Ireland 9 - 20 England - Final Score - Post Match discussion.

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England gave themselves a confidence boost a fortnight before the World Cup as they condemned Ireland to a fourth straight warm-up defeat.

An early Manu Tuilagi try and two Jonny Wilkinson penalties saw England lead 13-9 at half-time, Ronan O'Gara landing three kicks in reply.

With Chris Ashton in the sin-bin, England stretched their lead with a Delon Armitage try.

That proved the final score as heavy rain made conditions tricky.

Five months after their humbling 24-8 defeat attempting a Six Nations Grand Slam in Dublin, England will take heart from their first victory in the Irish capital since 2003.

But the casualty rate of the warm-up programme escalated further, with both sides suffering more injuries days before departing for New Zealand.

Ireland saw David Wallace stretchered off and Jamie Heaslip also depart in the first half, while Hendre Fourie and Mark Cueto only lasted the opening quarter for England.

ENGLAND'S WORLD CUP FIXTURES
Continue reading the main story
v Argentina: 10 Sept, Dunedin
v Georgia: 18 Sept, Dunedin
v Romania: 24 Sept, Dunedin
v Scotland: 01 Oct, Auckland
Fourie - not in the 30-man World Cup squad - had only been drafted in as a late replacement after Nick Easter joined fellow back-rows Tom Wood and Lewis Moody on the sidelines, with James Haskell starting at number eight.

Fourie was heavily involved in England's opening salvo before two minutes of pressure came to nothing when Wilkinson's right-footed drop-goal from long range drifted wide.

But the visitors didn't have long to wait to get on the scoreboard. After a powerful scrum and pick-up from Haskell, England moved the ball left and a simple pass from Mike Tindall sent Tuilagi arcing round an out-of-position Keith Earls to score his second try in as many Tests, Wilkinson converting.

Ireland replied when Geordan Murphy fielded an aimless kick from Wilkinson and was blatantly impeded by Courtney Lawes as he tried to run it back, O'Gara landing the penalty.

But England's scrum power was evident as they pushed the Irish back on their own ball, giving Wilkinson the opportunity to make it 10-3.

Ireland refused several more kicks at goal, Eoin Reddan taking a quick tap penalty close to the England line, only to see Cueto intercept his scoring pass with two men outside him.

Tuilagi's impact on the game continued to be felt, particularly by Wallace.

The Ireland flanker carried the ball through Tuilagi's initial tackle but did not survive a second encounter with the Anglo-Samoan, being stretchered off with a knee injury as O'Gara was landing his second penalty for the high tackle.

England also lost Fourie - replaced by lock Tom Palmer with Lawes moving into the back row - and Cueto, with Armitage replacing the latter.

A marginal high tackle by Stephen Ferris on Lawes saw Wilkinson make it 13-6 in the 27th minute, and England should have extended their lead on the half-hour.

Tuilagi picked up a loose Ireland line-out in his own half and galloped 60m before Murphy collared him, but England butchered a clear overlap with poor passes from Wilkinson and Lawes, Chris Ashton and Ben Foden bawling their frustration.

IRELAND'S WORLD CUP FIXTURES
Continue reading the main story
v USA: 11 Sept, New Plymouth
v Australia: 17 Sept, Auckland
v Russia: 25 Sept, Rotorua
v Italy: 02 Oct, Dunedin
Referee Nigel Owens lectured England captain Tindall as the penalty count rose, then warned Tom Croft after a skirmish with Cian Healy on the floor.

Ireland finished the half in the ascendancy but the visitors kept out a wave of attacks to preserve their lead.

They should have been hampered on the resumption with Ashton was sin-binned, but O'Gara's penalty came back off an upright.

Instead England stretched their lead while down to 14 men as Tindall's beautifully-weighted grubber kick was gathered by Armitage to touch down, Wilkinson's conversion pushing them out to 20-9.

