The Dew Drop Inn Virtual Rugby Pub

First topic message reminder :

Welcome to the virtual rugby pub - a place where you can come in for a sly beverage and discuss whatever's on your mind, or just eavesdrop on the regulars if you fancy a break from all the rugby chat.

The only rule in this pub is one of mutual respect for everyone in it, oh and no defacing the Stephen Jones photo on the bar. That's a banning offence

So pull up a chair....what'll it be?

Afternoon Mr G had the pm will reply when I can get my brain in gear.

Knee injury rules Walker out of Scots World Cup squad

Started up watch the Wales game here. Very interesting stuff. Second try was very good.

North has a good step on him for a big lad.

Cymroglan wrote:North has a good step on him for a big lad.

Is that English born George North??

Alright Cymro man? I just went into my inbox and outbox and it's all gorn!

Referee!

All roysh Munsty? Great to see you yesterday. Went to Rav in the corporate box after the game. Soo lush. Then on to Cassidys and Zaytoons. By 1 am, I was talking Russian fluently. Amazing.

I like North. He doesn't seem to be a player that relies on his size, which will only help him throughout his career.

Gibbo,

Good to see you. Be nice if we could sit down and have a proper chat at some stage. Stag had his first Zaytoon yesterday. Was very impressed.

Gibson wrote:Alright Cymro man? I just went into my inbox and outbox and it's all gorn!

Referee!

Gibbo, there's a thread here about it

hughie1986 wrote:

Cymroglan wrote:North has a good step on him for a big lad.

Is that English born George North??

Yes Hughie he was born in England due to his father being posted there with the RAF his mother Janet who is my cousin said George has not forgiven her for that.

I'm afraid I can't think about North without remembering the pictures of him warming up the time he was a very last minute call up for Shane Williams. They obviously had managed to get him a playing shirt that fitted but had had to use William's warm up kit.

It looked like a crop top on the lad!

Thanks Notts. I was getting worried someone had got into it.

Is the site running a bit slow today pages taking longer to load ?

I think it's just running slowly Cymro, pages are taking a while to load with me, but then it's been like that for a few days.

Why not O'Gara 10,Sexton 12? Looked decent yesterday would like to see it for some of the England game.

I dont necessarily think we can start looking at it in our last warm up game (and i dont think Kidney will). Im not against it but for me it is possibly too late. If it doesnt work out then we will have deprived D'arce of much needed gametime. Also ROG isnt getting any younger a moving Sexton around now could hinder him. ROG is definately knocking on the first XV door but for me i think Reddan has to start with Sexton before we go to a changed 10-12 axis.

I dont want to seem to critical of our centres as it was only their first game but an area that was once our greatest strength is steadily becoming a weakness. It needs addressed post RWC, and i would include the 6N in trying out new combos.

Afternoon all, just checking in. Managed 39 minutes for my 5km run in Regents Park this morning.

After yesterday I'm seriously praying McCaw and Carter stay fit through the RWC. Thompson is NOT a 7. After 10 mins I was screaming at Ali Williams to stay out of the backline, he butchered 3 oppurtunities standing at 2nd receiver.

As far as that tmo call goes, right decision was made, but I wonder if the TMO would have volunteered the information if it had been a Saffa try.

Felix Jones out of the World Cup.

MBTGOG wrote:Felix Jones out of the World Cup.

Saw that alright, very disappointed for him. Not concerned about Murphy being on the plane.

Notch wrote:i don't think ny of the home nations are set for serious challenges based on what I've seen to be honest. England have gone backwards, Wales and Scotland look fairly average as do Ireland.

The Big Four of World Rugby- France, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand- are well ahead.

Can't agree more (although once again I haven't seen anything of the Scots in the warm-ups).

The steps backwards taken by England since the third game of the 6Ns have been gargantuan. Wales are progressing and Ireland flat-lining.

The Dubs game is going to be very interesting as both sides have to go into the RWC with some sort of momentum.

Sorry for the delay - it's hours and hours since I started composing this response. The Archers and then the cricket got in the way/

Evenin' All

Shame about Felix Jones. It didn't look hopeful on the TV though. I wish him a full recovery.

It's been a good sports weekend for me. Wales won, as did the minor Dubs hurlers and the Ospreys won today. Nice.

Oh, and shame about Nikki walker as well. That's a bummer. Hopefully he'll be all right for domestic duty before long.

I confess to some curiosity - I've just watched the first half of Ireland vs France. My thoughts so far:
(1) scrum steady to begin with, then starting to get in to trouble - is this due to difficulties at prop? Can't see either side of the scrum buckling? POC being a stone and a bit lighter cant help?
(2) SOB having a good game - not surprising really cos Jennings is all over the ball on the deck, but Fulgence is the master of the tackle/maul area
(3) one TOL bobbins box kick so far, but his service hadn't been too bad
(4) midfield - are they playing with instructions to ship at wide regardless? No penetration, altho to be fair, no attempts at penetration - St BOD badly at fault for try
(5) back three doing well - Trimle a handful, Jones is more than solid, Earls looms electric, but with a player like that you'll always get a high risk moment and he's turned over once so far, but equally his oppo could be beaten at any time

What changed in the second half for the views I've seen on here to be expressed?

evening,
just getting our holmes and watson together(private joke,ask Asbo) to spend another night under Sherwood;temp has dropped to 35(last night we got down to 24)

thankfully we live in the countryside'it must be awful for those people,especially older than us, who live in towns and don't possess AC.

