they played on Saturday. Wales will beat a very poor Scotland (at least they were poor against an average England team).
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Very bitter Welsh fans today. The difference between being a winning team and being a losing team is being able to push the laws to the limit. I am proud that the Irish teams have started to do this. I think Ireland returned from the summer tour with the attitude 'if you can't beat them, join them'.
I'll gladly take that win, Thank you. The Welsh fans can remain on their high horse.
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Post #59 Dave.
Quiet a funny post. I reckon you probably had about 10 pints on you while you were watching the late night highlights to the match and probably flicked over to the super bowl with out realising it. Either that or you're a grumpy 70 year old.
Moan, moan, moan, moan. Dave please keep posting, I need a laugh.
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I agree with Simon Davis about the ref, but his problem was not penalising the ball carrier at the breakdown. Darcy and O'Driscoll should have had at least 3 or 4 pens when Welsh didn't release, but got nothing. As a result,all ball was slow. How many pens for not releasing? None, to either side. Hence the slam, bang, wallop game. Can anyone explain why Murphy didn't start/was sent back to the bench? I don't believe Trimble ever played on de right wing before- much the same as Luscombe, and both looked out of place.
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J.Davies is too biased?....I am an Irish man and I heard J. Davies giving praise where it was due on both sides. I will be fair in saying there were times years ago but this surely is not the case now. By the way, you try and comment on a game that doesn't involve your team getting beat.
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Is the same match ? - alright Ireland were below par & Wales above par given their injuries but finally Ireland have learned how to win matches by scoring tries not relying on penalty goals - in soccer 3-0 is a near walkover. Wales played well but had no penetration - as Austin Healy pointed out S Jones is so far back in the pocket his name could be Rob Andrews and that was the reason they lost - nothing to do with the referee or anything else. S Best did a great job of winding the Welsh up and should get extra points for that. O'Gara nearly blew it, Stringer was useless and as others have said why was Murphy not on the park?(saving him for France and England?) - Trimble did well at what he is worst at BUT D'Arcy and O'Driscoll had Wales for breakfast lunch dinner supper and the rest ....... Hey - Wales lost because their best player Regan King is a New Zealander.
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My god the amount of whingeing by the Welsh fans is sad to see. I'm an Irishman but, the ref was awfull (James Hook touching the ball for the freekick, which he was the only one to spot was hard on Wales to say the least) , O'Callaghan should have been sin binned but all the moaning about Easterby is pathetic! He's a back row forward, that is what back row forwards do! If he'd a red jersey on him the welsh fans would be praising all his work in slowing the ball down. As if Martyn Williams is some saint who has never killed the ball in his life. The whingers are either naiive or hypocrites. Take your pick!
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i think that O'Sullivan should start playing more Ulster players more often. All the Ulster men that played in the Autumn Internationals played outstanding, Boss is twice the player of Stringer is and Paddy Wallace can play far better than O'Gara, Neil Best is an animal and should definatly be starting on the squad instead of all the other usless messes.
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For all those complaining about the 91热爆 coverage - you are spot on. How anyone can listen to Moore and Butler bickering away for an hour and a half is beyond me. It has to be the worst commentary on any sporting event for the past decade. It took me approximately 45 seconds to switch to RTE 2.(for the non Irish you can find it on Sky - ch 175 I think) For yesterday's game they provided a totally unbiased commentary, even calling for our boys to be sin binned. And you'll never be more richly entertained than listening to the Hook. Well done Ireland for playing poorly and still showing enough class to eventually control the game. Can't say it wasn't nerve racking though. Why oh why oh why doesn't Eddie use his bench in the last 20? Somebody please explain.
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It is no good complaining about the referee and saying the result would have been different. The score might have been different and both side would have scored tries but the outcome would have been the same as we (the Irish) had the better finnishers on the day. Ireland slowed up the ball BUT so dis Wales.
Poor Jonathan Davies should learn that commentators are supposed to be unbiased - so should Brian Moore. That is something we have to live with as the 91热爆 have no decent commentators they have all gone to SKY.
The only people who make Ireland favourites are the press. For a start we do not have the strength in depth required.
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I agree totally with Welsh opinion O'Callaghan and Easterby should have both been in the bin.O'Gara was labourious at best and there can be no doubt who the best 10 in the NH is now!!.Ireland are getting away with countless infringements on the floor and refs will surely wise up to this.Boss has to replace the pedestrian Stringer to give O'gara the time his average game demands.Ireland to win the 6N?? not in a million years and with all the lucky shamrock in the world!!