But it was a mixed outing for the celebrated fly-half, who over-cooked a penalty kicked to the corner and saw another pass go to ground.

As the heavens opened on the hour, neither side was able to sustain any momentum in the final quarter, despite Paul O'Connell's promptings for Ireland.

The hosts depart for the World Cup on the back of four straight defeats, England buoyed by victory two weeks before they take on Argentina.

Ireland: Murphy, Bowe, Earls, D'Arcy, Trimble, O'Gara, Reddan; Healy, Flannery, Ross, O'Callaghan, O'Connell, Ferris, Wallace, Heaslip. Replacements: Best (for Flannery, 50), Court (for Healy, 70), Ryan (for Heaslip, 35), Leamy (for Wallace, 22), Murray (for Reddan, 62), Sexton (for O'Gara, 62), McFadden (71).

England: Foden, Ashton, Tuilagi, Tindall, Cueto, Wilkinson, Wigglesworth; Sheridan, Thompson, Cole, Deacon, Lawes, Croft, Fourie, Haskell. Replacements: Hartley (for Thompson, 52), Stevens (for Sheridan, 57), Shaw (for Deacon, 62), Palmer (for Fourie, 21), Simpson, Flood (for Tindall, 75), Armitage (for Cueto, 21).

Yellow card: Chris Ashton (41)

Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)

Attendance: 48,523

I think Ireland can make the QFs Billy...if injuries don't keep too many players out. Hopefully Heaslip will be grand, and SOB will be too.

Ireland must start Sexton. I'll be honest, I didn't rate him before this year's 6 nations but he is class.

first choice centre partnership is now sorted. Both centres played well.Solid performance from England & well deserved victory forwards were very impressive & bullied the Irish.
hopefully the injuries aren't too bad.

Not so sure of that Cari. Ireland are in a rich form of loosing and i cant see them getting out of it. I standby Ireland being done after the pool stages.

I must admit to having doubts about Manu's quality in the centres for England but if he plays like that at the RWC, he will make a big name of himself.

Billy - Ireland's biggest problem from what I can tell was centrally. Earls just didn't belong at 13 today, and without BOD, D'Arcy's lost. Thankfully you will have BOD for the RWC, but when he's gone...? Replacing Wally and possibly (although hopefully not) Heaslip will be a headache as well.

That was a different England. Much more dominant up front and far more leadership behind.

Ireland just couldn't muster the storm they gave Eng back in March.

I do feel that their dominance is coming to an end. Eng have been much better at U21 for a while now and this senior team are learning. London next year will be interesting.

Where was Sexton? seemed poor.

eirebilly wrote:Right.

England were not impressive but they did the work that was required. They looked alot more solid in defence and their attack was decent. Their indiscipline is still a major concern for them.

Ireland, not good at all. Declan really has to be asked the questions about his constant selection of D'Arcy. He is a shadow of his former self and has been given more than enough opportunities but has failed time and time again. Earles looked scarily out of depth and was often wastefull.

I still feel confident that Ireland will come out of their group but they will be done the very 1st game of the knockouts.

Absofeckinglutely.

But Italy recently beat France, they will target Ireland and based on this month's performances Ireland will have the work cut out to get out of the group in the last game on Oct 2nd

faraway wrote:

Countnefarious wrote:How's Tindall looking at 12?

invisible to me. only comes when nigel wanna talk to him.

apart from tackling Ireland to a standstill surely?

Cari, the centres were the problem without a doubt. D'Arcy was the experienced centre and was constantly putting himself and Earl's out of position. He was again truely poor.

Dempsy gave a good account of himself at FB so i would leave him there, Trimble and Bowe as the wingers, BOD and Paddy Wallace as the centres with Sexton and Reddan at 10 and 9.

I hope like hell that Davie's injury is not bad but it looks like it is.

On the upside, I thought Geordan Murphy, Flannery, POC all had really good games today.

