Here we are in November 2005, with the 2007 World Cup less than two years away. In 2003, we just made it to the quarter-finals, and then were blown away by France. We have never progressed past the quarter-final stage in the five World Cup tournaments played so far. It seems that this is the limit to the ambitions of the Irish rugby world. At the rate we're going, we won't even get that far in 2007.
Look at the last two games. Look at how Plan A didn't work. Look at how there was no Plan B. Three times today, we had the Australian line at our mercy. Three times we failed to score. And once when there was a sustained period of Irish pressure in the Aussie 22, we coughed up the ball, for them to run the length of the park and score. Look at the basic mistakes. Missed tackles. Needless turnovers. Missed touch-kicks.
We have good players. Good players don't become bad players overnight. OK, BO'D, PO'C and DH are missing, but they were all present and correct when we lost to Wales in Cardiff in March.
The high-point of Eddie O'Sullivan's tenure was Ireland's storming of Fortress Twickenham on 6 March 2004. That was a day when Ireland played great rugby. We bullied them off the ball on their own set-piece, scored the penalties when it mattered, and put together one of the most beautiful sequences of passes by a set of backs to put Girvan Dempsey over in the corner. It was a great day, and I was there.
But that day is over. We won the Triple Crown that year, but France won the Championship. Then last season, Wales sneaked in and won the Grand Slam. In one of those two years, we should have won at least the Championship. Judging the current form, we have no hope in the 2006 Six Nations. We will lose to England, Wales and France, and probably struggle against Scotland and Italy.
If we are to have any hope of progressing beyond the group stages of the next World Cup, there needs to be a genuine competition for places in the side. There's a few lads who think that the green shirt with their number on it is their's by right. They need a few lads snapping at their heels to keep them sharp. Eddie isn't doing this. He's bringing in new players only if he has to. He's run out of ideas. He should step aside.
Trimble To Give His All To The Irish Cause
| Published Friday, November 18, 2005 by Gerry O'Sullivan.
The Irish team is as follows:
15. G Murphy (Leicester); 14. S Horgan (Leinster), 13. A Trimble (Ulster), 12. G D'Arcy (Leinster), 11. T Bowe (Ulster); 10. R O'Gara (Munster), 9. P Stringer (Munster); 1. M Horan (Munster), 2. S Byrne (Saracens), 3. J Hayes (Munster), 4. D O'Callaghan (Munster), 5. M O'Kelly (Leinster), 6. S Easterby (Llanelli, captain), 7. J O'Connor (Wasps), 8. D Leamy (Munster).
Replacements: R Best (Ulster), S Best (Ulster), M McCullough (Ulster), N Best (Ulster), K Campbell (Ulster), D Humphreys (Ulster), G Dempsey (Leinster).
Glad to see Andrew Trimble of Ulster get the nod.
More disappointment for holders of North Terrace tickets this weekend, as it remains closed due to fire damage. This just emphasises the need there is to tear down the tumbledown shack that is Lansdowne Road and build the new stadium. Hopefully the plans will proceed on time, but I reckon there's a NIMBY or two lurking in D4 to throw a spanner in the works.Anyway, my prediction for tomorrow: Australia with 10 to spare.
Piss-Poor Ireland Just Escape All-Black Whitewash
| Published Sunday, November 13, 2005 by Gerry O'Sullivan.
Ireland were humiliated by the All-Blacks yesterday. They were played off the park. If these guys were the second-string A-Bs, then it's just as well we didn't face the first-string. (I don't believe they were, by the way. Such is the ferocity of competition for the right to don the black jersey, that any player who does so is sure to be out of the top drawer.)
The fitness levels, the skill, the speed, the ability to offload before the tackle, the crispness of the passing, the resloute defence, ... all there in spades in the New Zealanders, and all lacking in the Irish. They gave away some really soft tries yesterday, and the match video will not make for pleasant viewing for the team next week.
If it wasn't for Marcus Horan's last minute try, the humiliation would have been complete. We can't afford too many more days like this one. Ireland have now lost three on the trot (I'm not counting the Japanese tour in the summer.) Plus the Irish involvement with the farcical Lions tour in the summer. It can be hard getting out of a losing rut. Ireland are in one at the moment and it's getting deeper with every match.