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aw wud u welsh sore losers stop your moaning. Ireland won fair and square. i have never seen or played ina complety fair game it doesnt happen
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Totally agree with the last comment by matt but we are our own worst enemies by making too many silly errors and poor decisions at times. I thought the ref was awful. JD biased-never!!
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Bob Marley would of loved the response to this game - because it's all "Red Red Whine!"
Better luck against the English, Wales!
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When Ireland next lose by 3 tries to none at home you will not hear us blaming this on misfortune, the referee, or the tactics of the opposition.
I thought Wales showed great promise against an Irish team that is temporarily superior in almost every position.
I do not think the Welsh players would agree with many of the posts on this site.
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i agree with John Kelly. The irish lacked the creativity and sharpness of autumn. i would give Isaac boss at least the second half against france in croker, all peter stringer is ever going to be is 'solid'. Also easterby done a decent job for the irish but neil best has more to offer going forward......and im not even from ulster
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Is the Katherine from post 98 Katherine Jenkins?
If so, will you marry me?
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Being an Irishman I was not comforted by the show on Sunday.
I think that the Irish had a terrible game, O'Gara should have been taken off the field after about 30 mins of his terrible kicking - it was painful to watch. Hopefully he'll have regained some confidence before the french game as Eddie O'Sullivan seems hell bent on using the O'Gara - Stringer link until they are collecting their pensions!!
Having said all this they did the necessary, O'Driscoll putting in a marvelous try and O'Gara regaining some of composure he lacked in the first half.
In Jonathan Davies style my comments will be as one sided as his commentary. Perhaps the 91热爆 should either have no one from either team commentating or have one from each side so that they can be equally biased as in the England - Scotland match. Has Jonathan Davies been taking commentating tips from Brian Moore?
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J. Davis has been given some stick for his commentrary, i feel you should just listen to brian moores commentrary of the england scotland game. he sounded like a father who knows nothing about rugby watching his son. his son of course being JW.
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Both sides were infringing all over the place, so don't talk about the good ol' honest Welsh, you're deluding yourselves! O'Callaghan should have been sinbinned, no question, and Leamy saved us with his work in the first half, no question. To borrow a Munster phrase, Darcy was a legend! Thank God O'Gara picked up his game in the second half, let's hope he never has a first half like that again. The Welsh attacking was amazing to watch, but the Irish defence was massive. Ireland playing to their full potential? Please, they played dire at times, player support was terrible, but they did a Leinster and won with not much ball, while making it unbelievably stressful to watch! A good result considering the mistakes, bring on the French after their training session against the Italians. And Wales can look forward to hammering the Scots!
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Being an Irishman I was not comforted by the show on Sunday.
I think that the Irish had a terrible game, O'Gara should have been taken off the field after about 30 mins of his terrible kicking - it was painful to watch. Hopefully he'll have regained some confidence before the french game as Eddie O'Sullivan seems hell bent on using the O'Gara - Stringer link until they are collecting their pensions!!
Having said all this they did the necessary, O'Driscoll putting in a marvelous try and O'Gara regaining some of composure he lacked in the first half.
In Jonathan Davies style my comments will be as one sided as his commentary. Perhaps the 91热爆 should either have no one from either team commentating or have one from each side so that they can be equally biased as in the England - Scotland match. Has Jonathan Davies been taking commentating tips from Brian Moore?
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Both sides were infringing all over the place without the referee appearing to notice, so don't talk about the good ol' honest Welsh, you're deluding yourselves! O'Callaghan should have been sinbinned, no question, and Leamy saved us with his work throughout the game, no question. To borrow a Munster phrase, Darcy was a legend! Thank God O'Gara picked up his game in the second half, let's hope he never has a first half like that again. The Welsh attacking was amazing to watch, but the Irish defence was massive. Ireland playing to their full potential? Please, they played dire at times, player support was terrible, but they did a Leinster and won with not much ball, while making it unbelievably stressful to watch! A good result considering the mistakes, bring on the French after their training session against the Italians. And Wales can look forward to hammering the Scots!
