Mark Anscombe?

[Kofi Annan]

Never trust a man with a beard or wears his watch on his right wrist, fact

[tighthead]

I am certinally not calling for Anscombe's head just because we have had a few bad results.

But, I think for the early part of the season his job was made easy, we had a really good selection of fit talented players.

Now with the injuries and the Ireland call ups he is really earning his money, from now to the end of the season will show how good he is as a coach. At the very least we have to get a home rabo semi final, as for the Heineken cup, beat Saracens and then who knows?

[ruckover]

The only result of the 6N period so far that has worried me is the Treviso result simply because it's our strongest team of all four matches so far, and we still couldn't win. I fully back Anscombe to turn it around and help us find our start of the season form again.

[BR]

did anyone understand any of the changes tonight? it seemed like he thought im gonna change x for y on 60 regardless of how the games going, other than the injuries of course

I'm not convinced that everyone named in the matchday squad is genuinely fit.

[Rooster]

did anyone understand any of the changes tonight? it seemed like he thought im gonna change x for y on 60 regardless of how the games going, other than the injuries of course

Probably orders from Dublin

[OneMore]

did anyone understand any of the changes tonight? it seemed like he thought im gonna change x for y on 60 regardless of how the games going, other than the injuries of course

Probably orders from Dublin

I don't think it was Kidney who was responsible for that nonsense of taking a winger off to put Marshall on to move the injured Pienaar to 10 and your 10 to 12, your 12 to 13 only then to have to substitute NOC for Pienaar and then play NOC at 10 rather than 12. Muppetry.

Think it was Andrew who went off. So merely our 9 at 10, our 10 at 12, our 12 at 15, and our 14 at 13.


Should have been a straight change at 9 in my opinion.

[ColinM]

PJ was kicking well so Anscombe had no particular reason to try and keep Pienaar on the pitch at whatever cost. I actually thought the moving of Olding to 15 was a good move though as its possibly a position he could play in from time to time as he would get more opportunities to get used to rugby at this level from there given our lack of options. Indeed if he settled well there he could quickly be second choice in a fully fit squad

[Big-al]

Anscombe has to shoulder some of the blame for that performance. Personally, the pack has went backwards this season. Our lineout has been a shambles on more than 1 occassion, our maul seems to be getting a good doing over againest decent packs ie. vs Castres, Munster, Saints, Glasgow, Ospreys and now Treviso and we are nearly always guaranteed to struggle at the breakdown if Chris Henry/Rory Best aren't there. Collecting the kick offs are hardly a success either.

No doubt our playing style has improved under him though, we're attacking from deep more often, our offloading game is top notch and he has given the younger players a sustained run in the side (i.e selecting Olding over NOC). Our tactics and selection, are usually spot on, so for that he should obviously get a lot of credit.

But the fundamental basics of good forward play in my opinion has regressed thus far this season. Just saying like...

[Scranner]

To me it looked as if they wanted to take Pienaar off and he refused to go. If that was the case, it needs to be made clear that, brilliant as he can be, he is a player and follows orders.

As for the forward play. The biggest problem as I see it is that we have absolutely no strategy to counteract a decent rolling maul and we are getting hammmered for it. Surely that is a coaching problem that needs to be sorted?

[Cornerfleg]

I don't think anyone is above criticism ... however Maak is trying to keep results going from the start of the season with a full squad ... with a team of 4th or 5th choicers in key positions ... not sure there can be much blame dealt out to anyone in that regard. I do still feel that our 4th or 5th choicers are seriously not up for it, but most 4th or 5th choicers would struggle.

Positives are some young lads have looked comfortable and will be class players, until then they will be excellent reserves.

Negatives - some players do not look comfortable in this climate, and one or two senior players are getting seriously outplayed by their counterparts for the last few weeks.

As said earlier by another poster if Doyle, D'Arcy and either Fat Nick or Roger, and one or two other back up players had have been fit we'd be in a totally different mindset and league position IMHO.

Having said that the last subs on Friday did have me scratching my head. However if the whole backrow hadn't have played lets all run away from Allen we'd have had a win.

[Snipe Watson]

I don't think it was Kidney who was responsible for that nonsense of taking a winger off to put Marshall on to move the injured Pienaar to 10 and your 10 to 12, your 12 to 13 only then to have to substitute NOC for Pienaar and then play NOC at 10 rather than 12. Muppetry.

The thing that tugged my chain was making any change when it was clear that Ruan was struggling and looked to me as if he needed to come off. 5 minutes later, he was off.

[Cornerfleg]

To me it looked as if they wanted to take Pienaar off and he refused to go. If that was the case, it needs to be made clear that, brilliant as he can be, he is a player and follows orders.

As for the forward play. The biggest problem as I see it is that we have absolutely no strategy to counteract a decent rolling maul and we are getting hammmered for it. Surely that is a coaching problem that needs to be sorted?

Personally I feel our biggest problem in the forwards is making ground over the gain line with direction purpose and speed to get teh ball away ... running sideways or slow static phase ball is killing any creativity in the backs. But I agree scranner nailing a maul before it can roll is the key ... but I fear I might start a rant on poor back row play again and get shot at for daring to say not good enough at the breakdown.

There should be some very serious restart work done in these 3 weeks off. Thon was criminal.

[Cornerfleg]

I don't think it was Kidney who was responsible for that nonsense of taking a winger off to put Marshall on to move the injured Pienaar to 10 and your 10 to 12, your 12 to 13 only then to have to substitute NOC for Pienaar and then play NOC at 10 rather than 12. Muppetry.

The thing that tugged my chain was making any change when it was clear that Ruan was struggling and looked to me as if he needed to come off. 5 minutes later, he was off.

He didn't know what pint was either ... Dr Irwin is doing some serious pint identification drills this week.

[ColinM]

I take your point re Olding at 15 Colin but equally he had been cracking at 12 and we were chasing the game iirc.

Yep, which was why getting Marshall on was a good thing, and after the Andrew chargedown, bringing him off wasnt a bad shout in itself as it could have affected him.

But two rights don't necessarily make a right!

[Snipe Watson]

but I fear I might start a rant on poor back row play again and get shot at for daring to say not good enough at the breakdown.

Fleg, anyone who thinks our breakdown performance has been good enough for the last few weeks is a blithering idiot. In fairness, Robbie is the only player not totally out of his depth at this level and he isn’t a battering ram kind of player so there is the reason, but irrespective of the cause, it has been shockingly poor.