or to join or start a new Discussion

40 Comments
Article Rating     Not Rated Yet

Tired looking France

Another excellent weekend of rugby we've just had. Ireland and Wales did the business whilst England will be over the moon with their win.

While I was watching the game I couldn't help but think how tired France were looking. They were literally sleep walking in the first 20 minutes, then when they woke up they really started asking questions of England. England were second best for the last 60 minutes of that game - no question!

Is this the result of the following:
3 weekends of 6 nations games?
Staying in the world cup for longer than 4 of the other teams in the tournament?
Top 14 games on break weekends?
Bad sleeping patterns?
Too many sleeping pills?

England did well but anyone can beat a team who are not yet awake. I still think England will have a tough game against a fully awake Ireland team.

Wales on the other hand better hope France stay asleep. When they were awake they really put England to the sword. They would have won had Trinh-Duc not been sleep walking!!!

comment by Y2J (U12677)

posted on 14/3/12

I think he is overly critical of Ireland, I must agree.

But then again I do think it balances out quite well with Pope's a**e kissing. They need Steve Williams back again, he just talked out of his backside as well!!!

Confident of a W on saturday?

posted on 14/3/12

My feeling is it is very unprofessional for a sportsman to attack another team's character in this way. Sportsmen, whether they like it or not are ambassadors for their countries and role models for young impressionable fans.

To have a top class athlete make sweeping generalisations is poor form and frankly a bit racist. The press who publish it and take the quote out of context for the headline are being inflamatory and I would tend to question their ethics.

comment by Y2J (U12677)

posted on 14/3/12

The press who publish it and take the quote out of context for the headline are being inflamatory and I would tend to question their ethics.

_______________________________________

You've just summed up the English press quite well.

What Ferris said wasn't a problem. He was basically saying that they don't like losing. who does? But the papers have twisted it to make a headline.

posted on 14/3/12

Comment Deleted by Site Moderator

posted on 14/3/12

On the media, i dont listen to any of them. I take Conor O'Shea's opinions on board because he is more often right then wrong, and he is infinitely more qualified than I.

Gerry Thornly in the Irish times has some sort of 6th sense and a very balanced and fair view of things so i read his stuff regularly.

But other than that i make up my mind on what i see on the pitch and the general feeling of things.

GreyGhost,
If you read the full interview from Ferris, he was not at all taking the Pss out of England, just saying that top teams don't like to lose.

It is most definitely taken in the wrong context.

Well anyway, back to the rugby shall we gents

Y2J
Ye im confident but very fearful. If that makes sense.

I think it has got to be a good game with the form both have shown.

Personally i really really want us to win! Even more so than the French game, not because of who the opposition are, but because we need it! The national team need to start representing the success of the provinces. For my money that is a direct reflection of the manager.

If he can't bring out the best in players who are first team players with the Top European club sides then he is not good enough and needs to be replaced.

posted on 15/3/12

Doesn't that assume that all players in the top european clubs as you put it are eligible for Irish selection?

posted on 15/3/12

Ohhhh some nit piking... fine i will put it like this.

current ERC seedings
---
TIER 1 - Leinster, Toulouse, Munster, Cardiff Blues, Biarritz Olympique, Leicester Tigers
TIER 2 - Northampton Saints, ASM Clermont Auvergne, Ospreys, Bath Rugby, Harlequins, London Irish
TIER 3 - Ulster Rugby, Saracens, Gloucester Rugby, Glasgow Warriors, Scarlets, Edinburgh
TIER 4 - Connacht Rugby, Benetton Treviso, Castres Olympique, Montpellier, Racing Metro 92, Aironi Rugby
---

After the Pool stages:
Munster move to #1
#2 leinster...
and i believe Ulster are #6 (not sure)

However!
I believe it brings in to context my statement although im not saying that we should be winning grand slams year after year, but certainly doing far better than we have historically been doing.



posted on 15/3/12

As for eligibility to play for Ireland.
Well mate, We have very heavy restrictions on the number of foreign players in each club. I believe its 5. Player in ireland are centrally contracted to the IRFU, not the clubs. It makes a massive difference and cancels out the problems we see in England where a player has a club contract and an international contract and they regularly conflict and cause grief. And creates situations where player power is far more than it should be. Lewis Moody"I want more money" Unknown Player after England got knocked out of the world cup"Well thats ($X amount$) down the toilet"

Putting that mentality right was the first thing Lancaster done, and for me the best ting an England international coach has EVER done

posted on 15/3/12

I agree the English (and French) club scenes are a mess. English rugby is showing all signs of following English football into international irrelevance due to the contributory clubs preference to shell out for foreign internationals over developing local talent.

But to be fair 5 could still be 1/3 of your run on side though. All I'm suggesting is that it's hardly fair to compare club success with international success (for a lot of reasons) but mostly when an on field club team can be 33% composed on players who can't play for the national team.

posted on 15/3/12

Yes and no.

The clubs in Ireland operate under the rules of the IRFU and that mode of operation is to provide the national team with skilled players. The actual major impact the foreign players have is when the Internationals are away for the 6 Nations, RWC etc etc Only then is it likely to see 33% as you say. But not normal.

I have to dissagree about the club success v national success.

As with the Lions tour, you choose the best possible squad from the names available. It is the same system for International level only the names come from the clu scene.

If you have clubs winning everthing in sight it automatically leads to having a better pool of players to choose from and should indeed provide a better national team. After all, the coach of the national team does not teach the players how to play, he only uses what hes got and expects them to have learned their skill at club level. Then he implements a plan to suit the squad he has.

So if a team boss can't make a top class winning team from the 3 major Irish provinces I 100% sure their are other coaches who think they can.

Sign in if you want to comment
RATE THIS ARTICLE
Rate Breakdown
5
0 Votes
4
0 Votes
3
0 Votes
2
0 Votes
1
0 Votes

Average Rating: 0 from 0 votes

ARTICLE STATS
Day
Article RankingNot Ranked
Article ViewsNot Available
Average Time(mins)Not Available
Total Time(mins)Not Available
Month
Article RankingNot Ranked
Article ViewsNot Available
Average Time(mins)Not Available
Total Time(mins)Not Available