THE FIRST WIN of James Ryan’s Ireland captaincy rung more than a little hollow.
A Tier two opponent and a two-tiered performance from Ireland that lapsed from promising but stuttering to unacceptable as Ireland took a 20-7 half-time lead over Georgia and turned it into a 23-10 win.
Eight days on from efforts to mine positivity out of another thorough defeat at English hands, Ireland’s coach and senior players were considering harsh realities.
Nominated man of the match Iain Henderson was the first put in front of the cameras to set the tone of the appraisals and the kindest approach he could take was that Ireland created chances. Chances that were left untaken either through TMO review or more often an absence of a clinical edge in the face of blunt-force Georgian pressure.
Next week’s final Test of the Autumn series is understandably high in the consideration of Ryan and Ireland’s players. A six-day turnaround to Scotland is a blessing and a curse for a squad with injuries, but also a need to swiftly move back into gear against a team who they can consider on an equal footing.
“It’s not like we don’t know what to fix, they’re all fixable issues. today the ruck… we know ourselves what’s wrong. So that’s great for us.
“There’s so much to work on. There’s an opportunity to end the year on a high.
I’ve no doubt we’re going in the right direction. We know how to fix things and it’s very much in our hands.”
The skipper added:
“It’s not the standard it should be. We’ll have to take a hard look at ourselves tonight and tomorrow. Because if we ant to finish the year on a positive note next week we’ll have to be a lot better than that.”
A head coach who’s never been involved with a heads up style team decides this is how he’s going to play…
All the talk of happy at training seems to have caused us to lose our aggression.
A new coach who rewarded form over reputation would have got us off to a good start or at least set us on a path that we can build on.
Farrell and co are out of their depth. It’s going to be mid table mediocre for the future
@Umpaloompa: with all due respect what a load of nonsense.. the guy is barely in the chair and having done what was least expected (beating Wales and Georgia losi g to England and France) we are calling for his head..
For who? Scott Robertson? And what about the millions the IRFU would have to spend to buy out current coaching contracts in the middle of a government bailout?.. Get up the yard and give it time
@PScald: Yeah I know it won’t happen because it would cost a fortune and the IRFU only have their self to blame. Do you think any top club would go for him if we did get rid of him?
He claims to be implementing a heads up style yet we now have Joe’s style less the skill level and execution. I don’t see much light at the end of the tunnel
@PScald: might as well wait another 2 years to do what plain and simply obvious.
@PScald: it’s not simply a win or loss it’s the manner in which those results happened. The style of play is abysmal. They crash the ball up every time. It’s so predictable that a team with a bunch of semi pro players could stop it. He also picked 8 players in his 23 that were over 30 years old against Georgia. What benefit did the likes of Earls and Healy get from playing in that game?
@Umpaloompa: 100% a top club would have him as head coach. Top test teams would have him as defense coach.. I’m not sure about Catt or Easterby but I have faith in Farrell being a success..
Let’s be honest he’s dealing with playing his 3rd and 4th choice outhalf and trying to find an alternative to Murray.. today was sh1 t but they won. Next week will be a good test
@Chris Mc: what is plain and obvious?
@Rudiger McMonihan: yeah 8 players over 30
In a friendly joke of a tournament – this should have been the summer tour to USA and likes of Harry Byrne needed time
@Rudiger McMonihan: a team with a bunch of semi pro players didn’t stop it.. they lost…
@BMJF: Harry Byrne! Seriously? He currently is unlikely to get in the starting 15 Leinster in a H cup match for 4-5 year and is no6 oH in the country after sexton, burns, carbery, his big bro and carty!
Lovely to watch him in the last 20 for L in nothing Pro14 fixtures.
Work in progress, I think.
Time for Leo and Stuart, methinks!
@Daniel Murphy: I’ll get my coat
@Daniel Murphy: farrell and easterby are doing a great job.
tu rebus omnibus non est punctualis
It should be the teams motto !!!
Firefighting a different issue each week is ignoring the bigger problem. If you continue to play the same predictable way you’ll end up chasing your tail all the time
Develop the pod attack to introduce alternatives not just the middle man single carries , the dummy runner they have introduced isn’t working either. Try a vertical pod or move the pods out to the centre , do something creative and different
As for the backs , bring the wingers into the midfield , get the full back running hard lines into a switch play , and at least pass the ball to where the player is going instead of where he is .
Be creative for once
I wouldn’t call for a coachs head so quickly but the coaching team have made some basic errors. In the initial squad only having 2 LHs even as fans we could see that was a mistake, how can a professional coaching team make that error. McGrath or Eos should have been in from the start and playimg this game. Playing Bealham at LH? Did Farrell really think he was a better LH than McG or EoS? What was learned? Nothing we already didn’t know. It wasnt fair on Bealham either, how is he going to prove his worth at TH with that game? Playing him at TH and EoS would have taught us a lot more, could have given them both a chance to move up the pecking order. If he wants a player in the squad that can cover TH and LH then play Porter there, as Bealham may not make a squad.
Ah sorry but I’d have respect for Ryan if he called as it was – ‘ that was total muck, totally unacceptable.. we need to take a hard look at what we’re about.. we can’t fix this in one game but we’ve got to improve next week” is what should have been said!! Sick of this small issues we can easily fix waffle
Don’t know why but think i would prefer Ryan to concentrate on his own game which is normally top class rather than be burdened by the captaincy at this relatively early stage in his senior career