Ireland vs Wales - This weekends BIG GAME...!

First topic message reminder :

Venue: Aviva Stadium Date: Sunday, 5 February Kick-off: 1500 GMT

Coverage: Watch live on BBC One, BBC One HD & online from 1400 GMT; full commentary on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra; text commentary on BBC Sport website & mobiles.

Referee : Wayne Barnes (England)

Touch judges : Dave Pearson & Stuart Terheege (both England)

TV : Geoff Warren (England)

IRELAND : 15 - R Kearney; 14 - T Bowe, 13 - F McFadden, 12 - G D'Arcy, 11 - A Trimble (Ulster); 10 - J Sexton, 9 - C Murray; 1- C Healy, 2 - R Best, 3 - M Ross, 4 - D O'Callaghan, 5 - P O'Connell (C), 6 - S Ferris, 7 - S O'Brien, 8 - J Heaslip.

Replacements: 16 - S Cronin, 17 - T Court, 18 - D Ryan, 19 - P O'Mahony, 20 - E Reddan, 21 - R O'Gara, 22 - D Kearney.

WALES : 15 - L Halfpenny; 14 - A Cuthbert, 13 - J Davies, 12 - J Roberts, 11 - G North; 10 - R Priestland, 9 - M Phillips; 1 - R Gill, 2 - H Bennett, 3 - A Jones, 4 - B Davies, 5 - I Evans, 6 - R Jones, 7- S Warburton (C), 8 - T Faletau.

Replacements:16 - K Owens, 17 - P James, 18 - A Powell, 19 - J Tipuric, 20 - Lloyd Williams, 21 - J Hook, 22 - Scott Williams.

Ooh Gawd. They are showing the highlights on BBC2 now. I... have. To. watch. It. We look great in highlights.

Nite all.

Thomond wrote:No excuses can be made for Davies, that was pure thuggery.

Time to calm down and reflect.

Poor tackle by Brad Davies but the refereeing interpretation enforced on the game is absolutely ridiculous.

That said lads what a bloody game, well played Ireland and Wales giving us what we want and expect from the six nations. Both teams will look forward to a good tournament. France are the only other team in this.

maestegmafia wrote:

Thomond wrote:No excuses can be made for Davies, that was pure thuggery.

Time to calm down and reflect.

Poor tackle by Brad Davies but the refereeing interpretation enforced on the game is absolutely ridiculous.

That said lads what a bloody game, well played Ireland and Wales giving us what we want and expect from the six nations. Both teams will look forward to a good tournament. France are the only other team in this.

thats what you said last year!

Yeah maes, England will win again this year, they really capitalised on the most incompetent display by a scottish team i have seen since , well, the last time they played.

Scotland and Italy really do keep theyre most inept performances for England, You know Scotland are going to rock up in Cardiff with a no holds barred attitude and really push us!

Read both of the following in posts above and I have to say I find such statements unbelievable.

1. Anyone who thinks that our backrow is ok ...is lacking in sound judgement

2. Anyone who thinks that they will be ok against the other team in the tournament..... is lacking in sound judgement.

France will dominant us at least as much as Wales and Scotland will get the better of the backrows (although we will beat them as they cant score tries ..hopefully)

Lets get to the heart of the matter though - Kidney should be shot for his tactics on , at least, two counts.

1. Kicking possession away time after time, compounded by the fact the kicking was poor - it should have been into touch so we could pressurize their dodgy lineout.

2. Who decided on a drift defence rather than a blitz defence. When you facing players significantly bigger you have to hit them before they get up a head of steam. Our drift defence just played to their strength...madness

Enjoyed that game. Best test match I've seen since, er, Ireland v Wales.

Love the fact Ronan O'Gara was brought on to close the game out and he ended up restarting. Twice.

Clear penalty by Ferris at the end. Though the yellow was harsh. Correctd ecision.

Wales were robbed of 2 more tries as well. Bowe should have been a penalty try and yellow card for deliberate knock on. Ryan's was a try.

Still, the right result prevailed. great game.

Ryan's was not a try as no camera angle showed a grounding

But logic says that he couldn't have not grounded that ball. If Barnes asked Try or not try it would have been a try. Its all about the question

Gowales, if you can't see the ball being grounded, you can't award the try.

Ill say it again. If Barnes had asked the TMO try or not try he would have said try.

luckless_pedestrian wrote:Gowales, if you can't see the ball being grounded, you can't award the try.

I think you can luckless - If the question to the TMO is "is there any reason why I can't award the try" I'm sure you can award it on a probabilities basis.

That's true, it depends on the question asked; but Barnes himself couldn't see the ball being grounded, which is why he asked the question he did.

Yea i guess thats right. He didn't see so he asked the question that he did. And if had been awarded if would have been controversial.

benefit of the doubt goes to the umpire/ref- ohhh much debte on cricket in regards to that- but that is the law i suppose, so yep its what question he asked

gowales wrote:But logic says that he couldn't have not grounded that ball. If Barnes asked Try or not try it would have been a try. Its all about the question

Logic says nothing of the sort.

An Irish hand, like Best for instance, may well have got under the ball.

There was no way to tell which is the point

if you cant prove the ref is wrong- then the refs call goes.

in this case the ref didnt know- therefore no try can be awarded when there is lack of evidence

Interesting how some of the Irish posters bring up Hook's knock on when Tommy Bowe did exactly the same thing in the first half...

Interesting to see that some Welsh posters think Bowe should have been punished but don't mention Hook.....

?

I swear im the first person that has brought up the Bowe knock on. Everyone else has focused on the Hook one.

Who cares what the Irish think? won't be seeing them till next year!

Maybe more revenge talk from O'Connell an his harem next season will be even more entertaining

Hey O'Connell Wales has a message for you --------------#WINNING