RWC Week 3: Springboks v Ireland
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@KiwiMurph you know Foster won't do that. In fact, half the team will be on the plane home and he'll bring in Zahn Sullivan and 13 more wingers to cover the weak forward pack.
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Been thinking about this game a lot since it happened. It was great (my podcast should be up and running any day now and I assume will be popular with killer insights like that)
As for where it leaves the two sides, I think both take a lot from it. Ireland weren’t at their best but did enough to win, that breeds confidence which they, more than SA, needed. I think the line out is fixable, and think their forwards will benefit from the scrum match up.
South Africa were good, however without a goal kicker of note I can’t see how they win the whole thing. Pollard fit, in form is crucial to them IMO.
Overall, I think France, Ireland and SA are a country mile infront of the others. Ireland will struggle with how many big teams they have to play in a row, France have had a long break after their big game against NZ (the two run outs they’ve had since were more like training) and I think are my current favourites for the whole thing. Assuming Ireland get past Scotland, I think France will beat SA now.
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Farrell has been very clever in how he’s prepared the squad for the pressure of consecutive high calibre opponents. Before last summers tour to NZ it was he who requested the two midweek Māori games as a way to put more pressure on the players, and he then sent a very young development squad to South Africa mid season.
During the 6ns in the spring Ireland had to find ways to overcome major disruption during and between games. They lost two hookers during the Scottish game, and had Van der Flier throwing into the lineout for practically the whole second half and still pulled away from a good Scottish side, and were decimated by injuries for the Italy match.
Outside of having a far better squad of players the big difference in this side from previous Irish sides is their mental strength and their ability to adapt to adverse circumstances mid game. Winning 16 on the trot, and 28 from 30, takes huge confidence and resilience, something they demonstrated in spades at the weekend. None of this means they’ll win the RWC but it would indicate that you can’t count on Irelands previous flakiness when predicting how they will respond in future games in the tournament.
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SA should be top of the pool on 15 points by the time Ireland play Scotland. For Scotland to qualify they need to beat Romania with TBP and win against Ireland whilst preventing them gaining any bonus points. If they score 4 tries in the process, even better for them.
Farrell will have to use some of his wider squad as he'll need his A team for the QF if they qualify.
So most of Kilcoyne, Herring, O'Toole, McCarthy, Henderson, Baird, Conan, Casey, R Byrne, Earls, McCloskey, Henshaw, Lowe, O'Brien, will have their work cut out with possibly a bench of Loughman, Sheehan, Furlong, Ryan, O'Mahony, Murray, Crowley, Ringrose to steady the ship if required. -
@Derm-McCrum said in RWC Week 3: Springboks v Ireland:
SA should be top of the pool on 15 points by the time Ireland play Scotland.
How can SA top the pool, unless Ireland lose to Scotland without a bonus point? Cos if they both get 15, Ireland go through as the winner of the game between the twoAh I misunderstood, yes SA will be on 15, then Ireland will just need 1 point against Scotland to finish top of the pool
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With a two week break to the Scotland game I expect Farrell will go with a close to full strength team. I expect Conan to start, probably at 8 with Doris moving to 6, and POM getting a rest. Maybe Henderson for Ryan, Bealham for Furlong, and Sheehan getting a start. I think the backs will be full strength, with possibly Henshaw starting. Can’t see Farrell taking too many risks against the Scots.
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I replied to a comment in the ABs Namibia thread but it should go here. Ireland's ruck work is exceptional, the best and most accurate of any comp. It is a significant reason why they beat SA even with a faltering lineout. They also tailor their tackles to the player they are tackling, hitting most people low and upright players like Eben high - with the hilarious result of him being physically lifted by a winger.
@Duluth said in RWC Week 2: All Blacks v Namibia:
shenanigans past the ruck
Ireland do this very well, they are presenting the right picture to the ref, yet illegal more often than not. It is really good, disciplined, and accurate ruck work - and it is often at speed with them hitting their rucks from a couple of metres behind the tackled player at exactly the right moment. They are the best in the business at rucks, and with most games ruck to set piece ratio something like 5:1, who cares if you loose 5 lineouts!