For England, Manu and Tindall worked very well together and Tindall gave Manu a lot of responsibilty switching positions in defence regularly.

Englands forwards, were very strong and their scrumaging was excellent.
Their indiscipline is still such a major concern and must be looked at by MJ if they are going to go on a decent run at the RWC. I cant help but feel that a better team than Ireland would have punished England more for their indiscipline.

Why did i say Dempsy....... Of course i meant Murphy

Yep that's true Billy. Ireland should have been the better side though going by March but they weren't allowed to be.

Neither will win this world cup, both have concerns.

Trebs, Ireland have the 'potential' to do well at the RWC but that is always the case and i cant see them doing well.

England have again got that grinding ability that will see them go far and a centre pairing that will damage alot of sides.

eirebilly wrote:For England, Manu and Tindall worked very well together and Tindall gave Manu a lot of responsibilty switching positions in defence regularly.

Englands forwards, were very strong and their scrumaging was excellent.
Their indiscipline is still such a major concern and must be looked at by MJ if they are going to go on a decent run at the RWC. I cant help but feel that a better team than Ireland would have punished England more for their indiscipline.

Yeah this is a small consolation for us as I think the game would have been much tighter had we taken our penalties as we usually would.Over the warm ups we've consistently gone for line outs and quick taps instead of taking our points.This would be fine if we actually used these opportunities to try some moves but instead it's been played through the hands or just bashed up.

It's incredibly frustrating and very hard to understand why we've been so impotent.

Some Irish posters on here don't want to accept it. But Kidney has overseen a dramatic collapse in Ireland's performance levels and results over the last two seasons. Ever since the tackle interpretations changed Ireland's play has been confused. They haven't adapted well.

Leinster and Munster both won silverware again this year. Leinster were sensational in nearly every game they played in the Heineken Cup. They were the best attacking team in Europe. Munster ran away with the Magners. Ulster had their best season in a decade. So the players at Kidneys disposal are not the problem. The coaching team are just not doing a good job.

Eddie O'Sullivan actually had less depth of talent at his disposal than Kidney does. And Ireland maintained a high level of performance and a good win ratio for nearly all of his tenure. There was a culture of winning. Ireland used run up very large scores against teams ranked below them. And were adept at winning the tight games too. They had an average pack but they attacked brilliantly.

Nearly all of Ireland's performances for the last two years have been so abject it's actually hard to believe these are the same players that dominate Heineken Cup rugby. This coaching team seem incapable of getting this team attacking with the penetration we all know they can. There is no winning culture. We've gotten far to many defeats and far to many excuses. The rules changed, we had lots of injuries, we're changing our style etc. etc. I'm just so frustrated and disappointed that Kidney has gotten a two year contract extension.

eirebilly wrote:Trebs, Ireland have the 'potential' to do well at the RWC but that is always the case and i cant see them doing well.

England have again got that grinding ability that will see them go far and a centre pairing that will damage alot of sides.

That's fair. I think Irelands period of dominance over Eng is over though. Not enough coming through, plenty for Eng. Golden gen era is closing. I reckon it'll be really close now for a while.

Thats a bit harsh on Kidney feckless, the gameplan looks to be clear and can work, it has on occasions and looked excellent.
For me it seems more of a mental problem within the team, winning breeds confidence and loosing,,,, well breeds loosing.

Shockingly bad performance by Ireland today.

England said they had done their homework from the 6N match and they had. the backline was absolutely useless and resembled England's line with Banahan - out from scrum, pass, pass, pass, in touch. Time and again.

Ferris was heavily marked but on this showing, O'Brien seems to have the better ball-carrying ability and to get through at least first/second tackles.

Heaslip and Wallace going did not help - and it was a ramshackle backrow that took no advantage of England losing a man to the bin.

