Ireland do the job against Georgia!

 

Dave Foley (picture  http://bit.ly/11toKGb)

Ireland waited for 50 minutes to start scoring tries against Georgia, and after that they couldn’t stop, scoring 6 in total. It’s always hard when you have a team made of fringe players, there’s not the cohesion of your main squad. The first half was pretty scrappy, and the Georgians were working a lot of the dark arts at the ruck to keep Ireland’s ball slow. Then when the ref got serious about policing the infractions with yellow cards, the space opened up and the tries came. We had a solid scrum, and some good debutants, with Foley and Ryan playing well. The players who stood out for me were Kilcoyne, Madigan, and Jones. Ay You also played well when he came on, and Tommy O’Donnell will never let you down. Joe Scmidt has moulded the guys really close, and has drawn talent well from the 4 provinces. Job done, now for Australia!

I watched the England match, where the Springboks really seemed to have their measure. The English pack was very good as usual, but apart from Mike Brown, the rest of the backline didn’t seem to have much to add. When the Boks have more sparkle in their backline than you, you have work to do!

Scotland had a great chance to beat the All Blacks, and just came up a little short. Their defence had the New Zealander's scratching their heads, they got the win in the end, but it’s not one they will look on with pride. There’s a big change in Scotland, they just need a little more self confidence and they are going to be really hard to beat.

Finallly, France took out the Walabies in a thriller. That was the best of the French – jaw dropping physicality, and flair and pace to burn in the backs. Australia played well too, but they just couldn’t finish strong enough to win.

International Match
Ireland 49 - 7 Georgia
England 28 - 31 South Africa   
France 29 - 26 Australia
Wales 17 - 13 Fiji   
Scotland 16 - 24 New Zealand

Ireland's front row have chiropractor appointments for after the Georgia match!

Marmion (picture http://bit.ly/111ECPa)

After the heroics of last weekend, Ireland have to attend to Georgia next. They famously nearly beat us a few world Cups ago, so you wouldn’t want to write them off totally. Fortunately for us, Gorgodze is not playing, but they’ll know a fair amount about us from Michael Bradley, who’s part of the Georgian coaching set up. And Georgian head coach Milton Haig is a Kiwi who Joe Schmidt replaced at Bay of Plenty in New Zealand! How big is this gene pool? I’d expect there’ll be a fair amount of changes, keeping a few of the big guns fresh for Australia, and also giving the squad some game time. Popular wisdom is that Marmion and Madiagn will start at half backs, and the front row will be new (and should have appointments with the chiropractor for Monday morning!). Let’s hope we get some dry weather, and that the crowd will be treated to some running rugby. I think Our Joe will have all the plans in place for a good victory over Georgia. Good news for us with Kearney and Bowe both signing up for 3 more years!

Things are a bit better spread out this weekend. My plan for Saturday is England V South Africa first. The Boks have replaced Hougaard, who’s only a part time scrum half for the Bulls, and Pollard, who played in the U20 World Cup this year. In come the Sharks pair of Lambie and Reinhard. If the Boks play to their potential, this will be theirs, but it’s too close to call.

Then I’ll move onto Scotland v the All Blacks. The Scots are unchanged, the All Blacks have only two from last weeks starting 15. So this should be close as well, you’d be brave to bet against New Zealand, but c’mon Scotland!

Finally, I’ll power through the pain barrier of remaining seated for 8 hours in front of the telly,  and catch France Australia. France are unchanged – that sentence hasn’t been written for about 10 years! and Australia are going to be sternly tested.  But I think Australia will come through, then French agents will descend on Australia like locusts!

International Match
Saturday , November 15
Italy vs Argentina    14:00
Wales vs Fiji    14:30
England vs South Africa    14:30
Scotland vs New Zealand    17:30
France vs Australia    20:00
Sunday , November 16
Ireland vs Georgia    14:30