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Both sides were infringing all over the place without the referee appearing to notice, so don't talk about the good ol' honest Welsh, you're deluding yourselves! O'Callaghan should have been sinbinned, no question, and Leamy saved us with his work throughout the game, no question. To borrow a Munster phrase, Darcy was a legend! Thank God O'Gara picked up his game in the second half, let's hope he never has a first half like that again. The Welsh attacking was amazing to watch, but the Irish defence was massive. Ireland playing to their full potential? Please, they played dire at times, player support was terrible, but they did a Leinster and won with not much ball, while making it unbelievably stressful to watch! A good result considering the mistakes, bring on the French after their training session against the Italians. And Wales can look forward to hammering the Scots!
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The best game of the 3 to watch this weekend. Ireland punished Welsh mistakes and were impressive in defence in the first half when Wales put everything but the kitchen sink at them.
A firm boot on the stray hands might have focussed the mind or forced the ref to police the breakdowns.
Wales need a centre who can break tackles and commit more than one defender, Shanklin, you're badly missed.
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The past problems with having a Welshman coach Wales is that they tend to be to parochial.
I trust Gareth will not be so It is obvious that James Hook should play at 10 we did not ask questions of Ireland yesterday with Stephen at 10.
I have great respect for Stephen Jones but he lacks pace at this level. Lets try and get Hook asking questions of the opposition in the position he is most suited to.
We have a talent use it the all blacks would.
Gareth jenkins will be remembered by the decisions he makes now. Be brave
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Why not stop moaning about the referee who has to make instantaneous decisions based on advice from his assistants often through a morass of bodies?
Surely the Welsh nation should look at the 3 tries to 0 count and where most of the Irish attacking impetus came from...the backs; if Gareth Thomas had shown some restraint rather than getting embroiled in an off the pitch incident which typified his character and if your coach had selected your most exciting and influential back, Henson, then you may have been able to counter some of the Irish attacks but that is not reality; and, instead, you got well beaten.
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Why the hell is Hal Luscombe ever in the Weslh side especially on the wing. He has no pace or strength. Kevin Morgan should have bee on the wing and Henson at Full Back
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About the ref...
Has anyone heard of playing advantage which was what the ref was doing all day yesterday...he wasn't directing traffic.
If the ref blows the whistle for every little infringemment we would have no game at all.
Do we really want rugby to turn into a game of cards?
At least the guy had the gumption to make his own decisions and not constantly refer to video.
It was an entertaining game to watch and Ireland deserve their win.
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Plenty of moaning about the ref but he was consistent... poor for both teams. ES said whoever won the Six Nations would need some luck and Ireland got a good dose of it on Sunday, although losing Darcy and BOD to injury might have balanced the books on that count.
I don't think England or France will be discounting the Welsh after their efforts against Ireland, which makes
Ireland's victory all the sweeter to my mind.
Good luck to Ireland I hope the wheels don't come off against the French.
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I have to say i think some of the comments made on this page are hilarious. when the referee is good or bad its the job of an international player to overcome this and get on with the game as best as they can so stop moaning on and making excuses. Ireland were not on form at all but still came away with the win and did look impressive in defence. And yes 3 tries to none on a bad day will not be complained about. Can't see ireland playing as badly in croke park next week so bring on the French. A nod in agreement to getting geordan murphy of that bench and onto the field where he belongs.
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there are a lot of bitter welshman around today. I am one of them. It was such a frustrating match for a welshman to watch- the ref made it more so with a poor performance. We are all doubly frustrated because the rest of the 6N is a wash out - no triple crown, no GS and 3 away games to deal with. No wonder we are desperate characters today.
Having said that - Come on Ireland get that grand Slam - if the Welsh cannot have it then lets hope the Irish come away with the big prize.
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True Davies annoying banshee like wailings were one sided.. but this is nothing compared to that muppet Brain Moore when England play!
Dry yer eyes Wales.. you got tanked in your back yard!
Come on Ireland!
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Just curious but why is it that never in the numerous Welsh losses in recent years has the result ever been the fault of poor play by the Welsh team? They must be the most unlucky chaps on the planet, what with everyone else being cheats, all their players being injured, the refs being biased and every other excuse they trot out.
Can't wait for France and England to beat the stuffing out of them as well. Just face it lads, you won the Grand slam two years ago because you had no injuries and played beyond your ability at a time when every other nation had injury problems and were in the midst of poor form. Now take your wooden spoon and sit down.
