Showed a glimpse or two of his 2012 form, but mostly used his brain and cultured left boot to influence the game.
Ready, willing and able to take over the mantle of back-line leader.
Fergus McFadden – 6
Dropped a ball on the hour, but worked like a man unwilling to be taken out of the green shirt lightly. Powered into as many physical encounters as he could – including a superb chase of Paddy Jackson’s restart in the second half to force an error and keep Ireland playing in the right territory.
Brian O’Driscoll – 8
Sopping wet conditions meant he had to revert to his secondary function as a flanker. His efforts typified the character displayed over a distinguished career. Took a standing ovation as he looked unable to carry on, but typically re-emerged. A glutton for punishment.
Luke Marshall – 7
Pre-match, we asked him to show off his big boot a little more and his main contribution in Ireland’s 10-point half time lead was a big booming touch-finder which pinned the visitors back onto their five metre line.
Conditions meant he was forced to show his skills without the ball and, paired off with the finest centre in Europe, he barely put a foot wrong. A big pat on the back from O’Driscoll after winning a ruck penalty felt like a changing of the guard… until they both left the arena on shaky legs.
Keith Earls – 6
Not a day for hard-track wingers and an early dropped Garryowen signalled the beginning of a quiet day for the utility back. However, his fitness stood to him and his pace almost gifted Ireland a win just after France had clawed back to 13-13.
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Paddy Jackson – 7
Three out of four successful kicks in the first half and not one of them could be marked in the ‘easy’ category. Badly passed on a drop-goal chance after the break, but it was a call which should not have been made.
Conor Murray – 8
His best game for Ireland. Box-kicked accurately to put French on the back foot in the first half and kept his foot on the pedal in the second half. Inexplicably replaced just after 60 minutes.
Cian Healy – 7
Carried extremely well in the loose throughout and got down good and low opposite Nicolas Mas to limit the power of the blue scrum.
Rory Best – 8
Banished some of the demons of missed throws inside the attacking 22 with some pin-point darts in the first quarter. Central to a fine forward effort throughout. Ultimate tribute to him is the reluctance to use Sean Cronin.
Mike Ross -6
Endured a predictably tough time in the first half, but as Ireland grew in confidence he was at the forefront of the effort.
Mike McCarthy – 8
Played a massive role in the opening try, making his presence felt and clearing space for Heaslip to go through. A terrific performance against what is supposed to be a superior French pack.
Donnacha Ryan – 8
Like his second row partner, headed Ireland’s most potent weapon. Tremendous effort in every aspect. Just as Kearney is primed to fill big shoes behind the scrum, Ryan is visibly growing with every game in the engine room.
Peter O’Mahony – 6
A solid, if unspectacular day, but worked tirelessly at the breakdown and forced some crucial turnovers.
Sean O’Brien – 8
Showed almost all of his skills in one excellent 80 minutes. He carried, he rucked, he mauled, he caught line-outs and even kicked. At one stage he was actually dragging Yannick Nyanga along.
Jamie Heaslip – 7
Getting his name on the score-sheet was not only important for the team, but also for his own mind-set. After profiting off that early maul he was able to carry on with his own game and gave Ireland a hard edge in the tight exchanges.
Replacements:
Eoin Reddan – 5
Ordinarily comes on to speed up games, but prime duty here seemed to be wheeling off the ruck and grubbering behind the blue wall. Hopefully the injury suffered late on was not overly serious.
Luke Fitzgerald – 4
Huge welcome on his first possession from the crowd. Still looks a little short on confidence, but you sense it will return the more time he has ball in hand.
Not on long enough to be rated: Sean Cronin, Dave Kilcoyne, Stephen Archer, Donncha O’Callaghan, Iain Henderson, Ian Madigan.
Peter O Mahoney 6??? At the very least a 7 .. Murray should have got a 9 .. And I really hate how in every rating every week, you pick small mistakes that do not reflect on the entire performance of players..
At LEAST a 7. Fantastic game. Reminds me a bit of Simon Easterby in that people who don’t know rugby don’t know what he does. His work rate is fantastic. GIve me a great deal of hope for the future, really. 8 or 9
I’m glad you said it Gearoid. O’Mahony hasn’t always delivered, but he was incredible yesterday against a very good French backrow. 6 is just disrespectful to him.
You are and you aren’t. As usual, rugby laws are a little confusing. Two clauses from Law 10 Obstruction:
. (a) Charging or pushing. When a player and an opponent are running for the ball, either player must not charge or push the other except shoulder-to-shoulder.