O'Gara was limited. He touchfinds brilliantly and takes his kicks well. Clearly the team instruction was to turn down penalties - as it has been all through the warm ups. And all they've learned from that decision has been that they should have taken the three points on offer because I can't recall a single time that Ireland have scored a try from a turned down penalty kick in the four matches.

Geordan Murphy really rolls back the years, and you can see why he's held in such high estimation by English players, including Johnson. Should start in the big matches, in my view.

Tommy Bowe was non-existent. My impression was he got the ball twice. No attempt to use him as a strong striking player and I'm not sure how much he went looking for the play either. Trimble, on the other hand, was involved everywhere - definitely the choice back of these warm-ups.

O'Connell was fantastic and led from the front - everywhere and spoiled English ball at the lineout.

Surprisingly, the Irish scrum held up rather well, though the departure of Healy does not bode well.

All in all, an inept, error ridden performance, with little devil or powerful performances throughout the team.

England well deserved their victory. And I thought Mike Tindall was a man revived with Tuilagi beside him. Tuilagi is a strong player and made his tackles - some of them very hard and I would rate about 20% of them as being illegal. He made a blatant no-arms tackle in the second half that had the Sky boys chuckling. He'll go well in the World Cup along with his team.

Ireland, on the showing of today and this month's matches, will be flying home early once again.

England won the contact area...ireland lack penetration and ended up lateral.

C'mon guys, I am readily one of Tindall's biggest detractors but he played well today. He and Tuilagi dominated their opposite numbers. Credit where credit's due.

The forwards did very well today too. Sheridan set an early marker by knocking over Ferris in the loose. Bit worrying how the scrum dropped off when Stevens and Hartley came on though. For all the questions on here about England's fitness, it was Ireland who were back peddling at the end.

Jonny's passing was a bit off today. He managed to blow it after Tuilagi's break. If he'd been a bit more precise England could (should) have had an almost unassaiblabe lead at that point.

A point about the ref. I saw Ireland doing exactly the same as England at the breakdown for the majority of the game, yet they were penalised half as much. peed me off a bit.

England do need to get better. But the forwards win games in the knockout stages and I'm a little more satisfied this week.

trebellbobaggins wrote:That's fair. I think Irelands period of dominance over Eng is over though. Not enough coming through, too much for Eng. Golden gen era is closing.

I'm not sure I totally agree wit this statement, confidence is a big factor in rugby.
Ireland will get their game together and beat the USA first up quite easily I think, they will lose to Australia, but will easily beat Russia, probably by 80 points before having a rough and tumble game with Italy but beating them by 15 points.
Their likely then to lose to South Africa in the quarters.

One of the key factors in this Irish era is Ronan O'Gara, how many games has he won by a last minute drop goal? As a Welsh fan I'm aware of several occasion he has nicked games against us at the death from doing it. The problem is Sexton isn't that type of player and Sexton is 26, so not an up and coming kid either. what is also worrying is he isn't consistent, he has a great game followed by 2 average ones, then a poor one, O'Gara was much more solid and reliable, and Ireland are unlikely to be as successful when he goes.
Sexton is a lot like Stephen Jones in my eyes, not always consistent and isn't a geniune match winner, though a quality player who tries hard.

I think Ireland have a wealth of real talent coming through and amazing depth, but without O'Connell, BOD, and O'Gara where are your leaders and match winners? Where is the inspiration?
Ireland lean on those 3 players far too much in my opinion.

trebellbobaggins wrote:That's fair. I think Irelands period of dominance over Eng is over though. Not enough coming through, plenty for Eng. Golden gen era is closing. I reckon it'll be really close now for a while.

Ireland won't be beating England as at the rate they have done over the last 8 years. England are on the up it seems. But there's more young talent coming through in Ireland than ever I'm afraid. Especially at Leinster and Ulster at the moment.

Well at least we can go to NZ with low expectations - and that was a truloy shocking performance today.