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As an Irishman, i was bitterly dissapointed by the performance but hugeley relieved to escape with a win. We didnt seem to play our natural game and let Wales dictate the pace too much, especially in the first half. We looked nervous and i got the feeling that Ireland just wanted to get out of Wales with any old win. It didnt seem like they were enjoying the occasion. I thought Darcy and Leamy were magnificent and those two propably did more than anyone else on the irish team to earn that win. I was unhappy with our half backs performance even though it did improve in the second half. for me Flannery, Neil Best and Geordan Murphy have all got to start next week. I thought Wales were pretty naive at times. they were trying to play crowd pleasing rugby and not trying to put points on the board at every opportunity. James Hook to me looks a fantastic prospect though and i dont think i have ever seen a player with better distribution. he frightened the life out of me every time he got the ball in his hands.
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OK, Ireland (tournament favorites) just about managed a win against a far from full strength Wales team. The ammount of times Wales put Luscombe in a one on one situation, but Luscombe not being an international winger just didnt have the pace. If it were Mark Jones in those same one on one opportunities im sure the result would be different. BOD was quiet, considering he's the "best" centre in the world and against Jamie Robinson. Ireland had to resort to the cheating tactics of slowing the ball when they knew Wales had a clear cut opportunity of scoring, how they wasnt sin binned i dont know (full credit to Ireland for getting away with it though, playing on the edge, somtimes over the edge of the law, its what NZ do best) and the clear penalty try.
Apart from the result, i think Wales had much more possitives than negatives coming out of the game, well done Wales with their far from full strength back line against the apparent best centre partnership in the world. Looking forward to Scotland with a hopfully full strengh team! And congrats to Ireland....thrilling game.
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I do think the Welsh are bad losers. In the final analysis, Ireland clearly won 3:0 on tries, and Wales, even though they were playing at home, did not score a single point in the second half. For me that says it all.
The mark of a good team is to get a result even when not playing well - and Ireland did just that.
Nor did I think that Ireland played their best team - surely Eddie cannot leave out Murphy again (he did more in the 10 mins he was on than Dempsey in the whole game). And Stringer must go - Boss showed so much class and all round ability in the autumn that he must play. I would also at least start Neil Best for the French match as it's in Dublin - tough on Easterby who did well against Wales, but Best was simply awesome in the autumn.
I think that, now their toughest game is out the way, Ireland will be more relaxed against France & England, and will play to their full potential. Scotland & Italy should not be a problem - Ireland are on course for the mythical Grand Slam. And what about some Welsh support for your fellow Celts?
Finally, I don't see how anyone can deny that J Davies is biased. Point taken that it's easier for Woody to be impartial in his studio summaries -and in fact when JD does that he is a lot more impartial. But it's just not on for him to behave on television as any biased supporter would ie with very large, red blinkers on. What's the answer? Have a neutral summariser, say Guscott, and keep the JD's of this world for the studio summaries.
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Bill Kavanagh??? Don't tell me you got your 'rugby laws' info off the internet?? Coz all the laws on the internet are not up to date!!
Are you a referee??
Check the laws again my friend. Deaker was wrong, and admitted as much in an interview after the game, where he said he 'thought', yes 'thought', Hook had tapped the ball!!
As Hook had not tapped the ball, it can not be charged down!!!
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Note to all: the rules do not provide for a penalty try in the Easterby - Czejak incident because of the presence of Girvan Dempsey as a covering defender. There was no guarantee that Czejak would have gathered the loose ball, therefore no definite tryscoring opportunity.
The correct decision would have been a penalty to Wales and a yellow card for Easterby.
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In reply to postings from madra rua
and Ulsterbob concerning whingeing.
18 months after 2005 six nations the
occasional Irish fan could still
be heared to comment that Wales got
lucky that year in Cardiff only
because the weather was on our side
(it didn't rain)?!?
What your reading in the blog is
just post match analyis.
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Dennis Leamy a 9? Forgive me but I scoff at that!!
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In response to Allistair Gillies comments post 51, Jonathan Davies is undoubtedly the best analyst on the 91热爆 staff and this is apparant to anybody who appreciates rugby. He possesses an excellent rugby mind and is able to spot and comment on on-field overlaps and situations that others fail to even notice. It was this ability that made JD quite possibly the greatest outside half to ever play and a legend in both codes of rugby and believe me as a player he was more than Wood's equal. As to questions of bias I've never noticed JD to be biased in his comments and he recognises great play regardless of who makes it. In the recent game Ireland (with the exception of DArcy who JD made Man of the Match by the way) made very few offensive plays of note and muscled through via a brave and in parts cynical defensive display. This was able to hold out a far more ambitious Welsh offensive effort. In short the Irish team did not deserve many favourable comments to be made about their attacking efforts because they were generally conservative and largely inaffective. Wales played better rugby but were hampered by a lack of pace and experience out wide. Ireland deserved the win, but didn't deserve many plaudits, this is how Davies called the match accurately.