(SO IT WASN’T A PENALTY FOR IRELAND)
. (f) Playing an opponent without the ball. Except in a scrum, ruck or maul, a player who is not in possession of the ball must not hold, push or obstruct an opponent not carrying the ball.
(SO IT WAS!)
@ Paddy
In this case Law 10a applies as both players were running for the ball.
It was not a penalty
And it is only this season that the ref could go to the TMO to ask about it, as up to Sept (before the latest law changes) the TMO only had jurisdiction behind the tryline and on matters relating to the scoring of a try
Paul. He just is. French try double movement. No excuses here. Our one worst enemies again. But he guessed at serum time, was inconsistent but mostly I know he was shite because, oh I’ll be honest here, because he’s a referee.
You don’t referee on intentions, you referee on what happens.
The scrums were refereed well as he made great use of his touchjudges (I suppose you’ll say that they were shite too ??). Because the Irish front row was outplayed is not the referees fault.
I don’t agree that the French try was a double movement. For that to happen a player must have completely stopped moving and not be in a position to reach over the line by stretching his arms forward.
To make a comment like you did about the referee says a lot more about you than it does about the referee.
@paddy
Have I refereed ? Yes in fact.
I am a qualified referee and a full member of the Leinster Branch for the last year, having refereed as an associate and a trial member for 3 years prior to that.
Referees defending referees. I was tempted just to write QED and leave it.
But no.
And bearing in mind, when it comes to the game and their role, referees tend to leave their sense of humour at home.
‘Because he just is…” Read about Steve Walsh. He is known in his home country as a ‘Peacock referee.’ Doesn’t take much figuring. He has had notorious games, dishing out penalties almost to the ridiculous extend Joubert did yesterday. In that Scotland Wales game, the whistle blew every time rugby broke out. Farcical.
I know Walsh has had his demons to fight and he has fought them fair dues to him. But he is not a good referee.
When it comes to scrummaging, the IRB’s laws are unworkable though that’s something referees won’t admit. They guess. Mostly, they guess incorrectly. I was a prop. I know what goes on. I was never a referee. My ego was never large enough for that role.
Why can’t referees admit it when they are wrong (though Walsh famously did in New Zealand after one particularly disastrous performance.) That ‘wrong ball’ incident in the Wales Ireland game two years ago. No admission. No sanction. Owen in the All Blacks Ireland game last year. Clearly wrong. The All Blacks France World Cup final, made farcical by the referee.
And yesterday.
Well, look at the film. Debaty pushed Earls into touch. It was not a shoulder.
It was an elbow.
And if a referee, a touch judge, a TMO and, indeed, referees watching on television didn’t see that, well it goes some way to prove that old adage about elbows and other parts of the human anatomy.
(Please retrieve your sense of humour at this point.)
Can’t help but feel that something will need to be done about the physical toll top level rugby exerts on players.
What shape are some of these guys going to be in in years to come?
@ Justin great post!! The big white elephant in the Rugby Union room is how every week, it is becoming more and more like rugby league!!! Its all about brawn and power now..and thus the physical toll on the players is a lot more,you’re correct.
Give me Simon Geoghan and his generation any day!!!
Its a joke that the RtE ‘pundits’ never bring this up!
Where’s the option to give Declan Kidney a 0 ? Scrum-half playing well in the rain ? Big fella too you say ?? Marshalling Picamoles and the French back-row nicely ??? How I about I substitute him.
On the BBC yer one Gabby was saying BOD’s wife is as big a star as he is in Ireland. I don’t think most would have a clue who she is if it wasn’t for him.
McFadden deserves a lot more than 6. If he was a bigger name he’d get a 7 at least. He ran as hard as anyone and bar one dropped ball did all that he could have. Murray was fantastic, kidney seems to think he’s obliged to bring on Reddan. At the start of the 6n reddan was the form scrum-half and he wasn’t picked. Now when Murray is playing his best stuff he’s taken off. It’s as if Kidney has a badly written paint by numbers style guide to rugby. His decision making has cost Ireland a lot over the last 18 months. If Gavin Henson had taken a kick 4 years ago Kidney would have gotten the sack a long time ago.
McFadden clearly deserved more than a 6. Give him one or two of Earls’.
Kidney has a major issue with in form scrum halves. Wanted to have TOL as his starting 9 in the world cup, then TOL went from bad to terrible, so he was left with Reddan, who was the best by a distance. Then drops him for Murray, who at the time had played about 8 senior matches and wasn’t anything like he is now. We all know hoew that went.
