A selection of the “keyboard warrior” reactions after the full-time whistle of our featured matches of the weekend.
If you’d like to contribute stay tuned to our Facebook page for our “Feel free to leave your thoughts…” posts which show up around full time after Leinster & Ireland matches.
Noel Hewson Sounds a bit mad but not overwhelmed by Ireland. We lacked the ruthlessness that other teams would have shown. Should have been able to mix up the game plan to suit the situation by did not seem able to do so. Way too many penalties conceded against 13 players. Plenty to work on before England.
Gerald Williamson When 15 play against 13 the game can become unstructured. You cannot expect a free flowing game .A bonus pt win was not unexpected.
Conor Cronin If you play 13 men and can't create space you have an issue that needs serious examination.
The Italians deserve serious credit for forcing our mistakes and making us resource the ruck as heavily as we did. But we should've been running them ragged, not the other way round.
Video session will be a rough watch for some, but I think that Lowry Lowe and Hansen was a worthwhile experiment, and Casey should keep his shirt
James Griffin Points differential could yet be important. Also, if the sloppiness serves as a bit of a wake up call, then that’s a good thing given our next game. The red card not only deprived them of two players but also denied us a set piece and set plays off same. Sexton again showed why he’s the boss. Italy also deserve some credit for sticking at it.
Greg Kelly Carbery is not good enough. Getting hooked after 53mins doesn't look good for him. Carty now needs to be looked at. Keenan wont be worried about Lowry I'd imagine. Hume showed nothing. Baird was the only 2nd string starter that played relatively well. Bealham actually did fairly well too.
Colin McConaghie (reply to Greg Kelly) what a strange comment about Lowry. It’s not about Keenan being worried by him it’s about Ireland building a squad of players. Scores two tries on debut and doesn’t put a foot wrong.
Brian Corr Great conditions for a good fast game, ruined by many handling errors.
A hard watch due to stop start nature and Italy doing everything in their power to slow it down. Scrums and lineouts took an eternity and how many times did the ref say no more huddles. How can an uncontested scrum still take take an eternity?
I think the Ireland players were uncomfortable with all the time they had on the ball individually and second guessed their decisions. On the other hand when space opened and they charged through the gaps they left their team mates behind and got turned over, Italy were excellent at swarming over the break through players, how many turnovers did they get? Were some of them influenced by ref and their 13 man situation?
I feel the new coming players didn’t really get the opportunity to say they’re better or play good enough to be included in the bigger test matches.
It’s amazing having achieved everything we wanted before kickoff, pa 51 point margin win with a bonus point and 9 tries in total that it still feels like two hours of my life I’ll never get back.
Loved the Baird try, always cheers me up to see him go on a gallop with the ball, even if this was a chase down and beautiful pick up to score, was getting worried he was getting stuck in the trenches.
You would have to credit Italy with some excellent turnovers.
Reenen Stenekamp Always a pleasure seeing POM score a try
Alan Murphy Poor leadership. Why call short line outs when the opposition are down to 13 men? Commit them to the set play. One other gripe, in the first half the first receivers were way too deep. At least our points difference now looks good when you consider both England and France have already played Italy.
John Willie Conroy I thought Ireland were terribly taking into account the quality of opposition and then the advantage they had with Italy down to 13. Shocking poor performance
Keith Mongan Thought it was a poor day for Joey... Just seemed to be happy to move the ball on rather than taking it to the gain line. Still a massive drop in level if Johnny's not on the field on today's evidence. Lots of talk about Lowry's best position being at 10 but unlikely to get a run for Ulster in that position before RWC. 🇮🇪🏉
John Peeters Carbery was very poor
Gav Heg We should have put a lot more on them. Didn't think they're red was a red, yellow at best. Red should only be for malice.
Can we all just take a moment and appreciate Josh Van Der flyer? The guy just ups it everytime, just majestic.
Overall I think Irish rugby is in a good place. We are developing depth nicely.
Moment of the match for me was Lowry passing to lowe when he could easily have had a debut hat trick. This just shows the squad spirit and how they play for eachother. Or that they're just scared shitless of Farrell!
Peter Tracey (reply to Gav Heg) I think we’re short a tight head though. Nothing against Bealham but you see what the French have to come on. We were depending on Porter and Furlong for 70 mins in that game. Moore and O’Toole seem to be injured and are not getting game time in the Irish squad. Just my own opinion. You know far more about the sport then I. 👍🏻
Ronan McManus The biggest question is why Ireland panicked when Italy went down to 13.
We pushed everything just that step to far with the numerical advantage, and got very sloppy.
The law that brought Italy to 13 should probably involve some measure of referee discretion in future.
Still, a 51 point victory is a 51 point victory.
Mel Cawley (reply to Ronan McManus) referee discretion would have helped definitely
Donal O'Brien (reply to Ronan McManus & Mel Cawley) Didn't the referee use his discretion when the Italian captain told him they could contest the scrum (presumably with three props), but the ref refused to consider it? I think the fact that they are laws rather than rules means that the ref should have a bit more discretion than otherwise.
Imelda Reidy Thought the red card was harsh. Sheehan was definitely dipping. Kudos to the Italians for making it difficult. Very fractured game, no flow to it. Ireland made hard work of the 2 man advantage. Poor handling and decision making at times. 5 points and the rest is best forgotten.
Odran John OBrien Ireland still looking for a replacement for Sexton
Pamela Roantree (reply to Odran John OBrien) the search continues
HARPIN TWEET
Many thanks to all who offered opinions.
Look out Monday for our match writeup JLP
