You would be absolutely crazy to miss Ireland V France!

 

 Nicole Cronin

Ireland's World Cup journey reaches a critical juncture on tomorrow, as they take on France in the final pool match of the tournament. The roue to the final four is basically win all three matches, or win two matches with bonus points - and a good points difference - which is not us...I wonder what will happen if we draw and the other two second  placed teams don't get any more points?

Anyway, the only way we can guarantee to get into the next round is to beat France. There's a line of logic that says we have a reasonable chance of doing it..my logic! With a four day turnaround, the teams have had to plan a lot of changes to rest players. So Japan probably expected to lose to France, didn't pick their best team, had a player sent off, and got smashed. They play a much stronger  team against Ireland, who think it's going to be easy match, and it ends up pretty evenly matched.

France play a weaker team against Japan, look fantastic against 14 players, smash a dispirited Aussie side who are saving themselves for Japan, their only chance of a win now, and suddenly are the best thing since sliced bread.

Ireland underestimated both Australia and Japan, but when they needed to, dug deep, and came up with the wins. We are, to say the least, battle hardened, whereas France are still to be tested. After taking our eye off the ball against Australia and Japan, could it be more firmly on the ball now?

Home advantage is huge, so I'm going with us to pull another one out the fire. Lead ably from the front by Claire Molloy, the REAL Ireland is going to stand up tomorrow, trust me. Nicole Cronin brought alot last match, and will do so again.

Do yourself a favour and watch, the first two matches have been absolutely smashing!

Ireland beat England and claim second spot!

Saturday night chez moi was a happy place - children smiled, pets frolicked, and my wife got a pithy, erudite summary after the Ireland England match.  Life just looks better when you beat England!

Ireland came onto the field with a new steel to their play, and blew England away with their focus and intensity. It's hard to think of a facet of play that we weren't clearly ahead of the English. O'Mahony  played possibly his best match, and after that it gets hard to call out one player above the other, they all tried so hard. however, Marmion deputised for Murray with aplomb, Ringrose is developing brilliantly, and Luke McGrath had a great little cameo.

England meanwhile, had few stand out players, Itoje maybe, but their backline was anonymous. Too much focus on clattering Sexton off the ball.

England were the best team in the tournament, and deserved to claim the title, but their intensity dropped off for this match once the title was in the bag.

That leaves Ireland in second place, one up from third last month, but really quite a bit of work to get consistency in to our results.

Scotland played out an emflatic victory over Italy, a match that had all the the hallmarks of contractual obligations. The highlight, unfortunately was the comically inept goal kicking of Italy no 10 Carlo Canna.

Finally, France and Wales played out pretty exciting match, that just seemed to go and on, and on and on...twenty minutes on after time was up. Ref Wayne Barnes dithered away, giving 12 penalties to France, but only one yellow card for Wales, and no penalty try. Both sets of fans thought he was biased!

Saturday 18th March
Scotland 29 0 Italy
France 20 18 Wales
Ireland 13 9 England

Ireland looking to finish second!

 

Saturday marks the conclusion of this years 6 Nations. It has been a pretty so so season for Ireland this year, they can now finish anywhere between 2nd and 5th. Fifth doesn't have a very good ring about it, does it? But, you know, we could redeem the whole season if we derail the chariot this weekend. Any season where we beat England is a good season, a great season! Especially as they are currently on 18 wins in a row, just needing one more for the world record. Spoiling someone else's success is nearly as good as success for  yourself!

Desperation and malice is about as much motivation as you need really. The frustrating thing about our losses this season is that at some point in both matches, you felt we could win. Yet a combination of lack of intensity, poor decision making, butter fingers, and missed tackles at the wrong time conspired against us. I can tell you, there is going to be 100% focus and intensity come Saturday from Ireland though.

England have been fairly inconsistent themselves ( well if you can call 4 from 4 inconsistent!) but they could easily have lost to France or Wales. Hopefully they peaked against Scotland, and will roll into town thinking they can play sevens style exhibition rugby against us. That's our glimmer of hope, England should win but you never know. I'll be watching at home with my son, having to moderate his comments on the ref - No, I'd say his parents probably were married, Yes, I'm sure he had to take and eye test at some time, no, he's not on the other teams payroll.

Also in action will be our fantastic ladies team, going for the grand slam, (they probably think the men's team should take some Calpol and get on with it) and the u20's who've only lost once.

In the other games Scotland should finish with a flourish against Italy. And it should be a close enjoyable encounter between France and Wales, with home advantage seeing the French home.

Saturday 18th March
Scotland 12:30 Italy
France 14:45 Wales
Ireland 17:00 England