RWC - Australia vs Ireland

[S120]

Kurtley Beale
James O'Connor
Anthony Faingaa
Pat McCabe
Adam Ashley-Cooper
Quade Cooper
Will Genia
Radike Samo
David Pocock
Rocky Elsom
Dan Vickerman
James Horwill
Ben Alexander
Stephen Moore
Sekope Kepu

Res:
Tatafu Polota-Nau,James Slipper, Rob Simmons, Ben McCalman, Scott Higginbotham, Luke Burgess, Drew Mitchell

Rob Kearney
Tommy Bowe
Brian O'Driscoll
Gordon D'Arcy
Keith Earls
Jonathan Sexton
Eion Reddan
Jamie Heaslip
Sean O'Brien
Stephen Ferris
Paul O'Connell
D. O'Callaghan
Mike Ross
Rory Best
Cian Healy
Reserves
Jerry Flannery, Tom Court, Donnacha Ryan, Deanis Leamy, Conor Murray, Ronan O'Gara, Andrew Trimble


On my way over for the game tomorrow night, cannot wait. Australia should do away with Ireland easy enough, they've not been good over the last few months but they could cause a stir if they get their best players (O'Driscoll, D'Arcy, O'Connell, Healsip, Sexton, Kearney, Bowe) all playing well.

 

[Mint Condition]

I'm expecting it to be close. Ireland always play well against us and our back line defence has had to shuffle quite a lot with Ioane out (basically everyone moving in a position). Tipping us to win but I think it'll only be by 5 points or so.

 

[S120]

I'm expecting it to be close. Ireland always play well against us and our back line defence has had to shuffle quite a lot with Ioane out (basically everyone moving in a position). Tipping us to win but I think it'll only be by 5 points or so.

Yeh how the back line defends will be interesting. Ioane has been such a pillar at 10. Fainga'a, McCabe and AAC are such good defenders I don't think it will make too much of a difference. JOC is also a pretty damn good defender for his size too.

 

[Bartel]

I reckon Ireland should give Australia a run for their money here...

 

[XFactor1979]

True blood Aussie Spirit will need to be summoned to win the world cup

As Aussie as these two->

 

[Kurtley Beale]

s**t Pocock's out surely we have at least 1 back up open side flanker?

 

[Wahooti Fandango]

Nup. McClaman has to play 7 now.

 

[Mint Condition]

The ONLY silver lining is that Ireland don't have a true open side flanker either. But it sucks because I thought Pocock would be a real weapon for us because of that. Now you could argue they have an edge in the back row. All of them are very strong with the ball in hand. O'Brien in particular is a wrecking ball...though he's out of position at 7.

 

[bullish23]

Yep wallace did his knee in the final warm up game robbing them of their very experienced number 7.

I expect us to win by 12. I watched all their warm up matches and they were really out of form. They did show some character and fought back in the last 20mins against both england and france. On paper their backline is awefully strong. It's nearly the british lions backline.

We will miss digby i feel. He was great against italy, a real game breaker.

 

[Bradesmaen]

Pretty ordinary first half their. Genia is again a flat track bully. He's the Mitch Johnson of Rugby.

 

[elsler]

pretty disappointed with that lot thought we might actually be a chance to win the world cup on that performance no chance

 

[Kurtley Beale]

Wallabies were s**t Ireland were amazing Bryce Lawrence should go back to under 9's what an absolute prick.

 

[bullish23]

Bryce Lawrence should go back to under 9's what an absolute prick.

Hardly the reason we lost. Woeful performance from the fwd pack. I also thought we should have taken the 3 when we got the penalty in front of the sticks.

 

[HodgesHeroes]

terrible performance

losing to a bunch of amatuer micks is just embarrassing

 

[Wahooti Fandango]

Pretty ordinary first half their. Genia is again a flat track bully. He's the Mitch Johnson of Rugby.

Worst post ever. He basically won us the Super 15 title and the Tri-Nations title.

 

[XFactor1979]

Oh dear

 

[Bomber Bears]

http://www.sampleireland.com/images/JumpingLep1a-1.gif

 

[Greenfire]

terrible performance

losing to a bunch of amatuer micks is just embarrassing

Its arrogance like that which caused you to lose the game.
Ireland were by far the guttsier and more passionate side.
you can have all the Aussie drilled technique and training ground repetition you want but it will NEVER beat 100% passion and total intensity.
ireland should have won by more.
But at least you did not get the bonus point

Take the beating like a man!

 

[Greenfire]

Hardly the reason we lost. Woeful performance from the fwd pack. I also thought we should have taken the 3 when we got the penalty in front of the sticks.

truth +1

What about the scrum he gave aus ,when Ireland were in fornt of aus posts ,he got in reddans way then a blatent offside knocked it from scrum halves hands
lawrence was not the reason you lost this game
Disrespect for the opposition was.
Also echoed in some posts in here.
You underestimated the irish and you really goofed it with Kidney
the Irish have been targetting this game for over a year.
it was the only one that mattered for us.

Anyway -you get the easy side of the draw now with SA and NZ

 

[Dipper]

Anyway -you get the easy side of the draw now with SA and NZ

There's abit of arrogance there isn't there just assuming that you'll roll the Italians.

 

[Wahooti Fandango]

truth +1

What about the scrum he gave aus ,when Ireland were in fornt of aus posts ,he got in reddans way then a blatent offside knocked it from scrum halves hands
lawrence was not the reason you lost this game
Disrespect for the opposition was.
Also echoed in some posts in here.
You underestimated the irish and you really goofed it with Kidney
the Irish have been targetting this game for over a year.
it was the only one that mattered for us.

Anyway -you get the easy side of the draw now with SA and NZ

Would rather them than England. The way you are carrying on it is as thought you just won the wc.

 

[Santana]

Enjoy the win Greenfire, it will be the only highlight your country has for years by the looks of things.

 

[Kurtley Beale]

Hardly the reason we lost. Woeful performance from the fwd pack. I also thought we should have taken the 3 when we got the penalty in front of the sticks.

Which i said not the main reason.

 

[Caesar]

Hardly the reason we lost. Woeful performance from the fwd pack. I also thought we should have taken the 3 when we got the penalty in front of the sticks.

I'm not sure the forward pack played that bad, to be honest. They're just not very good.

Any team with strength tends to push us around in the scrum and dominate us at the breakdown. We had exactly the same problems in the Tri Nations and the Super 15, but they were masked by some great play by the backs and some clutch performances at key times.

We could learn a lot from these northern hemisphere teams.

 

[bullish23]

We could learn a lot from these northern hemisphere teams.

agree a lot with this.

Backline play has always come naturally to australian sides, mainly due to players growing up in dry conditions which enables running rugby at schoolboy level.

However the scrum has been a problem ever since 2002 and for the life of me i cannot understand how it still has not improved in all that time (even more so considering how easily sheridan and co monstered us in 07 you'd think it would be a priority). It's a real indictment on coaching in Australia. It amazed me how the backrow were playing loosely at the scrum, even when ireland were packing in tight and continuing to push.