15 – Geordan Murphy
14 – Tommy Bowe
13 – Gordon D'Arcy
12 – Shane Horgan
11 – Anthony Horgan
10 – Ronan O'Gara
9 – Peter Stringer
1 – Marcus Horan
2 – Shane Byrne
3 – John Hayes
4 – Donncha O'Callaghan
5 – Malcolm O'Kelly
6 – Simon Easterby
7 – Johnny O'Connor
8 – Denis Leamy
Replacements:
16 – Rory Best
17 – Simon Best
18 – Matt McCullough
19 – Neil Best
20 – Kieran Campbell
21 – David Humphreys
22 – Girvan Dempsey
Fair enough as regards the backs. Shane Horgan takes the bruiser role in the centre, which hopfully will allow D'Arcy to show us some of his nimble footwork. Tommy Bowe gets his fourth cap, and hopefully it will add to his further development. The half-backs pick themselves.
In the forwards, Marcus Horan is now making the No 1 shirt his own. If Frank Sheahan and Paul O'Connell were fit, then an all-Munster tight five would be the order of the day. The back row puzzles me a bit. Easterby at 6 is fine, as is O'Connor at openside. Why did he drop Foley in favour of Leamy at No 8? Surely he's going on form, and Leamy is more of a flanker than a No 8? He'll regret not having Foley's experience here.
Easterby is a good choice for captain, as he is well used to the role at Llanelli. However without O'Driscoll's totemic presence or O'Connell's raw passion, real leaders will be lacking on the Irish side.
New Zealand are on a mission at the moment. Graham Henry has said that his objective is to have at least two world-class players available to him for every position on the park in time for the World Cup in 2007. It's hard to believe that New Zealand haven't won the World Cup since the inaugural tournament in 1987. If they don't win in 2007, the wait will stretch out to 24 years or more. That will be too much for many New Zealanders to take. They see themselves as the pre-eminent rugby nation on earth, and they have to start putting this anomaly to rights. Thus they are like England were in the run-up to the 2003 World Cup.
Our dismal record against New Zealand (P17, W0, D1, L16) will continue this weekend. Our only hope of salvaging pride is to keep the Kiwi'a winnig margin to the lowest they record on tour.
When Wales played England in the Six Nations in Cardiff in February, Henson landed a penalty from just inside his own half. This is supposed to be a mark of his greatness. I saw Mark McHugh do the same for Ireland A against England A in 2003 in a wet and windy Donnybrook. Ronan O'Gara did it in the pissing rain last weekend against Castres.
If Henson was a great player, he would have effortlessly replaced Brian O'Driscoll in the centre after BOD was injured in that tackle. Henson wasn't even on the bench for that match, and Woodward only put him into the team for the second test under severe media pressure. He was worse than useless that day.
Of course, he has a book to flog. In it, he makes this allegation against Brian O'Driscoll:
'As I was on the ground, O'Driscoll came in and tried to "jackal" - a term we use to mean stealing the ball from your opponent on the ground. But instead of just trying to rip the ball clear, he also decided to pull my hair and tried to gouge my eye for good measure. "How do you like that, you cocky little fucker?" There was a real flash of anger in his eyes. It was intense.'
I'd reckon BOD's legal advisors might be looking closely at that one.
If the Observer wanted to write about a real quality Welsh player, they should have picked Gareth Thomas or Michael Owen.
This is the first match by a full-strength Irish tream since their desperately disappointing end to the Six Nations when they lost first to France and then to Wales. (I still haven't figured out how as mediocre a team as Wales managed to win the Grand Slam.) New Zealand have played several times in that period, whitewashing the Lions in June and then winning the Tri-Nations.
New Zealand remain the only test team to have never been beaten by Ireland. The only Irish team to have beaten the All-Blacks is of course Munster, who famously whitewashed them 12-0 in 1978. I don't expect that record to change next weekend, and predict that the All-Blacks will prevail with 20 points to spare.
Eddie O'Sullivan is not helped by the number of injuries to key players, most notably Paul O'Connell, Denis Hickey, Alan Quinlan, Frank Sheahan and captain Brian O'Driscoll (how did that one happen, can anyone remember?) Simon Easterby and Shane Horgan are both nursing injuries, but hopefully they will be available for selection by the time the team is announced.
My starting XV would be as follows:
15 Geordan Murphy
14 Anthony Horgan
13 Andrew Trimble
12 Gordon D'Arcy
11 Shane Horgan or Tommy Bowe
10 Ronan O'Gara
9 Peter Stringer
1 Marcus Horan
2 Shane Byrne
3 John Hayes
4 Malcolm O'Kelly
5 Donncha O'Callaghan
6 Simon Easterby or Denis Leamy
7 Johnny O'Connor
8 Anthony Foley
I've been watching Trimble play for Ulster and he's an impressive young player, fast and strong. I think this could be a good time to see his international potential.