Rugby 2018 Discussion

Eddie Jones says he's busy pulling knives out of his back
https://www.rte.ie/sport/rugby/2018/0618/971483-eddie-jones-knives/

Eddie Jones insists he is pulling knives out of his back having anticipated the turbulent period currently engulfing his England reign.

"Every coaching job is the same," he said.

"When you are doing well, everyone pats you on the back and when you are not doing well, you're pulling knives out of your back. That's the reality of it."
Click to expand...

:rolleyes:
 
How has Danny Cipriani looked on this tour after getting called up after ages? Think it was a decade or so since he last played for the national side. The Guardian has carried about 10 articles on him in the past month. They average about one every three days.
 
Champions Cup pools have been drawn.

DgI56RAXUAASlCP
 
Ringrose, Conway and Leavy out for Ireland - that's a pity. Ross Byrne comes in on the bench, interesting risk taking there.

Ireland: Rob Kearney, Keith Earls, Robbie Henshaw, Bundee Aki, Jacob Stockdale, Johnny Sexton, Conor Murray; Jack McGrath, Sean Cronin, Tadhg Furlong, Devin Toner, James Ryan, CJ Stander, Peter O Mahony (capt), Jack Conan.

Replacements: Niall Scannell, Cian Healy, John Ryan, Tadhg Beirne, Jordi Murphy, Kieran Marmion, Ross Byrne, Jordan Larmour.


35515704_10156219772910731_9044448286328487936_o.jpg
 
The three boys will be a big loss for us although together they probably add up to equal the effect losing Genia will have for Australia.

Happy to see Cronin get his start and would love to see Byrne get a decent 20 minutes off the bench. Bit concerned about how much rugby Stander and OMahony have played - they must be running on fumes at this stage!

It's a shame Ruddock wasn't available to share some of the load but he'll presumably see decent game time in November. Conan could do with a good showing on Saturday - he needs to start bringing some of his Leinster form into a green shirt.

What's Lukhan Tui like lads? Don't think I've ever seen him play.
 
I'm personally much less confident now. Ringrose had a great game last weekend. He also nailed a few shoot tackles that Henshaw made a balls of in the first test. Leavy's also had a fantastic season. Conway will be absolutely gutted that his chance is over due to a knee drop - I hope they're looking at making that a yellow card offence.

I got that Aussie team lineup from Facebook and quite a lot of negative comments were there about Phipps. Maybe it does even out as @diarm says.
 
unchanged_lineup said:
I'm personally much less confident now. Ringrose had a great game last weekend. He also nailed a few shoot tackles that Henshaw made a balls of in the first test. Leavy's also had a fantastic season. Conway will be absolutely gutted that his chance is over due to a knee drop.

I got that Aussie team lineup from Facebook and quite a lot of negative comments were there about Phipps. Maybe it does even out as @diarm says.
Click to expand...

Yeah Ringrose just makes us look so much better in both attack and defence. I like both Aki and Henshaw but neither are 13s for me. Farrell is most definitely second choice outside centre but unfortunately he's out too.

We'll be competitive either way and it's good practise for the squad to adapt to different lineups. We couldn't handle exactly that when we lost a few players at the last world cup so this is all great experience at such a high level.
 
diarm said:
Yeah Ringrose just makes us look so much better in both attack and defence. I like both Aki and Henshaw but neither are 13s for me. Farrell is most definitely second choice outside centre but unfortunately he's out too.

We'll be competitive either way and it's good practise for the squad to adapt to different lineups. We couldn't handle exactly that when we lost a few players at the last world cup so this is all great experience at such a high level.
Click to expand...

Yup, that's the silver lining. All 32 players brought will have been involved in the three tests.

Ireland need to start working on 15 now though - it's a big potential weakness for the future with a lack of experienced replacements for Kearney.
 
unchanged_lineup said:
Yup, that's the silver lining. All 32 players brought will have been involved in the three tests.

Ireland need to start working on 15 now though - it's a big potential weakness for the future with a lack of experienced replacements for Kearney.
Click to expand...

I imagine Larmour is the long term plan with Conway there as an option as well. Joe doesn't seem to rate O'Halloran and Zebo is gone so I don't know who else is breaking through. There's a young lad at Munster called Fitzpatrick and IQ Haley coming from Sale but neither of them have shown enough to suggest they'll be good enough yet.

I wonder might we see Henshaw there at some stage? With 4 quality options at centre, Joe might be tempted to try him at the back - he has played there before with some success for Connacht.
 
Is this Cheika's third solid Good Auld Moan in a week?

https://www.rte.ie/sport/rugby/2018/0621/972114-rolling-in-the-way-cheika-identifies-irish-tactic/

"They do that thing where they get two players connected beforehand and they try to ram you, one through the other, they’ve been good ‘cause they are big and strong.

"They’ve been tackling, folding in, rolling in the way ‘cause they want to slow our ball down so you need a physical presence to be able to do that.

"We’ve just got to get there before them, not let them [in] there and if they’re there we’ve got to get them out of the way with whatever means we need.

"It’s more about how you adapt as the series goes on because you do get to know the other team pretty quickly when you’re going back to back and then three games in a row."
Click to expand...