First the very few good points:
Murphy - did well and chasing down Tuilagi for 60 yards shows he still has the gas
Sexton - did well when he came on, at least tried to do something different
Murray - fast pass, combative and doesn't seem to suffer from nerves despite being only his 2nd cap - given the performance of Reddan I've no problem starting him v USA and then Australia if he shows up v US - I think he's one of the few breaths of fresh air in a stale team
Trimble - again the best of the backs
POC - did well in the tight but like all the Irish forwards consistently takes the ball standing still with no momentum - what does it take to have the forwards to run onto passes with a bit of gas
And eh, that it's for the good points - now the bad points
Darcy - how many games does he have to play before it becomes clear to Kidney that he's lost it completely and Wallace the next in line at 12 - oh dear God! What we wouldn't give for a big bruising 12 like virtually every other team - hello James Downey!!
Earls - clear as day he's not a 13, he's a winger full stop - play him there or don't play him at all
Reddan - truly dire passing although not done any favours by the pack in front of him
Ferris - not great and despite his bulk didn't make enough ground with ball in hand - Wally's injury however looks like it'll be a Ferris-Heaslip-SOB back row (assuming Heaslip isn't crocked as well
Coaching team - have to echo earlier posts - how is it that players from the Irish back line be the same Leinster back line that played brilliantly against Clermont, Toulouse, Leicester and Northampton (well for half a game) and others all sewason. How can Schmidt and his coaching team get the best out of these players and Kidney and Gaffney can't - it's beyond comprehension and we need answers quick.

Likely loss of Wallace is a huge blow, hope to God Heaslip and Healy were only taken for precautionary reasons

Feckless Rogue wrote:

trebellbobaggins wrote:That's fair. I think Irelands period of dominance over Eng is over though. Not enough coming through, plenty for Eng. Golden gen era is closing. I reckon it'll be really close now for a while.

Ireland won't be beating England as at the rate they have done over the last 8 years. England are on the up it seems. But there's more young talent coming through in Ireland than ever I'm afraid. Especially at Leinster and Ulster at the moment.

Nothing to be afraid of, it's great. I'm just going by the wealth of talent in the England youth getting the better of those very talented kids on several occasions. I think Eng might just trump them for a while in the future.

I'm obviously excited that for the first time in years a country that should have more depth coming through given it's size finally does. Whether they will actually do anything with it is a different matter knowing England.

Both look very healthy, take nothing away from either of them.

Feckless Rogue wrote:Ireland won't be beating England as at the rate they have done over the last 8 years. England are on the up it seems. But there's more young talent coming through in Ireland than ever I'm afraid. Especially at Leinster and Ulster at the moment.

I'm not sure England are on the up to be honest. All they have done is reverted to type and selected a big heavy pack to try and squash teams, but all it will accomplish is exactly what happened during the late 90's. Big defeats by Tri Nations teams, regular losses to France who will match them, and frustrating losses to celtic sides who will show guts and passion at home.
Whilst English fans will be happy today, it's also fair to say Johnny didn't keep the score board moving in the way we have been accustomed too, and Ashton wasn't on everyones shoulder to take the scoring pass, which has basically become Jeramy Guscott's excuse every time England lose lately.
I also wonder how much of a bully tugilari would of been with BOD against him? Jamie Roberts got over the advantage line time and time again and cut through him on occasion, BOD would of done a number on him without a doubt.

Oh and for the English posters who see a new dawn - what we saw today was the slightly better of two very poor teams winning. Don't have high expectations of doing well in NZ either

nah NZ is far too soon, agreed. It's the next few years i think look better.

Anybody else wondering how those fans made it up to the Sky team commentary box? Stadium security must not be the same as it used to.

England are on the up. Foden, Ashton, Lawes, Youngs are all better than what England had before. Tuilagi faced BOD in the Heineken Cup gave a decent account of himself. His power and pace are huge assets. The only worry over him would be his lack of experience in defence.

