pantreac says...

Can someone, anyone tell me why the so called rugby journalists are not reflecting the mood of most of the rugby players/supporters in Ireland? Is it because they are so far up Kidneys backside that they are not registering the thoughts and wishes of the country? These so called rugby journalists who largely have no idea of the concept and ethos of rugby are so sycaphantic that their 'rugby reports' are largely meaningless Take Farrrelly from the Independant. I remember one article from him criticising the committee members because the players allowed the committee members wives to take the lift first in the team hotel! I kid you not. When I wrote a letter taking Farrelly to task, the independent refused to print it. I was applauding the players for remembering their manners and allowing the ladies to go first. So not only do we have to get rid of Kidney and his coaches but also journalists such as Farrelly!

Posted 11:33 15th July 2012

connaughtabu says...

The recent NZ-Ire was marked by bouts of arrogance and stupidity. Firstly, the ABs having coasted through the 1st test, rather arrogantly thought that little preparation was needed for the 2nd test. Ireland, whi had by now got their ac together caught them on the hop and almost got that long-awaited victory. Now, after the 2nd test, the Irish burst out into full-scale stupidity - "we nearly did it that time, lads, more of the same and we''ll take them for sure next week"!

The rest is history!

Posted 15:19 26th June 2012

jonesy2 says...

well unfortunetly for for him and the people who were hyping up how good he and some of his collegues are i was right all along and he got taught lessons by the very best. its fine to hype up players in the euro and uk comps when comparing against each other in the same relm eg im sure the irish and england players etc are stars in up there but dont think that makes then so when they come down here. anyway lesson learnt. however keep in mind this is more a lesson for the supporters i think the players themselves know where they stand

Posted 14:26 26th June 2012

blametheref says...

@porridge_time

The Irish players are good enough, on other boards I've given my views as to why I think that and as to why they haven't performed under O' Sullivan and Kidney. We proved in test 2 against the All blacks we have the players, even though we were missing some our top players. We lost test 2 because the ethos, structure and coaching skills aren't of high enough a standard to add that extra ingredient a team gets when these supports are in place. That extra ingredient is firstly faith in those support mechanisms which leads to "belief" which Ireland simply didn't have to finish the AB's off in test 2. That lack of "belief" was missing before we even left for NZ. It was evident in captain, Brian O' Driscoll's words to the press before the first test where he said that he "hoped" they could win "a" test and went on to say that "one day in the future we'll beat NZ". The NZ press picked up on this and said of his words that they didn't inspire much confidence.

Contrast this to Leinster, who if a best of Europe team was picked would only get about 4 on that team. Yet they can play consistantly, accurately and crucially with a low error count and win. Why? because they have "total belief" in the ethos, structures, tactics and team spirit Joe Schmidt has installed in the Leinster set-up. When these players go to the Irish set-up it is evident that they obviously are going to a set-up that is way below what they experience at Leinster, hence there's no belief as proved by O'Driscoll's unintentional revelation at that press meeting.

Posted 08:33 26th June 2012

blametheref says...

Besides the adverse effect stupid Lions Tours have on the NH psyche, here's an example of why NH teams fail when going south, On these boards we see Rob Howley of Wales saying he is "proud of his troops" after a 3-0 drubbing by Australia and further up Pierre Spies is saying "we let ourselves down" after winning the series and thumping England in 2 tests and drawing the last test......IT REALLY SAYS IT ALL!

Posted 14:28 25th June 2012

badza says...

NZ were simply too fast, strong and too accurate,

Posted 13:05 25th June 2012

blametheref says...

Kearney's words about the tests: "All three of them went against us but that's sport and we have to move on." ...Just shows that the underachieving mentality of the coach is in his head, aw shucks, "that's sport" and we "have to move on", the cute Kidney mantra after 3 years of failure, there's alway tomorrow. And the IRFU encouraged this and allow this!!! Pure Bulls*it!

Kearney should be saying, "Our performance as a team was totally and utterly unacceptable and we are going to have to do something about it urgently."

Posted 11:34 25th June 2012

connaughtabu says...

I'm not sure why players' comments are reported. Most frequently they have little to contribute and they never admit to having personally played badly - it's all "we" and "us" and the "rub of the green" stuff!

Let's just look how Ireland has performed since the 2011 6N tournament:

Played 18:

Won : 6 (Aust, Ital x 2, Scot, USA, Russia)

Draw: 1

Loss: 11 (Scot, Fra x2, Wal x 2, Eng x 2, BaBas, NZ x 3)

Barring the exceptional win against Australia at the RWC (upon which we still appear to be dining out), Ireland has failed to defeat any team ranked higher in the IRB standings.

I would describe that as a very poor 12 months indeed! So bad, in fact, that we are drifting into the 4th division IRB grouping:

1st: NZ (way ahead in points)

2nd: Aust, SA

3rd: Wal, Eng, Arg, Fra

In-between: Ire

4th; Samoa, Scot, Tonga, Ital

Maybe we as Irish fans are collectively happy about that - I most certainly am not!

Posted 11:03 25th June 2012

KentBrockman says...

People (not just players and coaches) keep harping on about small margins. Small margins dont result in a sixty thrashing. That was a huge margin. Small margins result in narrow losses or victories. The second test was all about narrow margins "The top 2%" if you will. The other two tests were huge margins. NZ had these margins and we didn't. It wasnt an extra 5% for either side it was more like an extra 25% for each side and resulted in us getting schooled.

Posted 09:42 25th June 2012