Irish Analysis and player ratings against S.Africa

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Tough game for sure. Not enjoyable for a neutral I'd say. Credit to S.Africa for coming out in the second half with a different mind set and getting the job done.

Good to see Lansdowne road back at full capacity or close enough. Strauss and Bent played well and it was great to see Strauss sing the anthem.

Anyways here it is:
Watching the game again and looking back at Irish general play to have a look in a bit more detail:

Earls in 2nd minute has a 2 on 1 and kicks it into his opposite number the man he was up against on the inside was their tighthead after good work from Darcy.

Unreal zebo under the high ball, good line kicking too.

Sexton kicking well out of hand early on.

Henry dealing with restarts well.

Murray's box kicks are too far for Ireland to challenge for.

Great turnover by POM. He then messes up a lineout badly.

Irish defensive line not coming up together off Saffa scrum. Doing much better off lineout in defence.

Great Irish scrum. First attacking angle run by Earls and Darcy (dummy switch 12 pop 13) knocked on by Earls. Sexton and POM handed off by Adriaan Strauss.

14th minute Irish go wide from inside their 22 they have the numbers but Earls and Trimble can't continue the continuity so kick it. Poor drawing of men.

First Irish lineout lost.

Fantastic steal from Healy after really good attacking play from S.Africa.

18th min good counterattack and then inside line by Zebo. Poor passing by Murray. Good switch from Sexton to Strauss gets over the gainline. Awful decision by Murray to feed McCarthy who was isolated.

Murray's box kicking improving hugely, another good take from Henry on restart.

Great man and ball tackle by McCarthy slowing SA ball down. Great turnover by Henry.

23min. Darcy has to take Murrays pass over his head and ruins attemp to take it up. McCarthy lays out one defender. Ball gets scrappy and Earls plays awful pass to McCarthy.

26min. Good take by Bowe then Sexton uses quick hands to release Earls on the right wing who steps past Hougaard beautifully but becomes isolated.

28min McCarthy fighting brilliantly in maul then turnover penalty won by Strauss. Quick one taken, Sexton feeds Bowe who makes halfbreak on the inside offloads to Murray who feeds Earls really well. Earls releases Zebo who runs well. Murray's passing poor. Great interchange between Bowe and Zebo and then drive by Healy. Momentum slowed due to murray passing slightly above or slightly behind the runner.

JP gets yellow. Ref tells Heaslip to make sure Sexton overreact.

McCarthy misses lineout, looks like a timing issue.

33min. Scrum penalty to ireland on Ross's side.
Penalty count to now is 4-10
Possession 58-42.

Murray wastes ball inside S.African 10m line by box kicking the ball away when maul doesn't work. Poor decision as Boks are still down to 14.

Lineout off the top, ball going straight to Darcy with Trimble and Sexton running wider lines but ball goes well above Darcy's head and the move breaks down.

Darcy challenges line again but very obvious due to no runners. POM carries well. Good carrying Healy after another poor Murray pass.

Ryan and Heaslip doing very well in lineout now. Good maul started on Ryan and Strauss runs over Lambie, ball goes wide and Earls throws the ball forward and in to touch.

Sexton misses his first kick 39min.

Good take by POM on restart, Heaslip goes to high in to contact and support are too slow.

40min. Great work at the breakdown by Murray who steps but offloads to the wrong side as Bowe was on the other shoulder. Henry then gives away idiotic penalty.

HALF TIME.

Zebo clears well from kickoff.

Henry claims ball and offloads to POM who runs approx 15m left and 3m forward.

Good up and under from Sexton Bowe nearly wins it for the second time.

S.Africa counter and Sexton, Earls and Henry are pushed back in contact, then McCarthy absolutely empties Estebenz.

Healy goes off with suspected concussion, Kilcoyne on. S.Africa go for touch instead of points.

McCarthy doesn't get near Estenbez in lineout but does well defending the maul but S.Africa still going forward. Held up eventually by Bowe and Heaslip.

Heaslip sent to the bin for entry in the maul, looked like Ross or Ryan but ref said that Heaslip was the most recent transgression.