I think he made the change because we hadn’t scored any points in the second half and thought we needed more. Murray was marshalling the game, but hadn’t been incisive enough in the French 22.
I’m wondering what terms of reference the author of this article uses for player ratings. From reading his ratings over the past few weeks I think he just closes his eyes and picks a number. McFadden was good today and far better than a 6. POM was outstanding as was O’Driscoll each deserving far better ratings. Ross was terrible. He looks overweight and unfit. Very poor. Please Journal, for the sake of all real rugby fans, get a real rugby person to write these articles. Just my opinion. I await all the red thumbs. Thank you and good night.
Peter O’Mahony 6/10. We did witness the same match? Maybe I benefited from TV replay and maybe my understanding of a decent 6 being a pest to the opposition differs. Brave, energetic, tough and a constant at the breakdown deserves better than 6!
Another game blown,Murray taken off when his having stormer,wanna go too specsavers up in the management box,time for kidney etc too go,new ideas,new approach,Conor o’shea,Joel Schmidt, axel foley dream new irish management team……
Joel Schmidt ??? Eh hello ?? POM should have been man of the match. Murray was his slow self. Average at best. As for Best. Very average. Kidney for the bin. Bring it on.
Murray average at best? I have no idea what match you were watching so. He was doing a fantastic job marshalling the troops and protecting Jackson. That went out the window after he came off.
Why all the red thumbs. All I said was Murray was average and Peter O’Mahoney should have been man of the match. Best was anonamous and Kidney needs to go. ????
O’Mahoney a 6 ?? Holy jaysus what were you watching. Mc Fadden gave a real ballsy abrasive display. Well done to Paddy Jackson for showing great maturity and getting it done. Finally for the Great One quite simply the greatest sportsman ever to wear a green jersey no matter what the code. The likes of Roy Keane isn’t fit to clean his boots. They’ll be talking about Brian O Driscoll in a hundred years time.
Hard on Murray and McFadden!!
Both had excellent games.
O’ Mahoney also deserved a higher score!
Good game from the Irish, some limitations exposed but we knew that before today.
A convincing win in Italy and we can turn what has been an underwhelming campaign into something a little more positive! We have given fringe players game-time and many have responded!
Should leave the squad stronger looking towards the summer….
France were there for the taking if we showed as much composure as we showed bravery.Draw that feels like a loss , it was a penalty to Ireland at the end when the French prop ensured that Earls couldn’t compete with Picamoles for the touch down.
Cant get over decision to replace Murrey after only 60 mins. Completely controlled French backs with his super box kicks all through first and second half Limiting the French to kick all the time. What we’re the management team looking at out there??? Thanks for some great memories deccie but you need to go now along with the rest of that blinkered management team…
i dont recall a good box kick from Murray in the second half but he was playing well. Problem was we were camped out in the French half for the third quarter but could not deliver the killer blow. I think DK may have brought on Reddan to try to create something different and prevent what eventually happened.
Im not a Conor Murrary fan infact I’m one of his biggest distracters but in all honesty he was a mile the best player on the pitch today, I have no idea why anyone would take him off the field today.
Others who played well today
McFadden, ryan, healy, O’Brien Mahoney, Jackson and heaslip stood up to be counted.
The one man who still amazes me is Brian o Driscoll an inspiration and the measure of the best of everything that is Irish
Seriously Chris, why do you hate every player associated with Munster? and you are always harping on about how biased other people can be .. try support the players that represent your country at least
Geariod I said nothing bad about any munster player yesterday. Infact the opposite if anything.
I said Murrary was MOM and the ryan and mahoney were two of the better players so why the anti munster abuse for the above comment
A good performance by Ireland, or at least a better performance. We have been unbelievably unlucky in this six nations with injuries. Even in this game to lose our centres at the same time is unheard of. I’ll give Kidney the benefit of the doubt, we didn’t score in the second half and he needed to change things. Ireland definitely in transition…keep the faith.
Well, with all these big ratings, how come we didn’t win this one? Tiredness and a still shallow squad perhaps. Don’t really think Mike Ross deserved a minus 6 either..
1. Because our squad lacks the depth of the French one. Look at the subs they were able to introduce.
2. They persisted with Michalak at 10.
In how many matches have you see Ireland make a bright start and end up in last-ditch defense mode due to attritional injuries?
All games this season except Murrayfield.
