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
Category: Johnny Sexton
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
Armageddon
Before going into the ins and outs of why Ireland lost today, Japan deserve enormous praise for pulling off an unthinkable win over a team who were ranked second in the world. Just like in 2015, they have lit up the tournament with a stunning victory, and the Tier 2 label is becoming less … Continue reading Armageddon