"... but we're not highlighting it to the referee or anything. Just saying like." *holds up hands and shrugs.
 
diarm said:
I imagine Larmour is the long term plan with Conway there as an option as well. Joe doesn't seem to rate O'Halloran and Zebo is gone so I don't know who else is breaking through. There's a young lad at Munster called Fitzpatrick and IQ Haley coming from Sale but neither of them have shown enough to suggest they'll be good enough yet.

I wonder might we see Henshaw there at some stage? With 4 quality options at centre, Joe might be tempted to try him at the back - he has played there before with some success for Connacht.
Click to expand...

I think, sad to say, that O'Halloran's chance looks gone - he never even got one really. I think it's become the most pressing area because Marmion has shown he can do a job at international level and Carbery has done OK at 10 with Byrne to hopefully get a go this weekend.

There hasn't been any experimentation at 15 really since the England match with Payne. There's another big loss. Kearney has been superb, but he's getting on too. The player potential looks to be there, but they'll need opportunities.
 
unchanged_lineup said:
I'm personally much less confident now. Ringrose had a great game last weekend. He also nailed a few shoot tackles that Henshaw made a balls of in the first test. Leavy's also had a fantastic season. Conway will be absolutely gutted that his chance is over due to a knee drop - I hope they're looking at making that a yellow card offence.

I got that Aussie team lineup from Facebook and quite a lot of negative comments were there about Phipps. Maybe it does even out as @diarm says.
Click to expand...

Rightly so. Genia is probably a 9/10 scrumhalf. I'd rate Phipps a 7.5/10. Phipps is a good super rugby player but i don't think of him a great test match scrumhalf. Did any of the negative comments refer to Phipps pissing on bar at his bucks party? I hope Phipps puts in a man of the match performance on Saturday though.
 
The Springboks have named their team to play England in what could be the last test played at Newlands in Cape Town. Rassie Erasmus has made some changes: Gelant replaces Le Roux at fullback, Esterhuizen and Kriel replace Lukanyo Am and Damien De Allende at 12&13. Elton Janjties replaces Handre Pollard at flyhalf while Chiliboy Ralepelle replaces Bongi Mbanambi at hooker. No place for Mbanambi on the bench, his spot is taken by 37 year old Schalk Brits.

15. Warrick Gelant
14. S'Busiso Nkosi
13. Jesse Kriel
12. Andre Esterhuizen
11. Aphiwe Dyantyi
10. Elton Jantjies
9. Faf de Klerk
8. Duane Vermeulen
7. Pieter-Steph du Toit
6. Siya Kolisi - captain
5. Franco Mostert
4. RG Snyman
3. Frans Malherbe
2. Chiliboy Ralepelle
1. Tendai Mtawarira
Replacements:
16. Schalk Brits
17. Steven Kitshoff
18. Thomas du Toit
19. Jean-Luc du Preez
20. Sikhumbuzo Notshe
21. Embrose Papier
22. Handré Pollard
23. Willie le Roux
 
Xaviesta said:
Rightly so. Genia is probably a 9/10 scrumhalf. I'd rate Phipps a 7.5/10. Phipps is a good super rugby player but i don't think of him a great test match scrumhalf. Did any of the negative comments refer to Phipps pissing on bar at his bucks party? I hope Phipps puts in a man of the match performance on Saturday though.
Click to expand...

Ha! No, I didn't see any of that. Just general slagging of him, his kicking and Waratahs.
 
unchanged_lineup said:
Yep, a load of comments about him too. What's the story?
Click to expand...

Hanigan's problem is he's not quite physically ready for test rugby. yet he is picked for the Wallabies. It must be said that It's not Hanigan's fault Cheika picks him. The fact he plays for the Waratahs is brought up by those who don't agree with his selection like it does with Phipps and to a lesser extent Michael Hooper. Michael Cheika has been accused by some fans of showing favouritism to Waratahs players even though haven't been the best super rugby team in AUS for a while now.
 
Last edited:
Cronin is out for Ireland.
https://www.rte.ie/sport/rugby/2018/0623/972624-late-change-for-ireland-as-cronin-ruled-out/

Niall Scannell in and Rob Herring on to the bench.

Ireland: Rob Kearney, Keith Earls, Robbie Henshaw, Bundee Aki, Jacob Stockdale, Johnny Sexton, Conor Murray; Jack McGrath, Niall Scannell, Tadhg Furlong, Devin Toner, James Ryan, CJ Stander, Peter O Mahony (capt), Jack Conan.

Replacements: Rob Herring, Cian Healy, John Ryan, Tadhg Beirne, Jordi Murphy, Kieran Marmion, Ross Byrne, Jordan Larmour.
 
unchanged_lineup said:
France started pretty well, but it went downhill as could be expected. Oh well.
Click to expand...

Very impressed with Scott Barrett and Damien McKenzie. The game the French chose to play couldn't have played into the young outhalfs hands anymore, but he's taken his chance and really run with it.
 
The voice of rugby in Australia, Gordon Bray, turns 69 today. Hope the Wallabies give a present in the form of a win.
 
Schmidt essentially blamed the defeat in Murrayfield last year on being 15 minutes late, so at least we've already now got an excuse today (I thought we would lose anyway once I saw the starting 15).
 
I actually have an ounce of sympathy for the All Blacks. The accusations that they get favourable treatment by officials will continue for another week when they're not at fault unless there's something sinister at play.
 
Great play O'Mahony to win a penalty after the awkward landing from the kick off.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.