Australia vs Ireland, Nations Championship match
Good end to a pretty ropey half. All the focus On Here inevitably on Prendergast and he's not been great, but our lineout, defence and anonymous wingers have been far bigger issues (and O'Keeffe really giving us nothing at the breakdown). Game still there but we need to tighten up. #AUSvIRE
(Having looked again at some of the, um, aggressively flat passing in the build-up to our try there I retract my complaints about O'Keeffe.)
I don't have strong opinions on Prendergast one way or the other, but he does seem to catch an unwarranted amount of flak. *Some* of that is the nature of the position, but not all.
Yeah we've problems across the pitch but still in it, somehow
Most sensible post I’ve seen on all of this. Lineout back to being a serious issue, having run fairly well through the Six Nations. And who’da thunk sticking two fullbacks on the wings might not work out great, eh?
Did feel Conan was getting nothing at breakdowns that Ben was given leeway on. Our back row is carrying great, but are getting out rucked a bit, might be that Australia usually have two going in to make a chance while we send in one.
We don’t tend to start well with late changes and players out of positions but I’ve actually been really impressed with our attack. Need to get Beirne in for his breakdown work and I’d give Frawley a run out but overall there a lot to like with some obvious work ons.
Please don't forget that the Nations Championship has already begun and today Fiji play Wales from 2.10pm at Cardiff City Stadium. It will be LIVE on ITV1 and I hope to give score updates as I do for the Six Nations. Fiji are the 'home' team, which is why it is not at the Millennium.
Two great matches, so far today. A feast of great rugby. Wanted France to win, but NZ were impressive in the end. Great result for Ireland.
I note that Japan beat Italy, and now Ireland have beaten Australia. Add that to New Zealand beating France and Wales has the honour of the Northern Hemisphere to uphold!
The egg-chasers at the non-egg stadium messes with my head a little.
I understand that next weekend, Fiji play England at a Liverpool football ground and in a fortnight, Fiji will play Scotland at a Glasgow football ground.
It’s inexcusable for England Rugby to be as indisciplined as they are. We’ve had DECADES of this nonsense. 95 points conceded whilst they’ve had men sin-binned. You can’t afford that at the best of times, let alone against a team like South Africa. Absolutely abysmal. #RSAENG #NationsChampionship
I switched over after F1 qualifying and had to switch off at yet another yellow card.
It's such a stupid reason to lose. They had about 15 minutes of great play and squandered the rest of the time they had.
There's an inbuilt arrogance in England's players that very few of them have done anything to deserve.