While Ireland’s victory over Wales in February was impressive, it must be noted that it was against a team who are undergoing a major transition (both in terms of personnel and playing philosophy) under Wayne Pivac. Their other two performances in the Six Nations were characterised by the recurring theme of an inability to build … Continue reading Thinking Outside The Box
Category: Johnny Sexton
Rising From The Ashes
It’s difficult to know exactly where Ireland’s outstanding performance against Wales yesterday came from. Maybe it was an immediate response to their lethargic, error-strewn showing against Scotland in Round 1, maybe it was a revenge mission for what happened in Cardiff last March, or maybe they just got sick and tired of looking in … Continue reading Rising From The Ashes
Ground Zero
“There’s two kinds of pain in this world. Pain that hurts. Pain that alters.” Robert McCall, The Equalizer 2 (2018) You would think that Irish supporters would be used to World Cup quarter-final defeats by now, but every time that they happen, the wound cuts just as deep. In fact, this one is … Continue reading Ground Zero
Labour-Intensive
Match statistics can often be misleading, and when you examine the figures from Ireland’s win over Russia, you would naturally assume that it was a completely dominant performance from Joe Schmidt’s side. They had 589 metres run compared to Russia’s 150, 16 line breaks to Russia’s 2 and 23 defenders beaten to Russia’s 11. … Continue reading Labour-Intensive
