#GOOD Ulster no longer being the punch line of Irish rugby with plenty of players in the national team, including the best performer in McCloskey, and currently the highest Irish province in the league.
#SHIT The advantage law. Inconsistent and increasingly bizarre interpretation and application.
Would also be the funniest way Scotland have bottled winning something (which is some effort given Scotland's history).
If Ireland were to win this 6 Nations, it would definitely be the funniest way they've won a championship.
Scottie Wilson is a weapon in the loose, but he's an absolute liability in the scrum with no sign of improvement. When Tom O'Toole is your best scrummaging prop, you are in bother.
For all Ulster's improvements, they've got one prop on contract next season who is not a dreadful scrummager. Both set pieces were poor, but scrum being utterly uncompetive meant they had no respite in the second half.
The two officials absolutely ripped the bag out of those last 10 minutes. Also, I wish refs would shut the hell up. I've still got that refs voice ringing in my head as he was doing so much 'coaching'.
I'm all for binning the TMO in club rugby. It's a pain in the hole with the best officials, so allowing non test officials who see rugby reffing as a commentary job makes a bad situation worse.
Rugby has changed a lot since the last World Cup and a lot of Irish rugby has bitched and whined about it. The exception has been Ulster, so it's unsurprising to me that the best Irish players today were the Ulster players and lads not originally from Ireland.
Settle does appear to be a nice landing zone for unlucky Jets with Pete Carroll, Geno, and now Darnold. So as a Seahawks fan, I'm happy to perform Jets reclamation jobs.
Field goal probably would have basically won it, but I get MacDonald sensed the dam was about to burst as that defence must be gassed, and gave Kubiak licence to dig into his bag of tricks.
After a very miserable sporting weekend, this Superbowl is helping the mood.
There is an argument for a change to laws that you can't slap and have to attempt to catch the ball, but how it took until the second half on Thursday for Stockdale to be the first player to work it out is just not good enough.
If they could not make such a mess of the high ball and understand the concept of offside, this would be going a decent bit better.
I think the autumn were a wasted opportunity. It was fairly obvious over the previous 12 months that Van der Flier, Lowe, and a couple of others were a good bit past their best. The autumn was a chance to blood players in proper tests with the first 15. Instead they got a token cap against Japan.
Should say, that will be with fans rather than the media or the IRFU. The media seem to think this coaching ticket is beyond reproach and criticism, while in the last 20 years, the IRFU only seem to move members of the senior men's coaching staff on when their contracts expire.
The coaching staff have been divorced from reality for too long that any credit in the bank has been used up. They've kept picking players who have looked miles off the required athleticism for 18 months, while making the job impossible for whoever starts at 10 cos the platform up front is so bad.
Totally agree. I think Farrell needs to move on from a few of the players who have served him so well, and go for athletic and/or man mountain options. I'm thinking players like Edogbo, Izuchukwu, and any of the wingers who came through the 7s (Baloucoune, Ward, Kenny).
There has been a fair bit of whining in Irish rugby (except Ulster really) about World Rugby's emphasis on kick escorts and certain breakdown issues, and they've not come up with a good idea to deal with it other than kick contestables (which we are terrible at).
I also think our kicking strategy opened up the game so much for them to counter. It was a poor team selection compounded by a dreadful game plan, which was compounded by several players who can no longer fight the dying of the light and a few others not ready or good enough for test rugby.
He's the only player in that starting pack who can consistently gain you metres when carrying in tight areas, so it's mad if teams don't double up on him. Ireland have to get at least one more ball carrier in the forwards who will give the opposition something to think about.
It'll be inexplicable if Timoney doesn't start next week, and Edogbo should be on the bench as well. And then, there are other players who just look unconvincing at the level.
The clock should be ticking on quite a few senior players and the coaches, but it probably isn't. There is enough evidence now that Van der Flier, Ryan, and Ringrose don't have the juice for test rugby any more, and there are question marks around a few of the other older players.
That was a mess of a performance from Ireland. There was lipstick added to the pig, but they look a poorly coached and poorly selected team. Farrell needs to do what Gatland after the Twickenham destruction in 2000, but he won't.
If the players haven't worked it out, then the coaches should have done so. Just a sorry set up at the moment.
This needs to be the end of a few test careers.
With a proper union, there would be consequences for how bad we've been for 18 months. Instead we'll probably give these coaches new contracts and give new central contracts to lads who have shown nothing in multiple campaigns.
Yeah, rather like the opening game last year, hard to get a read on France given we are a genuinely pathetic, badly coached rugby team. I'd not be remotely surprised if Italy beat us.
18 months looking like this, yet apparently all the coaches are great and beyond reproach if you believe the media.