McCarthy and Strauss sack maul again, S.Africa go blind and Murray makes a try saving tackle. Sexton and Darcy weak in contact against Adriaan Strauss then very poor pillar defending by Ryan as Pienaar goes in for the try.

45min. Takes Ireland a while to call lineout (must have been Heaslip's job) but the 5 man works and Trimble is sent up the middle on a switch to mediocre effect. Murray immediately then attacks the blind side which is poorly executed by the team. Murray then kicks the ball far too deep and JP takes ball relatively easily and Ireland end up back on halfway from the mark.

47min. Exact same call is made. 5 man lineout, switch with Trimble. Attack the blindside with Murray switching with POM which would work well if the Boks hadn't seen it 2mins before and be prepared for it. Continuing attacking blind side. Poor passing, Irish guys taking it standing still. Poor cross kick from Sexton and returned with interest and trimble knocks it in to touch by mistake.

DeVilliers runs over Darcy then drags Earls with him. Darcy and Henry don't stand up to lambie physically who wins cheap yards.

Another great tackle by McCarthy and steal by Healy. Ball goes through Earls' hands and then Trimble with the entire backfield unoccupied finds a poor touch just outside the 22 when he could have kicked long.

Ryan and Healy working hard in tackle and ruck. Positive contacts. Darcy misses another tackle then POM gives away a penalty for not releasing the tackled player.

53min. Great lineout take again by Ryan, ball is fed to Sexton then Darcy. S.Africa don't put anyone in ruck but the ball is still slow for some reason. Murray takes a while to get there. Great hands from Zebo releases Bowe on the right. Quicker ball not utilised very well at all. Zebo makes some head way again. Darcy and then Earls both attack the blindside to no gain. Strauss and Healy carry very well. Good continuity play. Murray looks unfit takes a while to get to the ruck and when we go through a few phases he just doesn't get there in time and by the time he does the spaces that the quick ball had created are gone. Penalty eventually conceded.
This phase of possession lasted over 3 minutes but we only made it from halfway to just before their 22 yard line. Most yards made by Bowe and Zebo in this attack.

57min. Great maul defence (Healy, McCarthy) but DeVilliers gets over the gainline and supplies quick ball far too easily. Great turnover by Strauss and McCarthy.

58min. Good lineout by McCarthy and nice line running by Darcy and Sexton to put Sexton in the secondary but the S.African defence read it and Sexton has to throw a high pass to McFadden (now on the wing) which kills momentum. Great carry Heaslip and Zebo uses great feet to make yards. Murray and Sexton give hospital passes to POM and McCarthy respectively, lose of yards/momentum.

Excellent feet by Earls to make a halfbreak but he gets caught and doesn't have the strength to stop himself being driven back by Hougaard.

Sexton misses kick from 55m.

More good lineout work but poor contact in midfield. Fringe attack by forwards is very good. Ball becomes far too slow.

64mins. Ross concedes first penalty in the scrum.

POM concedes penalty for taking man in the air. Missed kick and cleared by Zebo. POM knocks on the high bomb after a few phases McCarthy wins the ball back with a huge tackle. Ross concedes another penalty at the scrum won by McCarthy.

72mins. Better scrum with Bent and DOC in. On the second scrum he wins a penalty.

73min. Quick ball from reddan see's Healy go through 3 tackles and then Bent through 2. Negative carries by Ryan stunt momentum and ball lost when ball slows further.

76min. Promising scrum then carry by Heaslip. Good move off the back but Zebo unfortunately loses ball in contact.

79min. Strange seeing the way ROG and Sexton are playing. Insead of all the runners coming off the 10 position they are now running off the 12 position. ROG is almost acting like a second scrumhalf, he gets the ball from Reddan and feeds Sexton who then makes the call on who receives the ball next. We are missing a 12 in this passage of play but we have two 10's which gets the ball wider but also limits the space for second phase possession.

80min. Lineout off top from Heaslip, play in the midfield, Bowe is caught from Zebo's nice inside pass. Play slows. ROG goes blind and chips the ball on for Henderson to chase.

