Wallies vs Micks

And Wales concede 7 points in the first three minutes.

Box kicks abound

Sexton looking slick. Ireland up 14 to zip at minute 9.

Keenan shows terrific pace to prevent  a Wales try, but the Wallies get 3 points. Ireland respond with a penalty to keep the 14 point margin

Classical try ….Liam Williams tries to drift on the pass, Lowe spots the opportunity and intercepts.

Wales being heavily penalized. I have to say a few were pretty marginal. Huge roar as Wales finally get a penalty. A couple of times Wales were over the down ball and some refs would have called holding by Ireland.

Breakdown reffing is a lottery too often. The refs say they give the attacking side the edge in these calls, but that doesn't appear to be the case. Not that hard in most cases to ref, if you just call it as it is. I haven't seen the game, so I'd be interested to hear how much of what Gatland had before is present now. His side was characterized by brutally rigid defence, and clinical heavy carries to open up the reload for the backs. 

Nice run from the back by Williams….terrific back tackle by Murray. Ireland have lost their edge and Wales looking better.

Ireland close but concede a hanging on penalty. Ireland look dangerous in broken play, but fairly toothless in general back play.

Bundi saves Ireland with another turnover penalty, but turned around for an off ball tackle. Ryan steals at the lineout and another Wallie chance gone.

Williams pinged for a high tackle…Sexton winks…looks a bit cynical.

That's an interesting development. I found Ireland were good at breaking down organized play but susceptible to broken play. How much would you say that is down to Welsh teething problems on defence? I'm looking for signs of Irish progression this term. They've got to break their WC woes sometime. 

Ireland have long been a roving side. Short of size, but good at manipulating sides laterally across channels. They are susceptible to disorganized play. That's where our speed out wide becomes a factor. To be honest, I don't see one great nation out there. There are teams who have the edge over us in a lot of departments. But nobody is really staking a claim to be top dog. I'd place us 5th or 6th, but in a knockout encounter, anything is possible. I bet that's what Erasputin is gambling on. 

I’d put us third or fourth….behind the ABs, France and even Oz if they can keep key players healthy. Our advantage is we have won it before and we have dominance over most in the tight five. France and Ireland having never won a WC will be under huge pressure come the semis.

The disadvantage is our clinging to the box kick….Scotland won that game because they abandoned the box kick and started running the ball wide.

Iris definitely have developed a more physical edge. Wonder of they are learning this from playing the SA teams in the URC. Scotland also put in a decent physical shift

We tend to stick to scripted sequences and concepts. Whereas the top teams see what is in front of them and play accordingly to what their strengths are. Of all the top 15 sides, ours are the worst for seeing what's in front of them and processing it. New Zealand used to train for these things, how to identify and breakdown systems from anywhere on the field with any 2 and 3 man combinations. We are physical at lineout and maul time, but lack physicality on the gainline. We have speed, but most of those speedy players are like tissue paper on defence and under the high ball, and need to be spoon feed space. 

Rankings are irrelevant. There is the width of a cigarette paper separating the top 4 tops they are all more than capable of beating each other. Bit of a gap back to the rest. Australia are hard to judge though.

England, France, Ireland, and New Zealand form the top tier. We have ridden our luck with very fortuitous reffing. Last year we got away with a lot playing poorly in each and every game. One could sense Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, France, and Wales had another gear against us whereas we could just about cope if we dragged them into a gutter fight and dissolved the game into lineout and penalty fiasco. For certain, we are about 5th, 6th. That with Scotland, Wales and Australia with the potential of passing us. I feel we've missed the boat on becoming the top test side, which is quite disappointing given that this is the weakest era of rugby I have ever seen. We look mediocre even in a season where New Zealand and Australia are the weakest they have ever been and Argentina fail to fire. Food for thought. They won't all be this bad forever. I feel sorry for the sacrificial lamb who will replace Erasputin. 

The Boks looked like a bumbling amateur pub side against France. Against Ireland, the Boks were clueless. There wasn't one quality performance all season. The English test was the one to give a superficial perception of an upswing, that despite the English playing the worst game I can recall ever seeing them play. Show me one quality Bok try last year that wasn't free running into open space against a totally busted defensive effort. The Boks cannot create a thing, and are now determined to be a pap pack with a micro-light back line that can't carry into traffic or manipulate the defence. It's horribly unbalanced. The Boks aren't merely not the best side in the world, they don't even compare favourably to Straeuli's Boks. They look diabolical, scattershot, chaotic, and totally disorganized. Any active coach saying the Boks are the best are playing the typical game of appeasing that awful Saffer arrogance, just as Australia and New Zealand have done many, many times. The pseudo-fans love nothing more than to have their chin stroked, and love a good trojan horse. 

The floor is yours. Where are those great works of attacking rugby? You still cannot reference one item to defend De Allende, Kolisi, or any of the other pretenders. I think it best if you yourself shut up and stop this perpetual humiliation you bring on yourself. 

The day you take the time to reference anything your mouth blurts out is the day you have an aneurysm, such will be the shock your body will experience from realizing that all this time you were wrong on pretty much anything. So, you quite literally won't be watching rugby again. 

Sorry Saffex but you lost against us on the high veldt to a disorganised  most shittest AB team we have every fielded.

Would love to know what you have been smoking.

This year's world cup is the most level playing field since the world cup started

Sure the boks can win it, so can 3 or four other sides.

The boks don't stand out beyond anyone else,you have just as many issues as the rest of us.

Will the ABS win it, sure we have a chance but I wouldn't put any money on it.

The All Blacks were more dominant in a lot of phases of play in the loss, it was a tactical failure on the part of Fozzi Bear, but they rectified it the following week. They were more clinical in breaking down the Bok defence in the loss. This is where the likes of Saffex can't see further than their nose: the Boks looked mediocre in the worst year of SH rugby in history. New Zealand won't be this poor forever, and Australia utter tore us limb from limb in their win before being blown off the field by the ref in the following encounter. I recall pointing out the worrying signs in 2009, before we lost to Saracens and Leicester and fell apart in 2010. It was harder to convince people then, as there was some genuine success; this time, the Boks are looking far worse, and not prevailing against a gift of a set of opponents. 

Nothing more simple than waving a white flag. It seems to be the veil of the big of mouth.