PAUL O’CONNELL SAID Ireland’s early penalty count gave the opposition ‘a leg up’ towards victory in today’s 23 – 16 loss to Wales.
Ireland’s 10-game winning streak was ended in dramatic fashion as the hosts in Cardiff withstood extended spells of intense Irish pressure during the second half.
“We probably needed to score in that big period [of pressure] when we were down in their green zone,” the Ireland captain told RTE.
“It would have continued the momentum we had been building, but they held out. It gave them a massive lift and they got the crack at us in our 22, they scored.”
Ireland found themselves in a hole after 15 minutes as they slipped to a 12 – 0 deficit thanks to Leigh Halfpenny’s excellent kicking off the tee. As much as the period which Ireland failed to convert pressure, that early glut of penalties conceded was the reason the Grand Slam and Triple Crown are now out of reach this year.
The discipline at the start of the game was disappointing. It was a replica of the England game, but the other way around. Two weeks ago we gave them a leg up, this week we probably gave them a leg up.”
“We gave ourselves a lot of work to do early in the game. With the penalties we gave away and the referee’s interpretation. So it was a long way to come back, but we did, we gave ourselves a chance to win the game, but we just didn’t do that.
“We had a lot of phases and they held out, it’s testament to them as a team and their defence.”
“The Scotland game is the big focus now and we still have a crack at the Championship.”
And if he hadn’t tried to amalgamate the middle eastern countries to take control if it’s oil reserves by trading it in denar instead of dollars, he may well still be alive. Great to see Libya thriving today though under western democracy
@domas1507: I must add though that the counter argument would be that if we hadn’t delivered “democracy” then we would have lost control of a vital resource and we would possibly be the countries in turmoil. So it all depends on how you like you bread buttered I suppose
@domas1507: yeah, but more importantly, who won the match?
@Conoroconnor: Watch it tonight… Exclusively on RTE
@Gary Donlan: indeed I will. I have it set to record.
@Conoroconnor: ended 1-1
@domas1507: spoiler alert ffs!
The gas thing here is that Hughey made his close friend Larry Goodman a rich man because of sending beef to Libya. The same fella today has a monopoly on Irish beef factories because he holds the only offal license in the country. He uses this to keep the price of beef paid to farmers low.
Also look up the beef tribunal and how Haughey bailed out Goodman after the US invaded Iraq and Goodman went bankrupt.
Farmer gets €1200 for his product, he keeps them for 30 months. The factory and the supermarket get €1500 in profits for a few days work.
Each animal is worth about €2700 when sold to the consumer.
@great gael of Eire:Didnt know Hughey was friends with Larry Goodman. I’ve never seen him drinking in mccoys
@Peter Govan: Very good. Haha
Poor Gaddafi. Iti was probably the BSE beef that did it.