Italy will beat Ireland?

Italy look good at the moment, I fancy them to cause another upset in this group.

or am I wrong?

The Irish golden generation have had two good performances in the last year or so, both against strong teams but they do look like a different team from one game to the next, Italy will be up for it, will Ireland?

Unlikely but you never know... No one expected Ireland to beat Australia. Italy beat France in the 6 nations so they are capable of an upset.

Ireland need to keep up the intensity that helped them beat Australia and that England game in the 6 nations.

If they do they will be comfortable winners. If Ireland revert back to their patchy form it could be a tough match to call.

I've gone for maybe. Italy are a good side and deserve respect.

That said I think if we play our best rugby we are a better side and will win.

I'm expecting a different type of game than Australia and no doubt it will be a tense and scrappy game with not much between the sides at the final whistle.

After the Australian win this will be a tester for Ireland.

It will be a close game I feel.

Think we'll have a bit to much for them, hope our forwards can put in same performance as they did sat. Our backs get some good ball.


They will take confidence of their game today though, and the the fact that we scraped past them in the 6N.

Anything can happen, just feel with our win on saturday, will be confident of winning our last 2 games.

We have Russia to play first, get past them then worry about Italy.

Don't forget they also need two bonus point wins against USA and Russia, and probably need to deny Ireland a losing bonus point if they want to progress (due to points diff)

Momentum is with the Irish and they won't slip up now. They will be praying for the All Blacks to beat France and for England to then knock France out and at this point they will be sniffing a final appearence with confidence.

(and I have not forgotten Wales who could well stir things up )

I voted for Italy.

Their tails will be up and assuming they can field their first choice team, Ireland now have injuries to contend with and thats before they face a Russian side looking for absolution after todays drubbing (Russia used to have a very handy forward pack, basically shaved gorillas in rugby kit, the Russia Vs Georgia matches were absolutely brutal).

Also Ireland are one-shot merchants, I wish they would get their act together and make use of their talent, but for all their players playing in Heiniken cups etc they fail on the world stage because of their inconsistency.

damage_13 wrote: Ireland now have injuries to contend with

Really? Can you tell us a bit more on that one?

The tag of favourites is not one which the Irish normally carry too well.

The Irish have won two matches this year that have really spoiled the party for a team that may have been taking them too lightly.

The Irish are very good at finishing a team off once they have the lead, they also have the ability to apply pressure. They can vary their game when they need to, they read the oppositions tactics well and their players have already been proven cup winners in the HEC and the Six Nations .

The English and the Aussies can not vary their games as well as the Irish, they appear to be vulnerable when on a series of wins because of their over confidence.

Ireland took advantage of England and Australia. But that doesn't mean Ireland are a poor side. They are intrinsically a very very good side, they should be a semi finalist candidate with the years of experience in their squad.

Italy played well today, they will cause Ireland problems, but in the same way Ireland beat Italy in the Six Nations, with a cool steely focus when they need to close out a close lead. This Irish team's players have done that so many times successfully for Leinster, Munster and Ireland.

roddersm wrote:

damage_13 wrote: Ireland now have injuries to contend with

Really? Can you tell us a bit more on that one?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/14969474.stm

Paul O'Connell and Gordon D'Arcy are doubtful for Ireland's next Pool C game after suffering hamstring strains in the World Cup victory over Australia.

The Irish management said both players would be monitored in the build-up to Sunday's match against Russia.

Centre D'Arcy limped off during the 15-6 win over the Tri-Nations champions while British and Irish Lions lock O'Connell completed the match.

Coach Declan Kidney is likely to rest some players for the Russian match.

Nothing suggests that Darcy and O’Connell will be out for more than 1 match. The next match is against Russia, they would probably have been rested for that game anyway, so injuries (at the moment) are not a factor.

I’m very nervous about the Italy game, the mindset needs to be spot on if we’re going to capitalize on the win over Aus. However, Ireland were dire against Italy a number of times in the last 10 years, and not once have we lost. Can we get over the line with another bad performance, maybe. Will we put in another bad performance, maybe not.

damage_13 wrote:

roddersm wrote:

damage_13 wrote: Ireland now have injuries to contend with

Really? Can you tell us a bit more on that one?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/14969474.stm

Paul O'Connell and Gordon D'Arcy are doubtful for Ireland's next Pool C game after suffering hamstring strains in the World Cup victory over Australia.

I'm well aware of that but if you are suggesting that 2 slight injury worries in a 30man squad is going to threaten to derail our RWC campaign against Russia then I think you are underestimating our squad slightly.

