6N 2017: Wales v Ireland, 10 March

First topic message reminder :


WALES v IRELAND
10 March 2017
KO: 20:05 GMT
Principality Stadium, Cardiff

Live on [ITV, RTE, SC4, FR2, DMAX / BBC (H)]

Referee: Wayne Barnes (England)
Touch judges: [tbc]
TMO: [tbc]

A. Head to Head

124 Played 124
50 Won 67
7 Drawn 7
67 Lost 50
1,477 Points 1,381

B. Recent Form

7 February 2016
Aviva Stadium, Dublin
16 – 16 draw

29 August 2015
Aviva Stadium, Dublin
10 – 16 to Wales

8 August 2015
Millennium Stadium, Cardiff
21 – 35 to Ireland

14 March 2015
Millennium Stadium, Cardiff
23 – 16 to Wales

8 February 2014
Aviva Stadium, Dublin
26 – 3 to Ireland

2 February 2013
Millennium Stadium, Cardiff
22 – 30 to Ireland

5 February 2012
Aviva Stadium, Dublin
21 – 23 to Wales

8 October 2011
Regional Stadium, Wellington, New Zealand
22 – 10 to Wales

C. Teams

WALES 


Halfpenny; North, J Davies, S Williams, L Williams, Biggar, Webb, Evans, Owens, Francis, Ball, A Jones, Warburton, Tipuric, Moriarty.

Replacements: Roberts for S Williams (67), S Davies for Biggar (80), G Davies for Webb (67), Smith for Evans (67), Baldwin for Owens (72), Lee for Francis (70), Charteris for Ball (63), Faletau for Moriarty (67).

IRELAND


Kearney; Earls, Ringrose, Henshaw, Zebo; Sexton, Murray; McGrath, Best, Furlong, D Ryan, Toner, Stander, O'Brien, Heaslip.

Replacements: Bowe for Kearney (70), Jackson for Sexton (19), Marmion for Murray (46), C Healy for McGrath (59), Scannell for Best (80), J Ryan for Furlong (80), Henderson for Toner (63), O'Mahony for Stander (63).

munkian wrote:

GunsGermsV2 wrote:

LordDowlais wrote:To say Wayne Barnes favoured Wales is just sour grapes. With a penalty count of 10 against Wales and only 4 against Ireland you would say differently. Check this link, anybody looking at this can make their own mind up, I thought Barnes had a very good game on Friday, got the crucial calls right, although the high tackle for Biggar was a mistake.

http://www.espn.co.uk/rugby/matchstats?gameId=290911&league=180659

Its bad governance that the same referee is given every Wales v Ireland fixture for the last 10 years or so. That in itself is quite dodgy. There are 8 potential referees that could get this fixture and yet every year Barnes gets the gig. That should never happen in my opinion.

Call it payback for all the homer refs we get in the Pro12  

Hey, any talk of homer/biased refs is a conspiracy theory, unless it suits your agenda.

You've got to call up Payne, Zebo is dogpoopie as is Kearney.

munkian wrote:

GunsGermsV2 wrote:

LordDowlais wrote:To say Wayne Barnes favoured Wales is just sour grapes. With a penalty count of 10 against Wales and only 4 against Ireland you would say differently. Check this link, anybody looking at this can make their own mind up, I thought Barnes had a very good game on Friday, got the crucial calls right, although the high tackle for Biggar was a mistake.

http://www.espn.co.uk/rugby/matchstats?gameId=290911&league=180659

Its bad governance that the same referee is given every Wales v Ireland fixture for the last 10 years or so. That in itself is quite dodgy. There are 8 potential referees that could get this fixture and yet every year Barnes gets the gig. That should never happen in my opinion.

Call it payback for all the homer refs we get in the Pro12  

I've said this before but I'd genuinely prefer a homer ref against Wales in the form of Nigel (or indeed any of the others).  Ireland should say they'll agree to allowing Wales have a homey ref if it means we can dodge our jinx-ref in future.  Wayne and us are cursed.  We need to break the spell, both of us.

@ LordDowlais, it wasnt his worst day at the office or at least I think if Ireland were good enough they could have won. I still do not trust him at all as a ref and would much prefer other referees.

