Ireland lose again against a physical opponent.

The Irish were fragile in the scrums, indecisive on the kicks including two tries gifted to the Poms....and incapable of fashioning any backline penetration. It’s a movie we have seen several times in the last year.

There are chronic issues in this Irish team. Murray has gone from the best scrum half in  the world at the time of the Lions’ tour, to a pretty ordinary player.

Sexton is worse, bumbling and increasingly edgy....he was the root cause of Ireland’s issues today....missed kicks, a gifted Pom try, inept tactical kicking and inability to stop Tuilangi without help.

Then there is the sterile Stamp....he made so many runs.....17in fact. But beat only 1 tackle, and gained only 18 metres. And he coughed up the ball 4 times. He is a cul de sac. And some of the other stalwarts like O’Mahoney are showing their age.

Not that the newbies are much better. Furlong had a torrid day in the scrums and Stockdale was  almost Sexton’s blundering equal. Failing to put  May into touch off a high kick right against the touch line......led to the first try. His ambling indecisive run back to cover Ford’s kick led to the second.

Ireland are in deep trouble against all but lesser teams.

Bad day at the office alright

Murray's form in the first 2 game was arguably enough to warrant his inclusion for this game but he had a mare today and Cooney really should be now the starting scrum half for Ireland.

Sexton also had a terrible day but today may have been a one off. He hasn't shown a consistent dip in form for club or country unlike Murray. Yes he was completely out of sorts today, but the try he gifted was just an unlucky bounce of the ball. Tuilangi is rather hard to tackle for anyone let alone a fly half.

You really don't like Stander do you? O'Mahoney did as well as Irishman out there today, not that it says a whole lot.

Furlong and Stockdale ain't new at this stage. We got mauled at the scrum and Stockdale was at fault for the second try. He always been suspect defensively though.

I'm not as pessimistic about our long term prospects. We have the players as our clubs demonstrate. New manager needs to be given time. James Lowe will be available from the Autumn and he will be an utterly lethal addition to the backline.

Lets get this straight - the fact is that Ireland needs badly a new half back combination.   Sexton is way over the hill already and that he has shown consistently over the last year,   He had a mirror -image over the weekend and that is he looks like a fellow mid-thirty flyhalf  - our very dear old Morne,  I think he is overdue for replacement - at that age a dip in form is NEVER recovered.

Is there no Romain Ntamack coming  through in Irish Rugby,  Urgent search really necessary,   I also think that Stav is right - people must give the new management a chance oi find their feet,  Ireland two years ago was top range - the their top players were reaching retirement age and replacements were not given enough games to set themselves in.

The same happened in SA Rugby and cricket,   Our dear Idiot Speaker revolted against any idea of searching for replacements of the elderly and the fact is that Erasmus did a complete renovation and change in game plan and the Springboks are back on top.   I gained the impression that in cricket Boucher is trying to do the same - and is casting out a net looking for players,   They are trying out the elderly and more experienced players first and I think that the net will be cast wider in future.

The problem is that Ireland did not do enough to bring in players from abroad in the past to augment resources - they are talking about Lowe as one and Stander has been around for years,  They should target more players like Lowe - who should have been in the AB squad and missed out,   There are others like him around in the Southern hemisphere that could be usable by the Irish,   Look for instance at the situation in all of NZ, SA, the Pacific  and even Argentina for possible candidates.

People will say I am wrong about this - but in the case of England in their WC squad and playing regularly for England were 8 players borne outside  of the British Isles.  Even in the French team on Saturday both their locks were from SA,                    

Mozart  has gone quiet on the issue of England being easily beaten and the Springboks beating them in the WC does not mean they are worthy of being the holders of the Webb-Ellis trophy.  That type of tripe is all that he can come up with,    

Now the fact that England beating Ireland suddenly means England is not such a weak team as he stated previously.   In any event the world rankings after the weekend games - that is on 24 February 2020 are as follows:-

France is catching up rapidly with Ireland and if they beat Ireland in the present series they are likely to take over the nr 4 ranking from Ireland.      

Web results

C. J. Stander - Wikipedia

CJ Stander, "High Level Coach in SA told me to move to hooker"

Six Nations 2016: Irish eyes smiling on CJ Stander - Telegraph

CJ Stander sizes up his early detractors and just powers on

'I lost a lot of friends' - CJ Stander feels vindicated over Ireland ...

Other than a specialist fetcher, 6.0 is a midget for a loose forward. He is a decent player, but surplus to requirements in SA. He may well have been better as a hooker, given his weight to height ratio