I'm not saying England are gonna challenge the All Blacks or anything. But I can see them challenging for every Six Nations title over the next four years. Which is better than where they were before. They were really quite bad between 2004 and 2010.

It has to be clear that D'arcy offers next to nothing to attack apart from an astounding ability to run laterally without ever breaking the gain line. Since it appears Downey is never going to be factored in, the sooner Luke Marshall gets enough game time at Ulster to warrant a cap, the better.

I can see both Eng and Ire being in the top few for a while now in the 6N.

Agreed it doesn't put them up with the tri-nations for sure.

brennomac wrote:Well at least we can go to NZ with low expectations - and that was a truloy shocking performance today.

Murray - fast pass, combative and doesn't seem to suffer from nerves despite being only his 2nd cap - given the performance of Reddan I've no problem starting him v USA and then Australia if he shows up v US - I think he's one of the few breaths of fresh air in a stale team
Trimble - again the best of the backs
POC - did well in the tight but like all the Irish forwards consistently takes the ball standing still with no momentum - what does it take to have the forwards to run onto passes with a bit of gas
Earls - clear as day he's not a 13, he's a winger full stop - play him there or don't play him at all
Ferris - not great and despite his bulk didn't make enough ground with ball in hand - Wally's injury however looks like it'll be a Ferris-Heaslip-SOB back row (assuming Heaslip isn't crocked as well)

I agree with most of what you're saying but I think you're wrong on these. Murray was alright when he came on but he made a few mistakes and it was probably the least impressed I've been by him. The fact that Irish fans are so desperate for him to come good, unfortunately shows just how poor our stocks are at 9.
Trimble was good but made a few mistakes,
Poc was alright but let the side down as a captain and his carrying was poor, I would say that he was well below par.
I thought earls actually coped well enough at centre besides the try. For the try it looked like darcy and him got their communication all wrong, I was very disappointed with darcy's overall game but I thought that for the most part they were sound defensively.
I though ferris made quite a lot of ground with the ball, especially when you consider that he was having to do it all on his own. Wally and heaslip going off was a huge blow because the backrow is probably our strongest unit. The three of them generate our go forward ball, they provide quick ball and they slow down opposition ball. Ryan and leamy tried as best as the could but they just aren't in the same class as the top 4. If wally is gone it is a huge blow whichever way you look at it, whether he would have started or benched.

The coaching has been poor but comparing leinster to ireland isn't fair. There is a huge step up physically and I don't think Ireland are capable of playing the same type of game as leinster. Leinster would have 5 or 6 players who would have made a hec best 15. Ireland have maybe one, on current form who would challenge for a place if choosing a world 22.


edit; Also on downey, the coaching staff don't rate him and I agree with them, yes he is a good bosh merchant but a lot of backline moves tend to die with him. Although with gaffney in charge of the backs that might not make much of a difference.

2nd edit; On reading that back I may have been slightly harsh on poc considering he was probably our best forward, just expect so much from him.

Wally is gone according to rte and newstalk. Disaster for Ireland and wally, thats probably the end of his Ireland career and the second time hes missed out on a world cup due to injury iirc.

Link to irishtimes article

England - Tindall was a success at 12 and must now surely be first choice there. Hardly inspiring, but he took good options today, his kick for the Armitage try showed some brains and his power effectively negated Ireland as an attacking force. Sheridan was also good and looks ready to start, plus I thought Wigglesworth looked very organised at 9. Haskell also had a pretty decent game, although still makes errors at the base. Tuilagi/Tindall in the best combination in the centres, and should start against Argentina.

Ireland - some problems. The midfield yet again didn't work in attack or defence, and the front row struggled a bit, giving away a couple of penalties (although once Cole went off they got better). Quite predictable issues, and it cost them. England were just able to make that extra yard or two each phase and get momentum. Earls isn't an international centre, better on the wing, and Trimble just couldn't find space or pick the rights lines to get released. Bowe, a typically busy and excellent player, was anonymous. In terms of positives I thought POC was outstanding, looks in peak condition, Ferris got through the game unscathed, Reddan was decent and Geordan Murphy makes a very competent back up to Kearney at 15.