Fedup of drinking water, but there's no choice-ok, a cuppa from time to time doesn't hurt.<sweat><sweat><sweat><sweat><sweat><sweat><sweat><sweat>

I think the scrummaging is just a case of France are very good at scrummaging- almost whoever starts. Poux, Szarzewski and Mas have the technique, while the rest of the pack are a well-oiled unit when it comes to maximising their pushing power and getting a concentrated drive going.

I can't agree with O'Learys service and about Earls, although to be fair both players had their worst moments after halftime. There was one incident in the first half where O'Leary picked from the ruck, ran to the opposite side from all his backs, realised he'd gone the wrong way and threw a long pass back across to Sexton. Next time he threw a similar pass to Sexton under pressure, this time deep in our own 22, Trinh-Duc intercepted it and was under the posts. Although he had been dealt a hospital pass by Heaslip.

The lateral back play is my biggest criticism and concern. We just try and outflank defences- theres this thing called the drift defence... I'm slightly concerned we don't seem to be aware of it when drawing up our masterplan for attacking with ball in hand!

Evenin Asbo What do you think about Walker not going to the RWC? I know you haven't thought much of him with Scotland previously?

And with all this heat, a thought for Large George

SOB is the best player in the NH - if not the world - in my opinion. He was fundamental to the England defeat last time out and I also can't see past him to to be the main man responsible for repeating the result next weekend.

Portnoy wrote:SOB is the best player in the NH - if not the world - in my opinion. He was fundamental to the England defeat last time out and I also can't see past him to to be the main man responsible for repeating the result next weekend.

I've got to say, he is if the rest of the backrow pick up the slack for him at the breakdown and just let him carry the ball. I think he still has weaknesses in his game regarding getting involved in the dirty work that a 6 needs to do and I would very much envisage him as an impact sub with Ferris, Wallace and Heaslip starting the game.

Cari wrote:Evenin Asbo What do you think about Walker not going to the RWC? I know you haven't thought much of him with Scotland previously?

Seriously feel bad for him, Cariadwr, even tho I don't rate him at this level. He'd actually done enough in the last 3/4 games to convince me to take him at TH expense of Danielli who just looked like he couldn't be bothered, altho he wouldn't have made my XXII

Mick(TEFC) wrote:And with all this heat, a thought for Large George

+1. RIP

Notch wrote:

Portnoy wrote:SOB is the best player in the NH - if not the world - in my opinion. He was fundamental to the England defeat last time out and I also can't see past him to to be the main man responsible for repeating the result next weekend.

I've got to say, he is if the rest of the backrow pick up the slack for him at the breakdown and just let him carry the ball. I think he still has weaknesses in his game regarding getting involved in the dirty work that a 6 needs to do and I would very much envisage him as an impact sub with Ferris, Wallace and Heaslip starting the game.

You have got to be joshing me. DK will build his pack with SOB first penned in in indelible ink. Just as BOD will be the equivalent representative in the backs.

SOB was ok,our breakdown work was awful for most of the game,SOB didn't do much then he made a few tackles but missed quite a few too.

Notch wrote:I think the scrummaging is just a case of France are very good at scrummaging- almost whoever starts. Poux, Szarzewski and Mas have the technique, while the rest of the pack are a well-oiled unit when it comes to maximising their pushing power and getting a concentrated drive going.

I can't agree with O'Learys service and about Earls, although to be fair both players had their worst moments after halftime. There was one incident in the first half where O'Leary picked from the ruck, ran to the opposite side from all his backs, realised he'd gone the wrong way and threw a long pass back across to Sexton. Next time he threw a similar pass to Sexton under pressure, this time deep in our own 22, Trinh-Duc intercepted it and was under the posts. Although he had been dealt a hospital pass by Heaslip.

The lateral back play is my biggest criticism and concern. We just try and outflank defences- theres this thing called the drift defence... I'm slightly concerned we don't seem to be aware of it when drawing up our masterplan for attacking with ball in hand!

Notch, I called the first half as I saw it, and defo reserve the right to change my view after watching the second half later. I couldn't help but wonder whether the lateral back play was the result of simply following instructions or GDA & BOD being slightly less fit than they should have been, and just very happy to shovel it along - wouldn't expect to see that from either of them at full pace

Thomond wrote:SOB was ok,our breakdown work was awful for most of the game,SOB didn't do much then he made a few tackles but missed quite a few too.

