The Medusa Fora

firehazard wrote:

Irish Rover wrote:Yeah it was a great result for Argentina last night

Great result, good game too. Throws the group right open.

Yeah it really does. Hopefully Ireland can win comfortably today to get the confidence up.

Those Namibians look quite white for Namibians

A long weekend of rugby...

Ireland were disappointing. Difficult to predict what's going to happen in that group now.

England were shocking, and on that form face annihilation by South Africa and will struggle against Tonga.

Italy were unlucky to come up against the All Blacks in their first game. Hope it doesn't shake their confidence.

Thought Canada were going to shock Wales for a while. Good comeback for the Welsh.

All in all, it's even harder to see a winner from outside the southern hemisphere now.

Ireland looked like a school boy team witht the amount of handling errors they made. Surely they cant play that badly again

Niall wrote:Ireland looked like a school boy team witht the amount of handling errors they made. Surely they cant play that badly again

Ireland surely have to get better, though perhaps it's a shame the RWC wasn't happening six months ago. And 'twas a bit disturbing to see B O'D with his arm in a sling afterwards.

firehazard wrote:

Niall wrote:Ireland looked like a school boy team witht the amount of handling errors they made. Surely they cant play that badly again

Ireland surely have to get better, though perhaps it's a shame the RWC wasn't happening six months ago. And 'twas a bit disturbing to see B O'D with his arm in a sling afterwards.

didnt notice that bit, thats not at all good. Hopefully he'll be fighting fit for games against the argies and french

Niall wrote:

firehazard wrote:

Niall wrote:Ireland looked like a school boy team witht the amount of handling errors they made. Surely they cant play that badly again

Ireland surely have to get better, though perhaps it's a shame the RWC wasn't happening six months ago. And 'twas a bit disturbing to see B O'D with his arm in a sling afterwards.

didnt notice that bit, thats not at all good. Hopefully he'll be fighting fit for games against the argies and french

I doubt if Brian O' Driscoll morphed into Edward Scissorhands it would give the French and the Argentinians too much cause for concern at the moment.

As I took to my bed early yesterday to catch up on some rest (Pavarotti's coffin was not as light as it looked, especially not by the time we'd hidden 50 roast turkeys and 2 crates of vino in there) I watched the game on the radio, which was hilarious. The Fairweather Fans yelled their hearts out for about 20 minutes and then - silence - until a forlorn "Fields" near the very end.

Mick Molloy wrote:Those Namibians look quite white for Namibians

Wonder if that's due to German colonization or to its close proximity to the major rugby hub that is S.A.? Maybe both.

philipchevron wrote:I doubt if Brian O' Driscoll morphed into Edward Scissorhands it would give the French and the Argentinians too much cause for concern at the moment.

On reflection, I think that a number of the Irish team are in fact in the process of morphing into Edward Scissorhands. Explains why they're having such difficulty actually catching a rugby ball...

firehazard wrote:

philipchevron wrote:I doubt if Brian O' Driscoll morphed into Edward Scissorhands it would give the French and the Argentinians too much cause for concern at the moment.

On reflection, I think that a number of the Irish team are in fact in the process of morphing into Edward Scissorhands. Explains why they're having such difficulty actually catching a rugby ball...

edward scissorhands could have caught more than the irish did on sunday night

Niall wrote:Ireland looked like a school boy team witht the amount of handling errors they made. Surely they cant play that badly again

Well i hope not

Ireland were awful. They're havin' too many problems in getting a clean and/or quick ball out of the set-pieces, especially the rucks. It's getting more and more important to get it clean and get it quick (that was the problem France had), and it was the problem why they performed so badly against Italy and Namibia. Namibia, as all the other minnows, played their hearts out, starting from winger Witbooi and his thumping tackles, giving a torrid night to Denis Hickie. They were great in the lineout and outstanding in slowing the Irish ball. Ireland should be very careful. Next match they play Georgia, a team whose force relies in an aggressive and massive pack, which has a good level for playing in the French Top14. I can see Ireland in great difficulties, the thing that could save them is Georgia coming from the match vs Argentina only few days before.

Curiosity: it's now two wins for Namibia and two wins for Ireland in direct encounters.
DATE OPPONENTS VENUE RESULT SCORE
20.07.1991 IRELAND (1) WINDHOEK WON 15 - 6
27.07.1991 IRELAND (2) WINDHOEK WON 26 - 15
19.10.2003 IRELAND SYDNEY LOST 7 - 67
09.09.2007 IRELAND LYON LOST 17-32

Remember the Tour to hell in 1991? Due to altitude, temperature, disorganisation and low hygiene conditions, getting most of the team to be sick, Ireland lost both matches to Namibia. Fitness coach was Eddie O'Sullivan.

As for the other matches, Scotland played a poor match, which was great to see just to catch the excitement and the moving of the Portuguese at their first ever World Cup match. Number 8 Vasco Uva played his heart out, a moving performance. He was on every ball, and wanted to bring every ball forward. They scored a great try, and didn't concede any points in the ten minutes they played without a sin-binned man.

I can see Samoa do really well vs the English, they played outstandingly in the first half vs South Africa, until they ran out of gas.

Italy will play Romania soon, a crucial match. It's either bonus point or die for Italy, I think.

That's a good analysis, Billie.
Having watched the first round of games, there just seems to be a world of difference between the southern and the northern hemisphere teams. That may be simplistic, but it's increasingly hard to envisage a winner from the north. I suppose it might help if it started raining...

firehazard wrote:I suppose it might help if it started raining...

I'm not so sure about that, look at the amount of handling errors Ireland had in the dry conditions, what would it not be like in the wet

Irish Rover wrote:

firehazard wrote:I suppose it might help if it started raining...

I'm not so sure about that, look at the amount of handling errors Ireland had in the dry conditions, what would it not be like in the wet

At least they'd have an excuse for their handling if the ball was wet.

I reckon it'd need at least three feet of mud to give a realistic chance of one of the northern teams winning the thing.