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The comments on Easterby are harsh. Who could know the bounce of the ball? He wasn't even aware of the Wales player positions. It was a 50:50 ball, and lets not bring ourselves to the point of whingeing about it lest we be compared to another nation's commentators who always complain about the unfairness of a situation. The referee is there to officiate. He may get it right and he may get it wrong. Simply put, there are 80 mins to win a game. Use all tactics possible during that time. Do not begrudge the Irish this deserved win. Honour them, as I an Irishman pay great tribute to the efforts of a wonderful Welsh team. Above all, Rugby doesn't only offer us winners and losers. We have moments in the game in which we recall the bravery, courage, and commitment of our teams. Better to lose and fight with united spirit than win and perform gutlessly. Throughout, the barren years for Ireland, it was not important to me who won. Rather, did we play to our best ability? You cannot ask for more of any team than that of giving 100%.
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People may say that the refeering was awful, and at times it was pretty cynical, However, the style of refeering in fact allowed play to continue and by not blowing up at every oppertunity the ref contributed to a superb game of rugby. Undoubtedly Ireland possess a great deal of potential, especially in their backline. personally, i've never felt that Eddie O' Sullivan was ever the right man for the job, he fails to utilise Ireland's key strengths of O' Gara standing flat and hitting his midfield runners i just hope that he is not the reason for Ireland failing to fulfill their potential.
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Ireland didn't have to get out of second gear yesterday and won by 3 tries to nil. Wales were never going to be a threat without their first choice back three.
As for the scrum, as expected from all those in the know, the Irish came ot on top. Not the best scrummagers but the welsh pack is a far cry from the Leicester one that destroyed Munster.
Grand Slam decider next Sunday...once again the media are blowing up an average England performance, 2 wins in 9 now!! No attacking force, weak in defence, overreliance on JW.
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Whenever Easterby gets away with slowing the ball down for The Scarlets I love him, so as a Scarlets fan I can't really complain about what he does at the ruck - a master of his craft. With regards to the possible penalty try issue he did what he had to do in the heat of the moment, it was poor refereeing (and dare I say work of the linesmen too?) that let Wales down.
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That鈥檚 an English Davis by the way!
Still can鈥檛 get over the talk of a fantastic game, yes it was close for most of the 80 mins, but as has all ready been said I thought the refereeing of the breakdown was almost non-existent.
The amount of times the ball should have appeared only to be dragged back in or that players from both sides just flew into the 鈥渞uck鈥 and in most cases not from behind the back foot! There was also a huge amount of non-releasing, by tackler and the tackled.
I thought the ref missed loads and both teams had a field day. If you looked at the other two games in probably 75% of the rucks there was no more than 5 or 6 players (in total) involved, as opposed to 10 -12 in this game. Ball was allowed to flow freely and it made for a more open game. As for them being more exciting, well than depends on your school of thought.
I think Ireland (if they鈥檙e allowed to play like that again) will push both England and France as both teams rely on quick clean ball to play their styles. It鈥檒l be interesting to see who refs the games as to weather they will get away with it.
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have any of you whinging welsh read
Brent Cockbains column, You cheat until you get caught, then you cheat some more" i'm sure if it was martin Williams tackling B.O.D instead of Easterby you would be applauding him
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Simon Easterby was superb for Ireland yesterday and played the referee perfectly. It wasn't Easterby's fault that the referee couldn't see what was obvious to the rest of us and he took advantage making sure Peel couldn't get clean quick ball. Although Popham and Ryan Jones carried well, I think Wales missed a trick by not having Charvis at least on the bench as his skill around the contact area would have helped counter the threat of Easterby. I also think that Stephen Jones would be better off without the added pressure of the captaincy, as a number 10 he has got enough to think about as it is. Why wasn't Dafydd James brought into the squad? He has been in superb form for the Scarlets.
