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.
Richard Mifsud A much improved performance today. I’ll leave the tactical stuff to the Harper in Chief. For me this game was always going to be about the boys’ attitude. From the off there seemed better intensity which then suddenly disappeared and Scotland went into the ascendancy up until the 30th minute. No I don’t mean the yellow card because already there was much better go forward and intensity mainly led by POTM Caelan Doris, POM, CJ and Porter with Conor and JS10 putting us in the right areas. All of a sudden we started seeing line breaks and Scottish mistakes. This switch is what led to the yellow and try. TBH barring the mistake for the Van Dee Merwe try, Scotland didn’t get a look in from then on. I always thought we had a problem with a lack of confidence in the previous matches and today I saw them positively deal with that especially after conceding the Scottish try. The top two inches really do matter, today they mattered in a positive way for us. Still much work to be done and I’d like to see greater subtlety and variety in attack moving forward because not all teams will be beaten up front as Scotland were today. Again it’s all about perspective despite this better performance this is still a work in progress with key positions requiring succession planning not least at 10. Best commentary I heard was that it’s more difficult to transition from a minutiae driven style (Schmidt era) to a free-er style under AF than vice versa. All in all we’ve blooded 11 new players and won 3 from 4. Let’s take this journey forward with our players and coaches #COYBIG
Neil Keegan A really solid 50 mins. Some real aggression and a lot of good performances.
Loved sextons post match interview. A good edge today.
Important win, important performance and Christmas cab start now
We go again in 9 weeks
Michelle Tobin I'm glad international season is over for a while. Found it frustrating and draining to watch good players not fulfilling their potential, or not being allowed to. Today was better but nowhere near good. Set pieces still an issue, still woefully low on quality cover in some positions. Hand on heart, I was not confident Ireland could win that match. The margin was a bonus but I'm not sure that's a sign of us being good, more Scotland being poor for 3/4 of the game. Much much work to be done before the 6 Nations.
Gav Heg Can't help but feel that the awful Nations cup was a wasted opportunity for Ireland. It should have been used to do a clear out. If you won't be around for RWC 2023, well done but good bye!!! Get the young lads in, Harry Byrne, Ryan Baird, ed Byrne, etc. Sexton proved again he is not a captain if his team is behind, Stockdale is not a 15 (his positioning for Scotland's try?) Murray is so far past his day and his box kicks are wasted possession 9 times out of ten. POM is a six not a 7, Ireland need an out and out seven like vdf or leavy. Positives are how truly outstanding Doris was, Keenan has a long future ahead of him and earl's is back to his best!
James Griffin More signs of progress but with plenty of work ons. There was one phase, I thought, late in the first half when they really upped the tempo and precision and pulled away from Scotland; looking forward to more of that.
Louis Hoffman Good result, some good performances. Henshaw, POM, Earls, Sexton and MOM Doris
Declan Finlay Thought it was despicable by Fraser Brown alleging that he was gauged in the game, when the replay showed that the hand was nowhere near the eyes.
Kevin Walsh For a team that got well beaten at the WC, I'm ok with giving him time to rebuild. It may mean some short term losses but as Pat Lam said, we should be aiming for a WC win.
John Adams It's only his 1st year infairness give him time his heart is in the right place he's there for the good intentions 2020 was a strange year with Covid 19 same with everything else give him time and patience to rebuild
Steven Young After the last cycle in which Ireland seemed to do so well but crashed badly in the WC (s usual) I am willing to put aside my normal cynicism and accept the 'it takes time to build' response.... as long as we get that WC quarter final win.
Richard Spence I’m backing this guy. He’s a man who picked up a shambles post RWC 2019 and has been asked by IRFU to manoeuvre his way through a quagmire of old school organisational behaviour and legacy. Please god he sticks with us until at least RWC 2023. Heaven knows we need a new approach.
I must say, I’m extremely disappointed in some of our so called fans. It’s clear from the rhetoric and some of the despicable comments that I’ve seen on social media that we aren’t as accepting as we would lead the world to believe. How anti English and how tragic both us, the so called supporters and our Irish MSM have become.
Many thanks to all who offered opinions.
We had problems with our Facebook page on Saturday so some of the comments were taken from the IrishRugby page.
Look out Monday for our match writeup JLP