Neither are a doubt for the Italy game and overall the squad is in great shape injury wise.

don't think we will see BOD, D'arcy or POC in the Russia game, centre will prob be P Wallace and Earls, maybe Kidney planed this and thats why they played together against France, but think it will be a 1st team put out against Italy, to make sure of win and then 1st XV in every game after

roddersm

O'Connell was on fire in the Aus match, ireland seems to be one of those sides where it requires individual brilliance to gee the rest of the team up.

Its not the Italy game you guys should be worried about, its the Russia one. Never mind the opposition, ireland need to consolidate their performance with a pretty complete one in this game. If they don't they will have to big themselves up all over again and like I've explained before its just not something Ireland can do consecutively at world cups, yet alone 6N

Everyone keeps refering to the fact that Ireland have only had 2 good performances in the last year against England and Australia but other than beating France the Italians haven't exactly set the world on fire have they.

I mean at the end of the day they were soundly beaten by Australia.

Ireland should beat them but being Ireland they could lose to them.

damage_13 wrote:roddersm

O'Connell was on fire in the Aus match, ireland seems to be one of those sides where it requires individual brilliance to gee the rest of the team up.

Well damage I saw a team effort against Australia. POC wasn't the only outstanding individual and I'm confident that whoever we put out against Russia will get the job done.

oh I agree, it was a team effort... but who got them fired up and lead from the front. two or three key players.

Theres only so many times the emotional hook can be used pre game. Against Russia Ireland will win, but how will they win. If they scrap, falter and bodge their way through like England did vs Georgia then they face a very tough match with little or no momentum against opposition who are capable of winning and DO have momentum.

Saying that Italy didn't do very well after the French win.

I expect to see Italy lay their lives down on the pitch, Sergio Parisse was missing in the last 6N, this could be his last rwc and its Mallets last hurrah for Italy. They will be wanting to rectify the 11–16 defeat in the 2007 6N and the 2010 13-11 defeat. The gap is closing and its Italy who are looking to bear the motivation to win, the Irish are hoping not to lose

http://www.rugbydata.com/italy/ireland/gamesplayed

I think a lot of people are here are saying what they want to happen in this match, and not what they think will happen.

Ireland should beat Italy - comfortably. Italy are not playing at home, and will have had less time to recover than Ireland from their previous match.

If Ireland lose that match they don't deserve to be in the qualifiers and Italy do.

Damage I agree with all of that.

I expect we will have to scrap for our lives over the next few weeks. Russia aren't going to lie down and Italy are coming to win and always give us a tough game. We will need to front up or we will lose.

The Irish goal is clear and teh players have spoken about it. We need to qualify for the QF and then we will reassess our goals and I expect us to get through the next few games anyway we have to.

the italy game is massive. we talk them up excessively every time we play them and they get closer and closer to beating us. Oh Viadana are making hay in the Magners etc etc

if we front up and dont sit back and let them dominate us up front we should win. They do seem to rattle us and make us live off scraps. We cannot allow this to happen because if we are on the back foot our luck will eventually run out against them.

If the pack play like they did against Aus we should be fine

Fratelli d'Italia,
l'Italia s'è desta,
dell'elmo di Scipio
s'è cinta la testa.
Dov'è la Vittoria?
Le porga la chioma,
ché schiava di Roma
Iddio la creò.
CORO:
Stringiamci a coorte,
siam pronti alla morte.
Siam pronti alla morte,
l'Italia chiamò.
Stringiamci a coorte,
siam pronti alla morte.
Siam pronti alla morte,
l'Italia chiamò, sì!

WOW HERSH!! Some good cut and paste action there!!! When did you learn how to do that!!??

Lets look at this in the cold light of day.

Ireland have been playing rubbish in the warm ups. They were warm ups. Nothing more nothing less. This is the real thing and we are in pole position to reach the semis as group winners (sorry, Hersh!!)

In the 6 nations we were 1 missed tackle (Darcy on Rougerie) and 1 poor reffing decision (vs Wales) from winning the Slam again.

Not bad for a team who have been supposedly been playing really badly.

I hope to God we meet England in the semi finals. We would savage them.

Boyne wrote:WOW HERSH!! Some good cut and paste action there!!! When did you learn how to do that!!??

Lets look at this in the cold light of day.

Ireland have been playing rubbish in the warm ups. They were warm ups. Nothing more nothing less. This is the real thing and we are in pole position to reach the semis as group winners (sorry, Hersh!!)

