RugbyRebels

I would have preferred Jordan at 15, with Jordie on the bench or at 12.

Ireland team is up:

Ireland: Keenan; Earls, Ringrose, Henshaw, Lowe; Sexton (capt), Gibson-Park; Porter, Sheehan, Furlong, Beirne, Ryan; O'Mahony, Van der Flier, Doris.

Replacements: Heffernan, Bealham, Healy, Treadwell, Conan, Murray, Carbery, Aki.


Injury worries allayed by both Porter and Healy in the XXIII, although you wonder how fit they are.

Puja

I would have preferred Papali'i at 7. BB is going to bust out this series and do the damage.

ahh, well fair enuff then

Dioltas is the answer - a dish we won't be serving cold tomorrow

morepork wrote:I would have preferred Papali'i at 7. BB is going to bust out this series and do the damage.

I suspect if he had been fully fit, he would be starting six. He's some player either way.

Some quality kiwi haircuts on both sides. Great start by Ireland. Well constructed opening score that. Felt inevitable.

New Zealand just utterly brutalising Ireland in defence and at the breakdown. Some of the latter of dubious legality, but excellent quality. Ireland are going to need a rethink now they're 16 points down.

ETA. Correction, 23 points down. Ireland collapsing here.

Puja

Called away with NZ 9 ahead. Return and the game has got awfully one sided. Classic new Zealand!

Had been looking like Ireland were panicking after failing to make the most of their early superiority.

good reffing

Then got the try well ….or. Not

Irish reserve hooker Ko’d there. Dickson is not a good ref as an aside veers between good decisions and poor ones- doesn’t pay attention enough

Banquo wrote:Irish reserve hooker Ko’d there. Dickson is not a good ref as an aside veers between good decisions and poor ones- doesn’t pay attention enough

Finally took him off- daft it took so long. He wobbled around for a couple of minutes- poor

cashead wrote:More like Direland, lol

Cringe and jannie pilled.

Would prefer Taukei'aho and Papalii to start. Of those, Taukei'aho is the most likely unless Cane gets injured. Hope Sotutu is given a go next week.

The props did what they were selected to do - dominate the scrums - but their selection was very much a conservative 'save my arse' selection imo. I doubt they'll be able to achieve that level of dominance against the Boks or whichever other 6N teams have a strong scrum (England and France?) and will get shown up during phase play. Would've preferred instead just getting stuck in with the younger more dynamic, props such as de Groot, Newell, Norris, and Williams, but that's beyond the scope of this thread.

EDIT: Fainga'anuku was good on debut. Ardie's prominence in the second half speaks to his best position imo.

cashead wrote:More like Direland, lol

The ABs will also get better.

Ireland were better than expected, ab's got an awful lot of decisions, Barrett could have got ared etc

Hopefully we drop jgp

paddy no 11 wrote:Ireland were better than expected, ab's got an awful lot of decisions, Barrett could have got ared etc

Hopefully we drop jgp

Funny game - great start from Ireland but then ABsfoumd points a lot easier to come by once they were on top.

What could Barrett have got a red for?

Yellow for Karl Tu'inukuafe, I only saw the highlights but really? If anyone has dodgy links to full replays, I would love to see the full game.

Were never going to win but could have kept it to 10

Disallowing carberrys try but judging Aaron smith's touch to have gone backwards were both equally marginal give them both or neither

Anyway hopefully 2nd test is a good contest if Irish pack can front up

cashead wrote:Carberry lost control of the ball, and Ioane never actually made contact with his head at any point in the tackle.

The ball left Smith's hand backwards hen he slapped it backwards.

Both were fairly clear-cut and I don't get how there'd be any controversy over either.

I thought the Carberry one was right (and great tackle). The Smith one looked forward to me - I don't think the momentum / backwards movement point counts when you are just slapping at it.

cashead wrote:
Both were fairly clear-cut and I don't get how there'd be any controversy over either.

You must be new to these boards, welcome!

cashead wrote:Between the ball leaving Smith's hand, and the first bounce, it doesn't travel forwards. hth.

Just seen more replays and I think you are right. They never seemed to get the fully side on replay that would have made it clear.

I actually think the yellow NZ did get was very harsh. He was a long way from the ruck and you'd think Murray could have avoided him.

He knocked it back like wot athletic players do keeping a ball in the air over the sideline in play.