Rugby Union-Congrats to Ireland:Grand Slam Six Nations and Triple Crown Champions

Ireland 17;Wales 15

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A collection of superb Irish tries over the last number of years

Welsh Meditation: Mil Harddach Wyt (My Beautiful Baby) - And Did Those Feet

This song comes from their album:"Forgetting the Shadows of History".

The video for this song -' My beautiful Baby' is like arriving on holiday after travelling through the night on dark unlit country roads surrounded by deep forests. The second part is set in bright sunshine with streams leading to the sandy beaches of a bay. The whole film is set in Wales. The video offers gentle relaxation.

About "And Did Those Feet"
"The name And Did Those Feet is derived from ‘And Did Those Feet in Ancient Times’ better known as the words to the poem Jerusalem by William Blake.
The nucleus of the group comprises founder and composer Richard Ellin. The principle vocalist is Ina Williams who possesses one of the finest voices to be found in Wales. Cecilia Jones completes the trio providing solo performances and vocal accompaniment to complement Ina’s voice perfectly, the two beautifully layered and at times melding into one.
The music of And Did Those Feet moves between spiritual, pastoral, contemporary, light classical, Welsh language and there’s poetry too...."

Website: And Did Those Feet

Wales outfox Ireland to win the Triple Crown

In windy conditions at Croke Park today Wales deservedly defeated Ireland by 16-12 to win the Triple Crown. Most of the positive rugby was played by Wales. Ireland dominated the first twenty minutes of the first half. However as this half progressed Wales came into the game more and more and could quite possibly have scored two tries. In fairness a tackle by Mike Phillips denied Ireland’s Shane Horgan an almost certain try.

The Irish strategy of breaking up the flow of the play and slowing down the game was coming apart as half time approached. Ireland made little effort to play creative rugby. Ronan O’Gara rarely passed the ball preferring instead to resort to the boot. This reflected Eddie O’Sullivan’s thinking that it was best to ensure that Wales would not play free flowing rugby Wales would have been on level terms at half time were it not for the idiocy of Mike Phillips who used the knee on Marcus Horan. The penalty awarded to Wales under the Irish posts was reversed and Phillips received the yellow card.

In the second half Wales weathered the loss of Phillips. The Welsh forwards kept possession of the ball and ran the clock down until Phillips returned. Wales controlled the ball for most of the second half and went through the phases. The Welsh front five was more than a match for Ireland. A fine try by Shane Williams was the decisive score. Welsh indiscipline could have been costly. Martyn Williams was sin binned for a trip. Warren Gatland will undoubtedly administer a tongue lashing to Phillips and Martyn Williams. In the last five minutes the Welsh forwards retained complete possession of the ball and snuffed out all possibility of a late Irish try.
For Wales Alun Wyn Jones , Shane Williams, Ryan Jones and Gavin Henson starred. For Ireland Rob Kearney, Eoin Reddan, Paul O’Connell and Shane Horgan were best.

It is time for Eddie O’Sullivan to jettison the negative approach. Ireland had sufficient class players to defeat Wales today. The conservative and spoiling approach is unworthy of skilful players and cost Ireland the game. Spoiling tactics have their place in any game but creativity is a sine qua non. The ham string injury to Brian O’Driscoll rules him out for the game against England at Twickenham. Hopefully Geordan Murphy and Girvan Dempsey will return. It is time for Eddie O’Sullivan to take risks.

Scores
Ireland: Pens: O'Gara 4

Wales: Try: S.Williams
Con: S.Jones
Pens: S.Jones 2

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-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.

Rugby Union World Cup-Irish expectations were unrealistic.

Amongst some elements of the media and supporters there was a belief that Ireland was a credible World Cup contender.

These expectations were built on a foundation of sand. Sure Ireland won the Triple Crown in 2006 and 2007. But it is worth remembering that the English team has been in free fall since 2003. The present English team is but a pale shadow of the World Cup winning team of 2003.

Scotland is in decline. Wales during this period had injury problems. So winning two Triple Crowns in successive years probably masked some glaring inefficiencies in Ireland's game.

Much is made of the fact that Ireland defeated South Africa and Australia in Autumn Internationals. Both South Africa and Australia sent experimental sides. They were more concerned with developing strong squads for the World Cup. This was the correct approach and is in marked contrast to the ill-advised policy pursued by Eddie O Sullivan.

A disappointing tour of Argentina and a shockingly poor performance against Italy in a warm up match ought to have sounded the alarm bells.