Ireland's lineout was bad alright and we were poor in the backs but I dont think we were too bad over all. Wales were just better and it was a very very enjoyable game so I am not too disappointed Dowlais. We piled enormous pressure on Wales for a lot of the game and yet this Wales side to their enormous credit didnt buckle whereas Wales teams of the past may have.

GunsGermsV2 wrote:It wasnt his worst day at the office or at least I think if Ireland were good enough they could have won I still do not trust him at all as a ref and would much prefer other referees.

Ireland's lineout was bad alright and we were poor in the backs but I dont think we were too bad over all. Wales were just better and it was a very very enjoyable game so I am not too disappointed Dowlais.

It was a very good game. As I have said previously, I just thought Wales had your number on Friday. It was more of a war than a rugby match, Wales wanted it more, and they new how to stop C J Stander and SOB. As soon as those two were nullified you were nailed to the wall, your backs could not rip a hole in a soggy paper bag, our backs were just too savvy.

yes...slid down dans body....and dan opened his arms when he realised what was happening. After taking on the Western Fail ..ha...telling them to get their facts straight ( touch kick vScotland ) he gets a rating of 5 in that paper for the Friday match ......totally wrong to make him the lowest rated player.......the interceptions were not wholly his fault..players were too wide...irish players were un marked..he set up easy drop goal chance in front of the posts and webb continued to take play across pitch and back ignoring the clear chance and it all came to nothing again. ok he missed the subsequent drop goal...but our kicker missed a conversion and nothing is made of it.......dan is the best 10 at the moment...sam would have been mashed in that game on Friday...dans 60 mtr clearance when trapped in the corner near the Welsh line was outstanding...as was his slide over shadowing the ball over the line. Fans at the game will tell you he was everywhere in that game ..calling players in position...keeping the shape behind webb...who played like Justin marshall....playing off 9 is nothing new. Dan was named one of three possible man of the match players for the england game ...the strongest 6 nations side.......and still we have this chorus for sam to replace him......utter nonsense. its not dans problem that the welsh coaches haven't made use of the autumn series to assess other players ...sam is not ready.

Thought Biggar was good except for about three interceptions he threw.

gavstar wrote:Dan was named one of three possible man of the match players for the england game ...the strongest 6 nations side.......and still we have this chorus for sam to replace him......utter nonsense. its not dans problem that the welsh coaches haven't made use of the autumn series to assess other players ...sam is not ready.

Let's be thankful we have two really good options at 10 for Wales, and not try and tear down one just to throw in the other before we really know he's ready. The treatment of the Welsh coaching and playing team in the last year or so has been pretty disgusting. Whatever you think of Howley as a coach, he doesn't deserve the personal battering he's getting, with the gobbiest people in the country taking pleasure in the team's (perceived) demise so they can self-righteously declare the whole set up inept. It's always the ones with nothing really invested in the game's success in the country- gutter journalists, fairweather fans, and impressionable/weak minded people- who are the ones sounding off, dragging the national debate down to the lowest and least informed level.

Since 2013, Biggar has been very good for Wales. We all knew his limitations when he was 19 years old; we all knew he wasn't going to have the distribution and playmaking of Stephen Jones, or the jinking running ability of James Hook. But that doesn't mean he's not very good in his own right, and his defence- which used to be as bad as O'Gara's- has improved exponentially, to the point where he's one of the most commited in the whole team.

I hope Sam Davies is the starting 10 in time for the RWC. But equally, I hope Biggar's still around as an option, and that the team has options in the way it plays, with both a footballing 10 and a more structured outside half. The u20s again look excellent, with a few gems in there like Conbeer and Keiran Williams showing us what Welsh backplay can be like in the near future. The Roberts/Cuthbert/Halfpenny model is thankfully reaching its death throes, and I think Welsh backplay has shown more development since the beginning of the NZ Tour until now than it did in the previous 3, 4 seasons.

I wish the debate in Wales didn't conflate every possible concern about backplay and try scoring with 'who should be playing outside half'.

miaow wrote:

gavstar wrote:Dan was named one of three possible man of the match players for the england game ...the strongest 6 nations side.......and still we have this chorus for sam to replace him......utter nonsense. its not dans problem that the welsh coaches haven't made use of the autumn series to assess other players ...sam is not ready.

