Just before the 2010 Six Nations Championship kicks off, this is a good time to turn back the clock and reflect on just how far we've come in the past two years.
At this time in 2008, we also kicked off the campaign with a match against the Italians at Croke Park, but things weren't running quite so smoothly back then...here's how I saw it in this post first published on Feb 2 08...
I hate to say I told you so – no, scratch that. I’m LOVING it.
Eddie O’Sullivan seemed to think his World Cup tactics were still viable and picked virtually the same starting XV for the Six Nations opener with Italy. Well he was wrong.
George Hook set the scene perfectly before the match when he said that Ireland were actually in a good position to win the Championship, since the other five teams were beginning a rebuilding phase which should have given us the edge.
Well when you consider that Italy’s performance was average at best, it puts this final scoreline into context. Let’s face it – the visitors had possession right at the very end and could have actually won it.
Now it wasn’t all bad. O’Gara was kicking at the right times, the backline were showing off a few new moves and seemed to be able to break the Italian line at will in the first half.
It’s just that whenever they did have the momentum they didn’t seem capable of turning it into points. They reminded me of Arsenal when Theirry Henry was playing for them in that they seemed to be going for the “pretty” scores rather than going the conventional route.
Well at least it worked once, ROG’s kick forward to the opposite winger was sublime, and what about Trimble’s offload to Girvan Dempsey (see touching down in pic thanks to www.bbc.co.uk)? If they could have played like that for 80 minutes then this blog post would be entirely different I can tell you.
But the try lulled us into a false sense of security and it seemed a series of scores would follow. Then all of a sudden we realised that there were only 5 minutes to go and we were only winning by five measly points!!!
I have to say that I was amused to see that O’Sullivan finished the match with the team I felt should have started it, though it was a bit unfair of the punters in Sinnott’s to cheer the arrival of Stringer since Reddan played his socks off and surely earned the number 9 jersey for Paris.
Sadly when it comes to picking teams, Eddie doesn’t seem to care about the world “should”. He SHOULD drop Rory Best for his below par lineout throws. He SHOULD drop John Hayes for giving away senseless penalties. But I can’t help feeling that when he picks his team for the match in Paris it’s going to be more of the same.
I wonder just how badly his charges have to play before he drops them? And with Wales now competitive, if we take this form through the rest of the tournament the only prize we’ll win is a kitchen implement used for mixing ingredients.
Eddie O’Sullivan seemed to think his World Cup tactics were still viable and picked virtually the same starting XV for the Six Nations opener with Italy. Well he was wrong.
George Hook set the scene perfectly before the match when he said that Ireland were actually in a good position to win the Championship, since the other five teams were beginning a rebuilding phase which should have given us the edge.
Well when you consider that Italy’s performance was average at best, it puts this final scoreline into context. Let’s face it – the visitors had possession right at the very end and could have actually won it.
Now it wasn’t all bad. O’Gara was kicking at the right times, the backline were showing off a few new moves and seemed to be able to break the Italian line at will in the first half.
It’s just that whenever they did have the momentum they didn’t seem capable of turning it into points. They reminded me of Arsenal when Theirry Henry was playing for them in that they seemed to be going for the “pretty” scores rather than going the conventional route.
Well at least it worked once, ROG’s kick forward to the opposite winger was sublime, and what about Trimble’s offload to Girvan Dempsey (see touching down in pic thanks to www.bbc.co.uk)? If they could have played like that for 80 minutes then this blog post would be entirely different I can tell you.
But the try lulled us into a false sense of security and it seemed a series of scores would follow. Then all of a sudden we realised that there were only 5 minutes to go and we were only winning by five measly points!!!
I have to say that I was amused to see that O’Sullivan finished the match with the team I felt should have started it, though it was a bit unfair of the punters in Sinnott’s to cheer the arrival of Stringer since Reddan played his socks off and surely earned the number 9 jersey for Paris.
Sadly when it comes to picking teams, Eddie doesn’t seem to care about the world “should”. He SHOULD drop Rory Best for his below par lineout throws. He SHOULD drop John Hayes for giving away senseless penalties. But I can’t help feeling that when he picks his team for the match in Paris it’s going to be more of the same.
I wonder just how badly his charges have to play before he drops them? And with Wales now competitive, if we take this form through the rest of the tournament the only prize we’ll win is a kitchen implement used for mixing ingredients.
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