Thom, can't agree - in the first half Jennings did plenty of work on the deck giving SOB the licence to rampage about, altho Heaslip had a quiet game - still gave 2nd half to watch mind

As,we did F all apart from the 1st twenty minutes. Heaslip was great won lots of turnover ball, Ireland's best performer yesterday.

No, he is a brilliant carrier but the competition is intense. It's not like we're leaving him out for a bad player. There's a lot to playing backrow and it's no longer a place for specialists in the test game. All three backrows must discharge their duties in every area of the game. The world class backrow is someone who is capable of breaking the gainline, winning lineouts, pushing in the scrum when required, strike moves off the back of the scrum, defence, counter-rucking, clearing out and turning over ball. They are few in number indeed. We're lucky enough to have one and unlucky enough to have seen his career blighted by injury.

I feel Ferris is a more rounded player than O'Brien- a lineout option which is crucial for us, a great carrier but most importantly he is a massive physical prescence at the breakdown.

If he's not fit, by all means play O'Brien but O'Brien has a lot of work to do on his game before he can be considered one of the top backrows in Europe.

As - I'm in agreement with you on your fist half summary. I've just finished watching the entire game myself. SOB was standour player for Ireland for me.

Thomond wrote:As,we did F all apart from the 1st twenty minutes. Heaslip was great won lots of turnover ball, Ireland's best performer yesterday.

Ok, Thom, will look out for that in the 2nd half cos tbh he's won the square root of zip other than at set pieces (good line out operator) so far

SOB is great with the ball in hand but doesn't do enough elsewhere. Ferris was great in his cameo and I'm in favour of starting him as I alwys was.

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:

Thomond wrote:As,we did F all apart from the 1st twenty minutes. Heaslip was great won lots of turnover ball, Ireland's best performer yesterday.

Ok, Thom, will look out for that in the 2nd half cos tbh he's won the square root of zip other than at set pieces (good line out operator) so far

That, to be fair, is one of the major areas where we need our backrows. Our lineout has been badly picked apart at times. Just last week, the French contended our lineout masterfully and the lack of jumpers hurt us. Three lineout operators is good, but four lineout operators would very much add enough variation to keep opposition defences guessing and take a lot of pressure off the hooker.

Asbo - yeah it's a shame for him. I would've like to have seen him go. Still hopefully he'll recover and be back for Scotland in the Six Nations.

Thomond wrote:SOB is great with the ball in hand but doesn't do enough elsewhere. Ferris was great in his cameo and I'm in favour of starting him as I alwys was.

+1 for me. To be fair, his carrying game is brilliant and of real value to us. But by starting him we are losing out in other, less obvious, areas. I think as an impact player he will be exceptional for us coming off the bench.

Even if he is first choice though, I sincerely doubt he will start next weekend as both Ferris and Wallace haven't had a start yet. They need gametime.

Just settling down to watch Scotland v Italy now.

Doddie Weir's outfit is amazing

Notch wrote:

Thomond wrote:SOB is great with the ball in hand but doesn't do enough elsewhere. Ferris was great in his cameo and I'm in favour of starting him as I alwys was.

+1 for me. To be fair, his carrying game is brilliant and of real value to us. But by starting him we are losing out in other, less obvious, areas. I think as an impact player he will be exceptional for us coming off the bench.

isn't this a balance in the back row issue? SOB-Jennings-Heaslip works just fine, slightly better than SOB-Wallace-Heaslip imo, even tho Wallace is the better individual player (vs Jennings) for me. Jennings let's SOB play the game at which he excels, but if you task him to play alongside Wallace or even worse at 7, then of course you'd expect a different outcome. 1F still the best blindside in Ireland by a distance, and works well with Wallace cos he doesn't rely so much on Wallace playing a specific role

No it doesn't if it did,we would have had clean ball for TOL and our backs. Jennings didn't actually do anything yesterday.

rugbydreamer wrote:Just settling down to watch Scotland v Italy now.

Doddie Weir's outfit is amazing

+1, may have to get the matching (horrendous) jacket made to go with the trews for Mich 's next bash - be warned!

Thom, again, just going on the first half alone so far, TOL has had as much clean ball as I've seen most int'l SHs get, not to mention that clean ball is the responsibility of all forwards at the breakdown after second phase ball

From what I saw As,Ireland were on the backfoot or under pressure at the breakdown,TOL was awful and of course your pack is resposnsible for the breakdown work but your backrow are supposed to be the fittest most athletic guys on the team,they should be the first there pretty mcuh every time.

Also wasn't it great to see ROG hit a ruck before Sexton's try!

Ah I love watching Scotland play. Mr Barclay and Mr Cusiter

Here's a question:

"does the selection or otherwise of individuals by Kidney from his current squad make a significant difference to the outcome of the match"

The argument for:
See every Irish team selection thread since the birth of the Scrum V boards.

The argument against:
See the third Lions test v South Africa, where players were out of position all over the park for the Lions, some of whom had never played those positions before, yet the cohesion of the unit hardly suffered.

Where do you stand?