In the 6 nations we were 1 missed tackle (Darcy on Rougerie) and 1 poor reffing decision (vs Wales) from winning the Slam again.

Not bad for a team who have been supposedly been playing really badly.

I hope to God we meet England in the semi finals. We would savage them.

Here here , however you'll have to join the queue, I believe it'll be our turn to do the savaging

* Sorry- that should read "reach the quarters"...

I see a Wales clash as being very much a 50-50.

andy powells minder wrote:

Boyne wrote:WOW HERSH!! Some good cut and paste action there!!! When did you learn how to do that!!??

Lets look at this in the cold light of day.

Ireland have been playing rubbish in the warm ups. They were warm ups. Nothing more nothing less. This is the real thing and we are in pole position to reach the semis as group winners (sorry, Hersh!!)

In the 6 nations we were 1 missed tackle (Darcy on Rougerie) and 1 poor reffing decision (vs Wales) from winning the Slam again.

Not bad for a team who have been supposedly been playing really badly.

I hope to God we meet England in the semi finals. We would savage them.

Here here , however you'll have to join the queue, I believe it'll be our turn to do the savaging

Well APM, the likes of Hersh know full well that they would not do well against either Ireland or Wales. Didn't Wales recently win on aggregate in the previous 2 matches?

And judging by the wild celebrations of M J after the Dublin friendly, you can see what a result that was for England. Shame they were the only ones taking it seriously.

England have beaten Ireland in competition ONCE in the last 9 or so years. No wonder they are rooting for Italy!!!!

I fee MJ's lot will struggle against the auld enemy aswell, could be another upset................

IMO Ireland will win but not by much. Italy 9-13 looks vulnerable with Gori, Bocchino, Benvenuti, Toniolatti etc all good going forward. But they lack experience and I think it could be quite a high scoring match with both backlines getting in for tries.

andy powells minder wrote:I fee MJ's lot will struggle against the auld enemy aswell, could be another upset................

Wouldn't be an upset through. England scraped past Scotland in London this year by virtue of a try scored from a forward pass.

I reckon the Jocks will take them on a neutral pitch. Concede 20,000 penos and thats the result you will see....

Just looked at the current vote count.

Yes
11% 11%
[ 5 ]

No
48% 48%
[ 22 ]

Maybe?
40% 40%
[ 18 ]


Total Votes : 45

Seeing as 'maybe' is in an equal part of the vote, it does seem a test of stupidly parochial belief.

I'll vote 'maybe' shortly...

Boyne can you stop tarnishing a nation by the comments of a couple of English people! The English are not rooting for Italy! Its too early to tell what team England will be by the knockout stages. Only three matches ago Ireland were outclassed by England... Now Ireland are a different team. England are not looking sharp yet, but who knows how we'll look after the Scotland game. If England can play badly and win games, what will we be like when playing well???

Anyway I think everyone is counting their chickens abit to early. There may be many more upsets/against the odds results to come.

England vs Scotland(Always a challenge)
Wales vs Fiji(Bit of history there)
Ireland vs Italy(Italy were a few mins from winning last time)
France vs NZ (A France win put NZ on the "NH" side of the knockout rounds)

I would bet at least one of these matches would go against the odds. An that would upset everyones knockout predictions.

Ireland will have too much for Italy but they are inconsistent at the moment so if it was a wales-ireland quarter then I'd probably plump for Wales.

Plump away mcKay. I'd be focusing all your plumping on England through, or have you already given up on qualifying???

Italy will give us a test I think, but it will be like any ordinary Six Nations encounter and we will overcome the obstacle.

The way the front row and second row has performed in this World Cup so far, any team should fear Ireland. Everything seems to be working from an Ireland perspective, we pack an almighty punch in the forwards and when D'Arcy and O'Driscoll come alive on our day we can challenge anyone.

Australia win would of taken some energy out of the players, but plenty of days away from action and coming back against Italy shouldn't be a problem. A win by 10 points should be easy enough.

Boyne wrote:I reckon the Jocks will take them on a neutral pitch. Concede 20,000 penos and thats the result you will see....

I'm glad someone has that level of confidence in us! Us Scottish fans are presuming nothing. We certainly have the players and ability to beat Argentina and England, we have done it recently in both cases. This is the world cup, anything can happen.

As for Italy vs Ireland I said I don't know because, I don't know. Italy were very close to beating Ireland in the 6N but Ireland as mcKay has said seem to be struggling for consistant performances. The 6N was a mixed bag, the warm up games were a struggle and you were unconvincing against the USA. Then out of the blue you came up with arguably one of the best performances I have ever seen this Irish "Golden Generation" produce.