Driscoll can’t retire from the Ireland team while is still contracted to play for Leinster, them is the rules according to Shane Horgan Re. theR.T.E. rugby expert.
Average score well over 5 would indicate we won well. You are being generous, individual performance is not as important as being able to play as a team.
Random thoughts. If the team rated so highly, only four of the starting team rated below 7 and the largest group rating 8 how come we didn’t win the game? What rating would the captain get for his role as captain. And a rating for Kidney? Not sure what a pass rating is but I’m guessing Kidney’s performance this season doesn’t make it. But with O’Shea unlikely to give up his life and career in London for the Irish job it’s impossible to short list any obvious candidate for the job that would meet with general approval. Surprise player of the day? Jackson, he has a future.
As one of his biggest detractors I have to say Heaslip was so much improved yesterday, he was committed, vocal and obviously the try helped. :-)
POM a 6? He engineered 3 turn overs against the much vaunted French back row. An 8 for me. Murray showed what Munster fans have seen for a while. Top class performance. Makes his substitution all the more head scratching. 9.
Well done Jackson and Marshall. Looked like old hands. Looking forward to seeing the other Marshall called up and getting a run with these 2.
On a side note, thoughts with and hope Reddan heals quickly.
Watched the game tonight, Donnacha Ryan, O’Mahony and Murray were great yesterday. And what’s with that 2nd anthem, is there any other country in the world that has 2 anthems?
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Peter O Mahoney 6??? At the very least a 7 .. Murray should have got a 9 .. And I really hate how in every rating every week, you pick small mistakes that do not reflect on the entire performance of players..
At LEAST a 7. Fantastic game. Reminds me a bit of Simon Easterby in that people who don’t know rugby don’t know what he does. His work rate is fantastic. GIve me a great deal of hope for the future, really. 8 or 9
Spot on Paddy. Watching him drive into dusatoir to force a knock on was a sight to behold. He’s phenomenal.
I’m glad you said it Gearoid. O’Mahony hasn’t always delivered, but he was incredible yesterday against a very good French backrow. 6 is just disrespectful to him.
Brian O’Driscoll “extinguished career” surely you mean distinguished career, there’s plenty of fire left in that man.
Well said! Don’t understand the rush to retire him
Yes, spot on Elizabeth. My bad.
Why oh why did he take Murray off?changed the game
Me – 10
Managed to not throw TV out window when he said “no foul play”
It wasn’t foul play, your allowed to use your upper body and arms/shoulders in that situation
You are and you aren’t. As usual, rugby laws are a little confusing. Two clauses from Law 10 Obstruction:
. (a) Charging or pushing. When a player and an opponent are running for the ball, either player must not charge or push the other except shoulder-to-shoulder.
(SO IT WASN’T A PENALTY FOR IRELAND)
. (f) Playing an opponent without the ball. Except in a scrum, ruck or maul, a player who is not in possession of the ball must not hold, push or obstruct an opponent not carrying the ball.
(SO IT WAS!)
George Hook says it wasn’t, so that ends that. The great man has spoken!!!!
Look at it again. Earls was elbowed not shouldered. It WAS a penalty. Walsh? Another sh!te referee.
Walsh referred the play to the TMO, who made the decision. How does that make him a shite referee?
@ Paddy
In this case Law 10a applies as both players were running for the ball.
It was not a penalty
And it is only this season that the ref could go to the TMO to ask about it, as up to Sept (before the latest law changes) the TMO only had jurisdiction behind the tryline and on matters relating to the scoring of a try
Look again. French hooker had no intention of getting the ball. He was after – and got – the man. Law (not rule) 10 (f)
Paul. He just is. French try double movement. No excuses here. Our one worst enemies again. But he guessed at serum time, was inconsistent but mostly I know he was shite because, oh I’ll be honest here, because he’s a referee.
@Paddy
Rule?? Who mentioned ‘rules’ ?
You don’t referee on intentions, you referee on what happens.
The scrums were refereed well as he made great use of his touchjudges (I suppose you’ll say that they were shite too ??). Because the Irish front row was outplayed is not the referees fault.
I don’t agree that the French try was a double movement. For that to happen a player must have completely stopped moving and not be in a position to reach over the line by stretching his arms forward.
To make a comment like you did about the referee says a lot more about you than it does about the referee.
Have you EVER refereed?
That’s your argument, “he just is”!!! Jesus wept.
@paddy
Have I refereed ? Yes in fact.