Finally, hope Wallace makes it. Such a good player and although Jennings is decent, Wallace will be missed. Didn't think there was much wrong with the tackle that injured him though.

We need to follow England's lead and bring in players from an entirly different country

What is the point in having Darcy in our team he cannot defend and offers nothing at all going forward

I've been saying for years that we should just kidnap lots of children from Samoa, Tonga and Fiji. Bring them up in Galway, convince them they're Irish and get them playing for Connacht. But none of the IDIOTS in the IRFU will listen to me.

C'mon You Irish wrote:We need to follow England's lead and bring in players from an entirly different country

Manu england look quite good...Stevens, Tuilagi, Fourie etc they should mix their strips, black and white stripes perhaps.


Better hurry getting the players before Eng snap them all up

Darcy is completly and utterly finished he is playing on reputation along we need Trimble in the centre as i have said a million times.

Earls is another waste of space

C'mon You Irish wrote:Darcy is completly and utterly finished he is playing on reputation along we need Trimble in the centre as i have said a million times.

Earls is another waste of space

Any more Irish players you would like to attack?

C'mon You Irish wrote:We need to follow England's lead and bring in players from an entirly different country

You do know they are already doing it with the likes of Sykes, Strauss, Diack and Borlase amongst others.

You have heard of the Project Player system ? Where the IRFU "buy" players in order to get them qualified for Ireland.

Any win in Ireland is accepted. I like it how the majority of Ire fans are quite gracious in defeat abd very realistic, but the Welsh for some reason seem to think they're a class above.

Funny how a scraped win at home against a weakend English side boosts the ego. Can't wait for the WC to knock them down a peg!

Yeah good call lets put a guy who's doing well on the wing into the centre,where he hasn't played regularly for over 3 years and wasn't that good there when he did.

C'mon You Irish wrote:We need to follow England's lead and bring in players from an entirly different country

Perhaps you should do what the RFU do. Have limits on foreign players but allow some through who have not been capped yet with the specific idea of gain English qualification (we call them 'Project Players'). I think the IRFU's current plan of finically rewarding teams who have fewer foreign players but not discriminating against legally qualified players isn't going to work in the long run.

...

Sorry, switch that.

The day your union drops the whole 'Project Player' concept is the day any Irish fan can get high and mighty about 'foreigners' [this is assuming that "C'mon You Irish" is Irish]

LOL you telling me Trimble would do any worse than Darcy in the centre , Darcy does NOTHING and that is not even an exaggeration he cant defend , makes no yeard when going forward all he does is constantly loses the ball

they're English and probably know little of Irish rugby, it's not as if they ever cover it.

The Sky pundits are reknownedly stupid, Stuart Barnes especially is a tool.

I agree with everything Cumbrian just said. I was very concerned about just how poor Stevens was in the scrum. Nigel Owens is a terrible ref, as soon as I saw he officiating I knew that Ireland were going to have the rub of the green, Owens is famously weak and bows down to crowd pressure.

At this stage i would honestly rather have big John Hayes in the middle wouldnt suprise me if he had a quicker change of pace than Darcy has now

What about Tommy Bowe alongside BOD?
Bowe had a decent season in the center for the Ospreys. I think he could compliment BOD really well.

Darcy must go hes been worse than useless for 2 years now. However lets get things in to perspective if ireland had of kicked their points they could easily of won this match. There was a huge drop of in physicality from the 6 nations. Ireland need to peak for the match against Australia. The most worrying think for me was how quickly ireland lost alighnment and depth in the backs. I think ireland need to start with a wallace bod partnership in midfield as darcy offers nothing in attack and now his defense is starting to look suspect. The backrow i would imagine will be SOB Ferris and Heaslip .