Ireland v Italy

[johnny01984]

The shock for me was how well D'arcy played. Think he back to his best again.

Front row were getting it tight today until Castro came off. Next week against Wales will be harder up against jones.

[aarons]

rory update from brendan fanning

http://brendanfanningrugby.wordpress.co ... ng-better/

From brutal form and no wins from four August games to four out of four in the World Cup and some very positive form. The only downer in what was as accurate and efficient a performance as we’ve seen from Ireland all year was the injury to Rory Best. If body language counts for anything then he’s in trouble. He went for a scan on his shoulder injury after the game but the way he threw down his scrumcap didn’t bode too well. Hopefully he just had the hump about having to leave such a vibrant scene, rather than something worse.

[pythagoras]

How many people in the world know Ulster's 'A' team's name? How many people in Ulster know. Please pick a new anti-spam question unless the intent is to actually limit membership, in which case you're doing great!

Anyway I researched hard and registered in order to express my admiration for andrew trimble.I think the man has every right to feel hard done by, esp after his performances during the warm up games but he displays a complete lack of bitterness.
I can only think that Earls must be showing a bit more in training.
His delayed pass to Earls today was timed perfectly.

Great to hear ireland being spoken of as underdogs against the Welsh

[Mac]

Not good on Rory!

'What will be a concern Ireland though will be the injury to hooker Rory Best, who apparently went straight to hospital with a collar bone injury'

http://www.planetrugby.com/story/0,2588 ... 05,00.html

Mac.

[Shan]

Another very good performance from Ireland which sets us up nicely going into the 1/4 finals.

Great to see all our players performing very well. They will be going in with great confidence against Wales.

Now the only very dark cloud is losing Rory Best. This is simply awful for the man himself and it is absolutely dreadful for Ireland as he has been quite excellent in this WC. F-ck it. We really didn't want this. Cronin is just not at that level. He fecking needs to climb a few steps at least over the next week.

[Snipe Watson]

Thought young Murray stood up well.

[darkside lightside]

thankfully a world away from the last time we played Italy - a good performance and the right result, and really we were well on our way to quell any threat from them by half time..

+ve - Scrums were again excellent, we must have one of the stronger scrums around on the basis of what we've seen since Ross has been involved; our ball carriers in the back row mightn't have made any surges the length of the pitch, but consistently made half-breaks and gave us forward momentum; we were pretty efficient at the breakdown, and Murray generally gave us good ball; Bowe played well and it was good to see us try to bring him into the game more, and Earls finished the tries well; we didn't kick as wastefully as in some matches; also it was great to see Sexton nail those 2 kicks when he came on..

-ves - Best's injury is very concerning, he is a key player and Cronin isn't in the same league (I also worry about his throwing if the Welsh lineout gets on top early); Murray wasn't bad, but was again a bit of a mixed bag, making a few too many careless handling errors;

and I'd have some concerns about our ability to break a good defence down - which I reckon we'll have to do against Wales, but especially against France or England and whoever we would potentially meet in the final. Italy made over 100 tackles against us and missed 7, and we made 4 clean breaks - we did well by sucking defenders in and then exploiting gaps in midfield. I wonder what would happen if we come up against someone who closes down our ball carriers more effectively - do we have the creativity and variety to our game to threaten defences? What we saw in August against England and France would give you pause for thought - although we will be playing with more confidence now, you would think. There were still a few times in the Italy match where our backs were running flat and laterally - like the time when first ROG then BOD literally ran diagonally towards the corner flag before giving the ball to Earls who was basically already in touch, a nice transfer from BOD but just a really poor appreciation of space.

[darkside lightside]

also what the heck was going on with the TMO referral for Bowe's non-try - is the TMO correct in only adjudicating on foul play in the in-goal area? Even so if an early tackle is initiated in the field of play but is continued and finished in the in-goal, then surely foul play has occurred in in-goal??

[mikerob]

also what the heck was going on with the TMO referral for Bowe's non-try - is the TMO correct in only adjudicating on foul play in the in-goal area? Even so if an early tackle is initiated in the field of play but is continued and finished in the in-goal, then surely foul play has occurred in in-goal??

The laws say: "The [TMO] may be consulted if the referee is unsure when making a decision in in-goal with regard to the scoring of a try or a touch down when foul play in in-goal may have been involved."

So.... two players could be going for the ball in the in-goal area, but one player has smuggled a bat onto the pitch and bashes the other player on the head just before the try line so the player's lifeless body falls over the try line and fails to touch the ball down. But as the murder didn't happen in the in-goal area, the TMO can only say "no foul play occurred in goal, no penalty try"

[darkside lightside]

but if an illegal tackle is ongoing in the in-goal, then surely foul play has occurred in-goal??

[BR]

also what the heck was going on with the TMO referral for Bowe's non-try - is the TMO correct in only adjudicating on foul play in the in-goal area? Even so if an early tackle is initiated in the field of play but is continued and finished in the in-goal, then surely foul play has occurred in in-goal??

Think he got it wrong anyway - not sure what he was asked, but the italians didn't ground the ball either - knocked over DBL = scrum 5. TMO only stated no try and no in-goal foul.

[mikerob]

but if an illegal tackle is ongoing in the in-goal, then surely foul play has occurred in-goal??

Thing is, if the TMO is meant to ignore everything outside the in-goal area, then the illegal tackle would need to be continuing in the in-goal area for the TMO to call a foul - such as one player hanging off the other's player's legs. If the illegal tackle occurred outside the in-goal area, but in the in-goal area they are just jostling with each other to reach the ball (which is legal), then by my reading of the laws, the TMO must say "no foul".

[Samstew]

but if an illegal tackle is ongoing in the in-goal, then surely foul play has occurred in-goal??

Thing is, if the TMO is meant to ignore everything outside the in-goal area, then the illegal tackle would need to be continuing in the in-goal area for the TMO to call a foul - such as one player hanging off the other's player's legs. If the illegal tackle occurred outside the in-goal area, but in the in-goal area they are just jostling with each other to reach the ball (which is legal), then by my reading of the laws, the TMO must say "no foul".

Spot on!
I had to explain exactly this down the pub yesterday lunch time.
The referee and TJ should have picked up what was happening within the field of play.
I have to admit that Kaplan appeared to look quite surprised by the TMO's decision, but in fairness, the TMO got it right.

[darkside lightside]

also what the heck was going on with the TMO referral for Bowe's non-try - is the TMO correct in only adjudicating on foul play in the in-goal area? Even so if an early tackle is initiated in the field of play but is continued and finished in the in-goal, then surely foul play has occurred in in-goal??

Think he got it wrong anyway - not sure what he was asked, but the italians didn't ground the ball either - knocked over DBL = scrum 5. TMO only stated no try and no in-goal foul.

yes good point - he was probably so preoccupied with giving no opinion on the foul play, that he ignored what actually did happen!

[darkside lightside]

but if an illegal tackle is ongoing in the in-goal, then surely foul play has occurred in-goal??

Thing is, if the TMO is meant to ignore everything outside the in-goal area, then the illegal tackle would need to be continuing in the in-goal area for the TMO to call a foul - such as one player hanging off the other's player's legs. If the illegal tackle occurred outside the in-goal area, but in the in-goal area they are just jostling with each other to reach the ball (which is legal), then by my reading of the laws, the TMO must say "no foul".

yes that is probably what happened, because it was less of a tackle IIRC than a hand on the shoulder, which definitely prevented Bowe from reaching the ball, but which probably wasn't continuing in in-goal.. I'll have to check it out again!