England defeats France in Paris and opens up Six Nations Championship

In a power packed performance England defeated France by 24 points to 13. The French persisted in running the ball from their own line and yielding up possession.
The French scrum was -at times -pulverised by the English. England’s number eight Nick Easter was man of the match whilst the half-back duo of Wilkinson and Wigglesworth also played starring roles.

Wales hammered Italy by 47-8 at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium. Italian errors contributed partly to their downfall. Lee Byrne and Shane Williams were the Welsh stars. Each scored two tries. Tom Shanklin scored the remaining Welsh try. Undoubtedly Warren Gatland will take comfort from the Welsh performance. Nevertheless grave doubts remain about this Welsh team.

At Croke Park Ireland hammered a very poor Scottish team by 34-13. Geordan Murphy-who had been dropped from the panel by Eddie O’Sullivan -certainly answered the coach in no uncertain terms with a stunning performance. Assuming that Girvan Dempsey is fit for the Welsh game O’Sullivan will face a major selection quandary when it comes to choosing a full back. Full back is certainly Geordan Murphy’s best position. Brian O’Driscoll has begun to rediscover his old form whilst Andrew Trimble had his best ever performance for Ireland. Tommy Bowe certainly answered his critics with a fine performance. He scored two tries. His first try was of exceptional quality. Rob Kearney justified his selection and scored a try. The Irish back row was effective as a unit and also individually.
Nevertheless there are some problems in the line out which must be ironed out before Ireland take on Wales in two weeks time. Also Bernard Jackman will come under pressure to hold his place. Paul O’Connell is likely to return to strengthen the line out.

Eddie O’Sullivan partly by accident and partly by design has managed to field a powerful team. With the addition of Paul O’Connell the team is more than a match for a suspect Welsh team. Ireland is capable of defeating Wales comprehensively. The Irish scrum is far superior to that of Wales. Ireland can starve high scoring Shane Williams of the ball.

However Ireland must play England at Twickenham on Saturday March 15th.
England is probably a greater threat to Ireland than Wales.

Rugby Union Six Nations-France defeats Ireland in cliffhanger

This was a much-improved performance from Ireland. The infusion of new talent has rejuvenated the side. Jamie Heaslip was outstanding. Hopefully Eddie O’Sullivan will persist with this policy. He must also introduce a genuine open side flanker into the team.

In the first half Ireland had most of the play. France punished turnovers in the first-half mercilessly with Vincent Clerc scoring a hat-trick of tries. France continuously attacked Geordan Murphy's wing with a great deal of success. Some of the Irish defensive tackling left much to be desired.
With the score 19-6 at half time, Ireland appeared dead and buried.

Cedric Heymans' try appeared to drive the final nail in the coffin. The score now stood at 26-6. Welsh referee Nigel Owens awarded a penalty try to Ireland in the 58th minute. This was the signal for the Irish revival.
In the 61st minute David Wallace crossed the line for an Irish try. Unfortunately O’Gara missed the conversion.
The French now led by 26-18.
A Brian O'Driscoll pass failed to find a teammate when a try seemed on.
O’Gara scored a magnificent penalty with six minutes to go.
Ireland attacked the French line in injury time but failed to secure the all-important try.

In the second half the Irish pack hammered the French into submission. However this may be explained by the decision of over confident French coach Marc Lievremont to replace prop Lionel Faure and hooker Dimitri Szarzewski with William Servat and Julien Brugnaut early in the second half. This completely destabilized the French scrum. Nevertheless the Irish pack has performed strongly against Italy and France.

The second half performance will undoubtedly boost Irish confidence. This team is capable of defeating Wales, Scotland and possibly England. There are some shortcomings in the lineout. These must be addressed. Defensive tackling leaves much to be desired. O’Sullivan must continue to introduce new talent and select a genuine open side flanker.

Rugby Union-Poor Irish team defeats Italy 16-11

This was another lack lustre performance by Ireland. It was compounded by poor passing. The line out was beset by problems. In the scrums Ireland performed reasonably well. Nevertheless the Italians were superb at the break down. Geordan Murphy made several errors whilst Simon Easterby was sin binned for a professional foul.

It took vintage performances from scrum-half Eoin Reddan and out-half Ronan O'Gara to avert disaster. Reddan oozed class. O'Gara is now back to his brilliant best as evidenced by a superb chip over the Italian defence for Girvan Dempsey's try. He contributed 11 points of Irelands total. (3 pens and 1 conversion)

O'Sullivan is quite simply too conservative as a coach. He is risk averse. His selection today should have included Bernard Jackman, Tony Buckley, Jamie Heaslip,Rob Kearney and Tommy Bowe from the start. He is obviously under pressure as the IRFU guillotine hangs over his head. Nevertheless he should have gone for broke. In fairness he did introduce Kearney and Jackman in the course of the game. It is time to reconstruct the Irish team and prepare for the 2011 World Cup. It is also time for the IRFU to take International Sevens Rugby seriously.

France and England have now gone down this route. England may have surprisingly lost today against Wales but nevertheless this short term pain is necessary for long term success.
Most of the current Irish team will have retired by 2011.
Fortune favours the brave. Ask Warren Gatland. Today he chose a Welsh team largely composed of Ospreys players and confounded the pundits. Undoubtedly Shaun Edwards played a major role in the Welsh success also.

Next weekend Ireland faces a newly reconstructed French team. The omens are not good.

Irish Rugby Team-Geordan Murphy Dropped

The decision by Eddie O Sullivan to drop Geordan Murphy is incomprehensible. Murphy is just the type of player needed by Ireland for the showdown against France.



The head coach has been unable to explain the poor performances against Namibia and Georgia. However in typical eddiespeak he demolished Geordan Murphy's claim to a place on the team. "Geordan's last few games against France haven't been a happy hunting ground. They have not been good days," he said. Is there an unwritten rule which states that there must be at least one Ulster player on the team. Rory Bests unavailability because of injury probably tipped the balance in favour of Andrew Trimble as the token Ulster player. One bonus for the Leicester Tigers is the fact that Murphy will return to the club fresh and uninjured.