Ire v All Blackz

[fermain]

NZ miss an early penalty.

[fermain]

horlix!
So far a good game, but now very scrappy play by Ireland. I've just sworn in front of my kids its that bad!
NZ get a penalty
and the miss from in front of posts... Dan Carter
Ire 0 Abs 0

[fermain]

Ireland give another penalty away, not coming in htru the gate.

Dan Carter has another easy kick from in front of posts...

Ire 0 Abs 3

[fermain]

Ireland get a penalty,
ROG (whos had a ggod game apart from his ball in hand kisking IMO after a shaky start) gets it

Ire 3 AB.s 3

[fermain]

A late AB surge, after BOD chips on. They almost score in the corner, but Bowe gets back and taps the ball out.
Unfortunately as deliberate, the ref looks to the TMO to see if it's a penalty try. The TMO says it should be atry because he touched it in the in-goal area... However there was no way to see if it WAS ingoal and Tommy sent off, and a try awarded.
SHEER REFEREEING INCOMPETENCE!
It's been so poor this half so far, even the touchjudges have had to make the decisions for the ref.

Dan Carter gets the easy conversion

Ire 3 AB's 10

[Neil F]

Penalty try New Zealand. Bowe pinged for deliberately knocking the ball into touch. Referee asks TMO . I think one must really question the validity of the law in itself but I think the yellow card is slightly over the top. Bowe's hand was there first, so I cannot see how the try would have been guaranteed. A penalty really should have sufficed. A penalty try and a yellow card seems a little, well, mental and confusing.

Horan has got in the way in the midfield twice. Can someone please explain to him that he's a prop and not a centre? It's not that he's popping up unexpectedly, it's that he's getting in the way of the centres.

Think the referee has been atrocious in this half. Not so much that he's favouring anyone, just that he seems to have needed far too much help for really simple decisions.

[fermain]

NZ look a lot stronger and their power is beginning to tell. One sent off for a sucker punch to Best at start of 2nd half.

NZ have 1 try attempt held up, but another allowed. Carter converts.
nZ score a 3rd on 53 mins but no conversion.
Current score

Ire 3 NZ 22

[fuzzylogic]

Best chance of the half just gone begging!!

I think the main thing Ireland can take from this match is that Dempsey should never be considered for a test match again.

I think we should look at PW at 12, Fitz and Bowe on the wings and Kearney at FB. BOD is playing back to his best without a doubt, roll on the 6N

Ferris on, for O'Connell tho i hope to god Kidney doesnt consider him as a serious 2nd row option!

[Neil F]

Fuzzy; largely agree. Fitzgerald hasn't had a grip on this game and his decision making (which may already claimed was suspect) has been poor. At this moment in time, he's not an international centre. Dempsey has been poor. Very hesitant generally but looks past his sell-by.

Also very disappointed by Quinlan. He has been refereed out of the game but he hasn't shown the discipline to play the referee. Seems that Quinlan is only a good player when the referee lets him be - the failure to modify is worrying. At 34, I don't think there is much more that Quinlan has to learn. Don't think he is any kind of option at international level, despite fantastic provincial performances.

Paddy Wallace on for Fitzgerald.

O'Gara has had a poor game.

This has been an atrocious second half performance from Ireland. I think this is the worst Ireland performance since the last time the All Blacks came to Dublin. Lot of pomp in the build up but there has been no sense of composure, the setpiece has been poor (and let's be clear here - Flannery and Best have been terrible at the lineout, which suggest that the problem is largely with the jumpers, not the throwers) and, most worrying, Kidney doesn't seem to have had the answers. Same formulaic substitutions - Flannery about 60 and the rest thrown on in the last five minutes or so.

Anyway, I think it's over.

Thank God for that.

[FNMilk]

Bl****y hell!!!!!!!!
Well done Eddie O Kidney. Nah, only kidding with that one.

That was extremely poor.

[for dog and ulcer]

Bl****y hell!!!!!!!!
Well done Eddie O Kidney. Nah, only kidding with that one.

That was extremely poor.

Not so much a joke really- keeping an injured POC on for 20 mins was very much in the EOS style.

Agree that the double whammy against Bowe was absurd and also that the refereeing was very quirky and harsh at times and weak at others.

And the last time I saw Ireland play so badly was in France last year.

[Jackie Brown]

I hope Rooster can put up the videos of Ronan the prodigy being palmed off at least twice in the first half. Ireland will never achieve ANYTHING with such a limitation at 10. He is now substandard and game time has to be given to up and coming outhalfes. Bring in Sexton, O'Connor, Keatley and Humphreys. Lets see some new blood.

Why did O'Connell play on when he was wrecked? Dempsey needs to go, no more sticking our most attacking player on the wing, Kearney at fullback please. BOD is well past it too sadly, Wallace and Fitzgerald at 12 and 13 respectively. Quinlan experiment didn't work, good provincially, should have been given more caps a few seasons back but now he is past it, sadly.

Fair play to Hayes, Davy Wallace and TOL, they all played well.

Never agreed with Kidney being chosen for coach. Shows the same tactical ability of Eddie, maybe worse. Kick the ball constantly to the back 3 ain't gonna work and smacks of Eddie O Toole. Subs in last 5mins, why????? ROG should have been long gone after 50mins but no viable alternative, BOD shouldn't be playing, he's not international standard anymore. Sadly it the same old, Best subbed at 60, feck even O'Connell played 10mins longer than he should before Ferris was introduced. Did Wallace touch the ball? It's hard to support ireland when the whole setup is so inept.

[Article]

Very poor show, I am so disappointed taht we did not even give them a game....Ref wa spoor and they seemed as usual to get the rub or the benefit of 50:50 decisions but how poor was Dempsey, O'Gara, Bowe, and the pack disappeared second half IMO - Horan,Best, Quinlan did not get into game at all - Heaslip was best forward for 80 mins, this team we ran close in NZ this summer, beaten in last ten minutes, now we were a shadow of that perfromance today.

[Neil F]

Jackie, it wasn't even the manner of the palm-offs, which were embarrassing because of how easily he went down but it was WHO he was palmed-off by. The Nonu one was almost forgiveable but, have I gone mental, or was he also palmed off by Cowan?

[Jackie Brown]

Indeed i'm fed up watching him, can't attack can't defend, can't kick out of hand at international level, can't control a game or make decisions. All he can do is place kick. He's perfect for the miami Dolphins, I wish he would off back to his homeland!