Ireland lose the game.

1-Worst performance you have ever seen
2-Very very bad
3-Bad
4-Below par
5-Average
6-Above average
7-Good
8-Very good
9-Excellent
10-Best performance you've ever seen

Healy- 7.
Good carrying and did well in the rucks and scrummaging.

Strauss- 7.
Some good steals. Lineout went well after few blips. Carried well at times.

Ross- 5.
Some good and bad carries. Still quite ponderous. Good in scrum but unfit.

Ryan- 5.
Poor defence for try. Good lineout. Not much carrying and not enforcing in rucks.

McCarthy- 8.5
Huge workrate on small things. Ruck, maul and tackle was outstanding.

POM- 3.
Not physical enough. Poor discipline. Won a turnover or two I think though.

Henry- 5.5
He made some good carries off restart. Good in ruck. Underpowered at times though. Was rarely a link either.

Heaslip- 4.
Unlucky to be sin binned. Good in defence and lineout but not much in attack.

Murray- 3.
His accuracy of passing was atrocious. Service marginally quicker. Box kicks ok. Decision making poor.

Sexton- 5.5.
Started the game very well but couldn't kick on. Not as great in defence as before, passed well and goal kicking was ok. Will be disappointed.

Trimble- 4.
Didn't get used anywhere near enough. Made a few very basic mistakes but Ireland really need to get the ball in to his hands more often.

Darcy- 5.
Carried well at the start and his defence was good too. Later in the game he really seemed to lose steam. Murray's pass did him no favours.

Earls- 4.5.
Didn't get over the gainline often enough. In wider channels used great feet. His defence was good but never kept his man from getting over the gainline.

Bowe- 7.5
Came off his wing really well and looked for work. Linked brilliantly with Zebo. Nearly won some offensive high balls. Defended well.

Zebo- 8.
He was very good. Very dangerous runner and wasn't underpowered against the Boks. High ball and kicking was good. Great game at 15.

Positives:
1) Scrum was excellent overall
2) Rucking was pretty good in parts as was defence.
3) I thought the lineout was good.
4) McCarthy, Zebo, Bowe, Healy.

Negatives:
1) This team doesn't know how to attack.
2) Maul defence.
3) Mental strength.
4) Murray, Earls, POM.

I am confused by a few things.

A) Why we called the same play twice. It was a phase play idea (the opposite of playing with your heads up) and I was really disappointed that Ryan, Sexton, POM and Henry as the leaders on the pitch in Heaslip's absence didn't do the sensible thing and call a different one.

B) How we are so toothless. earls' break aside we never really looked dangerous and even that was very isolated. Bowe and Zebo did well and looked really good at certain points but we don't seem to know "how to attack". For a side that scored the most tries in the 6N we never once looked remotely like scoring yesterday.

C) Decision making. Rog kicking it in the last play. Madness. Why was he even on? Very disappointing.

D) Physicality was a big issue we just couldn't deal with them once they got out of second gear. You rarely see Sexton getting pushed back very far, he was really strong against SBW for instance but the Saffa's were dominating everyone other than McCarthy and Healy really.

E) We need a proper scrumhalf.

What you guys think? Feel free to vent away about any points I've made or any you have.

Notch wrote:No, they didn't blame Henry or Trimble rodders. They made some good points, no doubt they all know the game. Costello I saw got some stick from Ulster fans for saying Henry should be dropped but he didn't really say that. He said McCarthy should be moved to 6 to give us more lineout options and Henry would miss out because of that. I don't necessarily agree but it's not a bad point given our lineout looked shaky.

Well it is a bad point because Henry was one of our better players and by far the best of the backrowers. he carried most metres, made most turnovers and made more tackles than the other two combined.

O'Mahoney is a better lineout player at the tail than McCarthy and O'Callaghan is not a good lineout player either, so the suggestion makes no sense. It was our throws to the middle that got picked off because Ryan was the obvious target given McCarthy isn't great and there were a couple of overthrows to the tail..one by Cronin.