Everything to play for, and Italy will be thinking the same thing.

Jaysus this "Golden Generation" again. Longest generation ever. With the likes of SOB, Kearney, Ferris all around for 2 more world cups, its about to get longer.

Rugger- believe. You can beat England. Not so sure about Argie they look to be coming good. They were at a big disadvantage against england as they only had 1 warm up game, so they will be tougher as the tournament moves on.

According to Wiki, Ireland have been referred to as a Golden Generation for the last 10 years now.

How long does a generation last?

If there were a 'Possible, but unlikely' option, that's what I would tick.

red_stag wrote:According to Wiki, Ireland have been referred to as a Golden Generation for the last 10 years now.

How long does a generation last?

As long as ROG, POC and O'Driscoll are in the mix I reckon they are the cornerstones of this Golden Generation.

Granted you have some talented young backrow players coming through but once BOD retires I can see noone viably filling that gap to even close to the same standard.

ROG isn't first choice any more does that count? As I see it we have two exceptional talents in BOD and POC that we won't replace when they go with players of similar level.

But lets take the team that played against Australia:

Healy - 23 years
Best - 29 years
Ross - 31 years

O'Callaghan - 32 years
O'Connell - 31 years

Ferris - 26 years
O'Brien - 23 years
Heaslip - 27 years

Reddan - 30 years
Sexton - 26 years

Darcy - 31 years
O'Driscoll - 32 years

Earls - 23 years
Bowe - 27 years
Kearney - 25 years

Cronin - 25 years
Court - 30 years
Ryan - 27 years
Leamy - 29 years
Murray - 22 years
O'Gara - 34 years
Trimble - 26 years

We have to find new centres and new locks. That aside its not really in anyway old.

red_stag wrote:According to Wiki, Ireland have been referred to as a Golden Generation for the last 10 years now.

How long does a generation last?

Typically 7 years so we must be onto our 2nd Golden generation .

Granted you have some talented young backrow players coming through but once BOD retires I can see noone viably filling that gap to even close to the same standard.

True but Irish rugby is in a far healthier state now than when BOD burst on the scene.

10 / 15 years ago BOD was way ahead of MOST other players that he played with but now and for the foreseeable future we have a more a more even spread of talent with good / excellent players in most positions.

Boyne wrote:
Rugger- believe. You can beat England. Not so sure about Argie they look to be coming good. They were at a big disadvantage against england as they only had 1 warm up game, so they will be tougher as the tournament moves on.

Your one of those people who always find away to put a negative spin towards England. I bet if the Argies played more warm up games than England you would have said they lost because they were tired.

Anyway one step at a time for Ireland, I remember England beating Aus by around 20 points last year in a truly brilliant display. An then became mediocre against the Boks the next game.

tomhughesnice wrote:

Boyne wrote:
Rugger- believe. You can beat England. Not so sure about Argie they look to be coming good. They were at a big disadvantage against england as they only had 1 warm up game, so they will be tougher as the tournament moves on.

Your one of those people who always find away to put a negative spin towards England. I bet if the Argies played more warm up games than England you would have said they lost because they were tired.

Anyway one step at a time for Ireland, I remember England beating Aus by around 20 points last year in a truly brilliant display. An then became mediocre against the Boks the next game.

England's performance against South Africa was not really mediocre. They were just completely out muscled by the Boks who had a very physcial game plan that the English Backrow simply could not withstand. England were brilliant against the Aussies because you had the tactical nounce to beat in a way that suited you.

For instance it couldn't be said Australia were mediocre in that game, just the same you could not say England were mediocre against South Africa. South Africa had a game plan and that plan involved catapulting their loose forwards into the 9-10 channel and England had no answer to that level of physicality.

Tom, its a well documented fact that the Argies have had one game in the warm up to the WC- tonnes of articles have been written about it and about Argie rugby in general.

Don't be so precious.

The Irish on 606v2 are like the Welsh on old 606. I'm not sure who should feel more insulted by that

SafeAsMilk wrote:The Irish on 606v2 are like the Welsh on old 606. I'm not sure who should feel more insulted by that

The English?

roddersm wrote:

SafeAsMilk wrote:The Irish on 606v2 are like the Welsh on old 606. I'm not sure who should feel more insulted by that

The English?

The English will certainly get insulted. Don't worry we're used to it!