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As an Irishman that was a heart-stopping game with a level of rugby that was vastly superior to either of the other two six nations matches played the day before. The Welsh played at a rapid pace with a level of urgency akin to a Grand Slam final. Ireland fortunate with the start could not impose itself losing composure partially through incredible poor kicking by O'Gara (apparently the Welch use a specific type of ball) and partially due to lack of follow through in the rucks. Stringer will always have to put in fantastic performances to outweight his size disadvantage and I could see the boss as injecting more uncertainty in French minds. Generally you would expect Ireland to start slow and progress with each game injuries apart.
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it say it all. that when needed munster cane to the fore. for about the last 20 mins, the pack apart from easterby who might i add, was excellent, came from the european champoins and backed up by centre field pairing.
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I agree with the comments about the referee - he should not have brought a Southern Hemisphere attitude to an intense Northern Hemisphere battle as there was on Sunday. I'm Welsh and biased and thought Easterby in particular got away with murder! There were two incidents involving him that should have resulted in yellow cards - therefore he should have been sent off. Martin Williams (usually) is no angel either but the Welsh pack should have been more 'streetwise'. I thought Alun Wyn Jones was magnificent in everything he did, however and Dwayne Peel showed again that he is the form scrum-half in world rugby.
PS Being a Scarlets fan, I generally love the way Easterby plays (but don't tell anybody)...
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I agree that D'arcy played an outstanding game as every time he received the ball he would drive forward fiercely and tear through the Welsh defence. He helped to set-up some of the tries also using quick skilful passing. O'Driscoll is a fabulous player and displayed a great performance against Wales including a stunning try but a made just a couple of small faults. Murphy was a brilliant decision to put on from the bench because he showed that he has enough skill to be in the first choice team by being a reliable and clever full-back.
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is jim o'driscoll (read postings 75&77) jonathan davis incognito??????
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Having sat through the most exciting game of the weekend i.e. Wales and Ireland(No really it was), I would just like to thank JD for yet another unbiased commentary.It was nearly as bad as listening to the "impartial" Eddie Butler commentating on England. I dont know if it is only me but has JD's voice broke yet. I think he would be better in a male voice choir than as a commentator. That said when he is talking about a team other than Wales (preferably aftermatch or intervals)he talks a lot of sense as any Great player should. Whenever an Englishman shows that amount of passion and bias for his side then he is arrogant, so what is the Welsh for this? Lets hope the 91热爆 employ Oz Healey a bit more as his comments are straight to the point and he seems to say what everyone else thinks but they dont have his bottle.
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As for comments 3 and 6, read it and weep fellas. Simon Easterby's challenge for the BALL was absolutely fine. The ref knew it and so did the TJ. Hopefully your whinging will be put to bed when Scotland whip you lot on Saturday. I can't wait. If there's one thing we can't have is bitterness and no blaming ourselves in defeat. Ireland were bad, but still beat a good Welsh team. So much for domination up front. Not once were the Irish scrum under pressure, John Hayes and Marcus Horan did admirably. I heard Steve Walsh tell the referee on Saturday, it's No1 and 2 red that are standing up in the scrum, cos they can't cope with it. That's why the ref's attitude changed to the welsh scrum in the second half. Any wonder they replaced Gethin Jenkins, Horsman was non-effective. It was a beautiful sight. Don't be bitter, it could turn out you've been beaten by the 2007 6 nations champs and deservedly the 2nd best team in World Rugby. After the weekend, things are back to how everyone knows it should be...Ireland, England and France, the 3 top teams in the NH, in contention for a Grand Slam. Big Shaggy Horgan is back this week, watch him go. The Future's Green!
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I agree that Jonathon Davies shows far too much bias to the welsh team and should possibly not be in the commenty box for welsh games however he is a great commentator and should be kept for other teams. I also agree that Austin Healey should be on tv more as his comments were astute and interesting. However the most bias commentator of them all has to be Brian Moore as an England fan I am embaressed by the level of bias he shows to England and his persistant screams of "overlap left/right if theres quick ball" both infuriate and annoy me!
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I have read through a lot of the comments and play 7 for my local club. One thing i would like to emphasise is the fact that many times the player on the ground is the cause of the problem as he does not release quick enough causing the fourth player to try and ruck away the player with the ball and on his feet. This is when a pile up of bodies occurs. Also, i think Wales and other countries who are complaing would be better off looking at how ireland secured the ball and got it out of the contact area quickly which i think was the ultimate factor in Ireland winning the game!! I think a lot of it came down to the Irish players superior skill and strength in the back line, especially the centres where Ireland have 2 'back row forwards' who are also the best centre partnership in world rugby! and yes, i think they are better than the New Zealand centre pairings!!
