Ireland take on Fiji, and end of the road for fromthebottomoftheruck!

 

 Chris Farrell

Ireland take on Fiji on Saturday in the second of their Autumn internationals. Fiji lost their first game against Italy, but they have Nemani Nadolo back for Ireland, who was putting car sized holes in Leinster's defence when they played Montpellier. Joe Schmidt has made just the 13 changes for this match - so it's new team, with a debut for Chris Farrell, who partners Stuart McCloskey in midfield, what a pair of beasts! It's the up and coming players, with the cavalry on the bench if things don't turn out as expected. We should win, and I'll be there to cheer them on.

In other news, Ireland lost out to France in the chance to host the 2023 World Cup, eliminated in the first round. We spent over €3 million on the bid, but I don't really think we had a chance in the first place. IT would have been nice if the IRB had taken us to one side at the outset, and saved us a pile of money.

Finally, I've decided to call it a day with my blog. I started in March 2010, and I've done 763 posts, with a tad over 180 000 views. I've done most of the things I wanted to do with it, and better to quit while I'm ahead. Thanks for stopping by over the years, and I won't kill it dead, there might be a grand reunion tour or something. For the moment though, it's good bye from me!

Ireland: 15 Andrew Conway, 14 Darren Sweetnam, 13 Chris Farrell, 12 Stuart McCloskey, 11 Dave Kearney, 10 Joey Carbery, 9 Kieran Marmion, 8 Jack Conan, 7 Jordi Murphy, 6 Rhys Ruddock (c), 5 Devin Toner, 4 Ultan Dillane, 3 Andrew Porter, 2 Rob Herring, 1 Jack McGrath
Replacements: 16 James Tracy, 17 Cian Healy, 18 Tadhg Furlong, 19 Kieran Treadwell, 20 CJ Stander, 21 Luke McGrath, 22 Ian Keatley, 23 Robbie Henshaw

Saturday 18th November
International Match
Italy 14:00 Argentina
Wales 14:30 Georgia
England 15:00 Australia
Scotland 17:15 New Zealand
Ireland 17:30 Fiji
France 19:45 South Africa

Brilliant from Ireland, but the Springboks have big problems

 

 Jacob Stockdale

What an evening at the Aviva,as Ireland humbled the once mighty Springboks with a completely dominant performance! That's the Springboks with players to burn, one of the Southern Hemisphere giants. Now in fairness, until the last five minutes, we won, and won well, but after that it turned into a hammering. We won that match on our defense - the Springboks could just do nothing in attack, that line just reformed and reformed, and physically we were more than a match on the gainline. The Springboks were pretty devoid of ideas though, side to side, find someone to run into, and repeat. Our speed off the line meant that they moved slowly backwards.

Then when the the opportunities came we were clinical, Conway took his try, Ruddock powered over when he had no right to, Herring took his chance, and Stockdale was just superb, the whole match, and in his try especially. It's going to be hard to dislodge Stockdale from the first team now. Joey Carbery put in a great little cameo.

The Springboks have a lot of work to do - they have the players, but no pattern of play, and frankly not enough effort.

Italy 19 10 Fiji FT
Scotland 44 38 Samoa FT
England 21 8 Argentina FT
Wales 21 29 Australia FT
Ireland 38 3 South Africa FT
France 18 38 New Zealand