Let's be thankful we have two really good options at 10 for Wales, and not try and tear down one just to throw in the other before we really know he's ready. The treatment of the Welsh coaching and playing team in the last year or so has been pretty disgusting. Whatever you think of Howley as a coach, he doesn't deserve the personal battering he's getting, with the gobbiest people in the country taking pleasure in the team's (perceived) demise so they can self-righteously declare the whole set up inept. It's always the ones with nothing really invested in the game's success in the country- gutter journalists, fairweather fans, and impressionable/weak minded people- who are the ones sounding off, dragging the national debate down to the lowest and least informed level.

Since 2013, Biggar has been very good for Wales. We all knew his limitations when he was 19 years old; we all knew he wasn't going to have the distribution and playmaking of Stephen Jones, or the jinking running ability of James Hook. But that doesn't mean he's not very good in his own right, and his defence- which used to be as bad as O'Gara's- has improved exponentially, to the point where he's one of the most commited in the whole team.

I hope Sam Davies is the starting 10 in time for the RWC. But equally, I hope Biggar's still around as an option, and that the team has options in the way it plays, with both a footballing 10 and a more structured outside half. The u20s again look excellent, with a few gems in there like Conbeer and Keiran Williams showing us what Welsh backplay can be like in the near future. The Roberts/Cuthbert/Halfpenny model is thankfully reaching its death throes, and I think Welsh backplay has shown more development since the beginning of the NZ Tour until now than it did in the previous 3, 4 seasons.

I wish the debate in Wales didn't conflate every possible concern about backplay and try scoring with 'who should be playing outside half'.  

Before I comment on your remarks about gutter journalists,fairweather fans,and impressionable/weak-minded people let's get some facts down about Biggar's performance on Friday.His tackling was immense,one of his line-kicks was special,his dead-ball play was very clever and he caught a box-kick.He threw 3 interception passes,and did not lead the line like Sexton.If he makes the Lions tour good luck to him.Now to your offensive remarks.

It is not gutter journalism to criticise the Welsh coaching regime for their failure to develop players over the past 6 years through selection and coaching.As 2 examples JD2s inability to run and pass,and the failure to manage Biggar's slowness by the use of inside balls,dummy runners and deeper running lines in support.Funnily enough you can see all 3 techniques in use at the Ospreys.

As for fairweather fans,this 6N and the 4AIs i've spent several thousand pounds watching some pretty anaemic performances including but not limited to the first half in Rome and the second half in Scotland.I'll be in Paris this weekend.

It's not impressionable/weak-minded to want to see Wales at the top of world rugby rankings and consistently,to put together winning runs of 15 matches plus and to see enjoyable rugby in front of passionate fans.I live in hope but it gets more expensive every year.Why don't you write to the WRU Management I hear you say.Well,i do and I have.What's been most encouraging is the growing number of ex-Welsh international players who are now making observations about the style of play and lack of personal skills development of the Welsh team.One fine performance on Friday and 75 minutes against England isn't quite enough to trouble NZ.

Jack can you please tell me apart from the intercepts thrown by Dan in the 7th and 28th minutes, when he had another pass that was intercepted? The reason I ask, there is a bloke on our website who like you has a real downer on Dan and has done so for quite a while, reckoned he had 4 intercepts against him, 2 separate posters who watched the game looking for these intercepts could only find 2, I've also looked and can only find the 2 I've mentioned. The one in the first minute was by Webb, in the 9th minute Dan took a hit rather than send another intercept, also in the 13th minute he passed a ball along the line in front of our three quarters which was knocked up into Zebo's hands.
That was not an intercept from Dan, fair play you did put in some of the good things that Dan accomplished, I yet again thought Dan had a pretty good game, his tackling for a 10 IMO is superb.

wayne wrote:Jack can you please tell me apart from the intercepts thrown by Dan in the 7th and 28th minutes, when he had another pass that was intercepted? The reason I ask, there is a bloke on our website who like you has a real downer on Dan and has done so for quite a while, reckoned he had 4 intercepts against him, 2 separate posters who watched the game looking for these intercepts could only find 2, I've also looked and can only find the 2 I've mentioned. The one in the first minute was by Webb, in the 9th minute Dan took a hit rather than send another intercept, also in the 13th minute he passed a ball along the line in front of our three quarters which was knocked up into Zebo's hands.
That was not an intercept from Dan, fair play you did put in some of the good things that Dan accomplished, I yet again thought Dan had a pretty good game, his tackling for a 10 IMO is superb.    

That'll be a no then.