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I think its a bit rich to see the moaning about Ireland players not releasing quick enough. The game is played at the tempo and format that the referee permits. For many years we have had half the Scot's team lying in offside positions. Wales also know how to play the Ref. I think any team that wins three tries to nil just about deserves to triumph. Wales are on the way back but somewhat like Munster are lacking some speed and guile in their outside backs. Real tests now about to commence. Waiting and Hoping that we can get some consistency in the Refs across all the games this season and on into the World Cup,
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I think its a bit rich to see the moaning about Ireland players not releasing quick enough. The game is played at the tempo and format that the referee permits. For many years we have had half the Scot's team lying in offside positions. Wales also know how to play the Ref. I think any team that wins three tries to nil just about deserves to triumph. Wales are on the way back but somewhat like Munster are lacking some speed and guile in their outside backs. Real tests now about to commence. Waiting and Hoping that we can get some consistency in the Refs across all the games this season and on into the World Cup,
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The Welsh should thank God that they werent playing Ireland at Croke Park.They would have been destroyed. Tune in on Sunday to see possibly the finest stadium in Europe packed to the rafters for an historic "first ever" encounter at Croker!!
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When will Ireland realise if they are to win grand slam and do well in the world cup Peter Stringer needs to go! Although hugely experienced "mini me" as he is known in New Zealand never makes breaks or attacks opposition around the fringes. When playing against byron Kelleher in summer tests he was giving away 20kg surely in the modern game this key position needs to be filled by someone who can do more than just pass!!Maybe his injury could be the chance Issac Boss needs!
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I must admit this column is comedy.
Yes Ireland rucked us last Sun, but our team wasn't tough enough.
I like Stephen Jones, but he should have been replaced and Cezjak needs to realise that he is a 6 foot 4 inch juggernaut and should take people on. Hal luscombe has never been good enough for Wales. Sorry, harsh, but fact.
Usually you need luck and front to win the Grand Slam. Wales didn't need luck in 2005 they were sublime, but now they have to graft a bit, but they are not far off. Ireland will need a bit more luck yet, but I think they will do it, the time is right.
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If Easterby behaves/plays like that in the Heineken cup quarter final against Munster, will there be the same numbers of negative comments from the Welsh. The English and southern hemisphere teams have played the ref for years,we celts must learn to do the same .
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2 Points:
1) Welsh moaning about killing ball is not just an illustration of bad losing.....it is completely innacurate. I can remember at least four occasions when Welsh Runners became isolated in the midfield and either D'Arcy or O'Driscoll (much like exta back-rowers) attempted turnovers - only to be denied by Welsh not releasing. The Irish play at the breakdown was first class and should have been greter rewarded, not punished. Popham may have chagre around like a headless chicken, but,sadly for you Welsh,the only turnovers he is familiar with have an apple filling.
2) Jonathan Davies is a small minded, moaning, biases and amateurish commentator. Sadly he represents the rule as opposed to the exception for 91热爆 analysts and commentators these days. Moore, Guscott, Davies, Butler and Inverdale all currently serve to detract from the fantastic spectacle that is the Six Nations. Further, the 91热爆 themselves are guilty - I didn't realise Scotland were playing on Saturday until just before kick-off such was the pre-match focus on England. Bill McLaren was undoubtedly a proud and passionate Scot but never, ever did he allow his own preferences compromise the delivery of his commentary. The current mob put together aren't fit to lace McLaren's boots but maybe, just maybe, they could take a sip of impartiality this week and offer the (fee paying) viewer the spectacle they deserve.
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As i sit here, I find myself wishing for Wales to lose (note: not 'Scotland to win'), could it be that this is because my delicate English sensibilities are deeply offended by the un-ashamedly Welsh-Worshipping:Scottish-Slating delivery of Jonathan Davies? Could it? The man should take a lesson from his opposite number! If you purport to be a provider of quality, gently-flavoured audio accompaniment to a mostly visual encounter (and you do every time you commentate for the 91热爆, Jonathan), then you should figure out how to stop your personal bias ruining my bloody match!
Kind Regards.
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contd.....the key is, jonathan, to try and actually commentate on the passage of play, rather then offering us only your punditry. We take or leave the points of view of pundits. That's why they're called pundits. To give you any greater a position in the Six Nations staff than 'Welsh pundit' is an absolute travesty, and an insult to the word commentator.
Slightly ruffled regards.
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