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@Machpants said in RWC Week 3: Springboks v Ireland:
@Derm-McCrum said in RWC Week 3: Springboks v Ireland:
SA should be top of the pool on 15 points by the time Ireland play Scotland.
How can SA top the pool, unless Ireland lose to Scotland without a bonus point? Cos if they both get 15, Ireland go through as the winner of the game between the twoAh I misunderstood, yes SA will be on 15, then Ireland will just need 1 point against Scotland to finish top of the pool
Unless Scots win with four tries, having put 200 on Romania!
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@Machpants said in RWC Week 3: Springboks v Ireland:
@Duluth said in RWC Week 2: All Blacks v Namibia:
shenanigans past the ruck
Ireland do this very well, they are presenting the right picture to the ref, yet illegal more often than not. It is really good, disciplined, and accurate ruck work - and it is often at speed with them hitting their rucks from a couple of metres behind the tackled player at exactly the right moment. They are the best in the business at rucks, and with most games ruck to set piece ratio something like 5:1, who cares if you loose 5 lineouts!
The deep clean. But convinced ref to penalise us for same last year in second test.
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@pakman said in RWC Week 3: Springboks v Ireland:
@Machpants said in RWC Week 3: Springboks v Ireland:
@Duluth said in RWC Week 2: All Blacks v Namibia:
shenanigans past the ruck
Ireland do this very well, they are presenting the right picture to the ref, yet illegal more often than not. It is really good, disciplined, and accurate ruck work - and it is often at speed with them hitting their rucks from a couple of metres behind the tackled player at exactly the right moment. They are the best in the business at rucks, and with most games ruck to set piece ratio something like 5:1, who cares if you loose 5 lineouts!
The deep clean. But convinced ref to penalise us for same last year in second test.
Sorry, arrows are green not red
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@Halfout said in RWC Week 3: Springboks v Ireland:
With a two week break to the Scotland game I expect Farrell will go with a close to full strength team. I expect Conan to start, probably at 8 with Doris moving to 6, and POM getting a rest. Maybe Henderson for Ryan, Bealham for Furlong, and Sheehan getting a start. I think the backs will be full strength, with possibly Henshaw starting. Can’t see Farrell taking too many risks against the Scots.
I agree about not taking any risks, but he will want to limit match minutes cos it's a match every week if they want to keep progressing.
He has tried Doris at 7 as well - he needs to give the front liners some rest and have the back-ups not getting stale either. Sexton on the bench possibly. -
Well done Ireland.
Quite a humdinger of a battle and you took your opportunities better than us.
Good luck for the rest of the tournie. -
@Derm-McCrum said in RWC Week 3: Springboks v Ireland:
@Billy-Tell said in RWC Week 3: Springboks v Ireland:
@Derm-McCrum said in RWC Week 3: Springboks v Ireland:
The 3 residency players in the squad is probably the last of the bunch as IRFU have shifted to their IQ Rugby programme since 2017. In short, they want already Irish qualified players picked for the provinces.
Let’s be honest. The move from 3 to 5 years forced their hand.
In part yes. They announced IQ Rugby a couple of weeks after WR made their announcement but had been planning it for a number of months. The writing was on the wall anyway - there were too many duds and too many NIQ players filling up the squads within the provincial quotas. They're now at 94% Irish qualified, with only 10-11 players who are ineligible to play due to being capped elsewhere.
Indeed. Only 4 non Irish qualified players have been signed by the provinces for the coming season.
Alex Nankivell
Steven Kitschoff
Dave Ewers
Santiago CorderoOnly Nankivell can technically qualify on residency but he will be 31 or 32 by that time so he isn't a project player as some might think.
Ireland has the 3rd oldest squad at the world cup but have generally been strong at u20 level since 2019. Hardly any of those players have broken into Farrells squad yet so the need for project players isn't there. But yes the IRFU have been very cynical in the past.
Scotland have just poached Ben Healy (Scottish grandparent) offering him a contract Munster/IRFU couldn't match. That's just the way things are.
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I noticed the world's "greatest 12" let his rival waltz past him in the 72nd minute-Mr Aki seems a bit slow on the turn...
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D Duluth moved this topic from RWC Matches on