I am a qualified referee and a full member of the Leinster Branch for the last year, having refereed as an associate and a trial member for 3 years prior to that.
And you ??
Referees defending referees. I was tempted just to write QED and leave it.
But no.
And bearing in mind, when it comes to the game and their role, referees tend to leave their sense of humour at home.
‘Because he just is…” Read about Steve Walsh. He is known in his home country as a ‘Peacock referee.’ Doesn’t take much figuring. He has had notorious games, dishing out penalties almost to the ridiculous extend Joubert did yesterday. In that Scotland Wales game, the whistle blew every time rugby broke out. Farcical.
I know Walsh has had his demons to fight and he has fought them fair dues to him. But he is not a good referee.
When it comes to scrummaging, the IRB’s laws are unworkable though that’s something referees won’t admit. They guess. Mostly, they guess incorrectly. I was a prop. I know what goes on. I was never a referee. My ego was never large enough for that role.
Why can’t referees admit it when they are wrong (though Walsh famously did in New Zealand after one particularly disastrous performance.) That ‘wrong ball’ incident in the Wales Ireland game two years ago. No admission. No sanction. Owen in the All Blacks Ireland game last year. Clearly wrong. The All Blacks France World Cup final, made farcical by the referee.
And yesterday.
Well, look at the film. Debaty pushed Earls into touch. It was not a shoulder.
It was an elbow.
And if a referee, a touch judge, a TMO and, indeed, referees watching on television didn’t see that, well it goes some way to prove that old adage about elbows and other parts of the human anatomy.
(Please retrieve your sense of humour at this point.)
@Paddy
Paddy,
Lets leave it there as theres just no talking with you.
I hope I meet you on a pitch some day -that is on the assumption that you actually play rugby.
Still won’t admit it was an elbow. I did say I WAS a prop. You obviously didn’t see that.
But, then, you ARE a referee so no surprise there.
Don’t know what you were watching. Only o’mahoney ran Murray close for MOM. Super performance from him
How the hell do you give Peter O Mahoney 6 a joke
He is leinster supporter…
Can’t help but feel that something will need to be done about the physical toll top level rugby exerts on players.
What shape are some of these guys going to be in in years to come?
@ Justin great post!! The big white elephant in the Rugby Union room is how every week, it is becoming more and more like rugby league!!! Its all about brawn and power now..and thus the physical toll on the players is a lot more,you’re correct.
Give me Simon Geoghan and his generation any day!!!
Its a joke that the RtE ‘pundits’ never bring this up!
I totally agree, when would you ever have a 20 stoner playing centre, it’s unreal
Where’s the option to give Declan Kidney a 0 ? Scrum-half playing well in the rain ? Big fella too you say ?? Marshalling Picamoles and the French back-row nicely ??? How I about I substitute him.
On the BBC yer one Gabby was saying BOD’s wife is as big a star as he is in Ireland. I don’t think most would have a clue who she is if it wasn’t for him.
You’re wrong to care
She has been doing fairly well job wise
McFadden deserves a lot more than 6. If he was a bigger name he’d get a 7 at least. He ran as hard as anyone and bar one dropped ball did all that he could have. Murray was fantastic, kidney seems to think he’s obliged to bring on Reddan. At the start of the 6n reddan was the form scrum-half and he wasn’t picked. Now when Murray is playing his best stuff he’s taken off. It’s as if Kidney has a badly written paint by numbers style guide to rugby. His decision making has cost Ireland a lot over the last 18 months. If Gavin Henson had taken a kick 4 years ago Kidney would have gotten the sack a long time ago.
Couldn’t agree more re mcfadden. I thought he had a pretty good game – 7.5 maybe!
McFadden clearly deserved more than a 6. Give him one or two of Earls’.
Kidney has a major issue with in form scrum halves. Wanted to have TOL as his starting 9 in the world cup, then TOL went from bad to terrible, so he was left with Reddan, who was the best by a distance. Then drops him for Murray, who at the time had played about 8 senior matches and wasn’t anything like he is now. We all know hoew that went.
I think he made the change because we hadn’t scored any points in the second half and thought we needed more. Murray was marshalling the game, but hadn’t been incisive enough in the French 22.
I’m wondering what terms of reference the author of this article uses for player ratings. From reading his ratings over the past few weeks I think he just closes his eyes and picks a number. McFadden was good today and far better than a 6. POM was outstanding as was O’Driscoll each deserving far better ratings. Ross was terrible. He looks overweight and unfit. Very poor. Please Journal, for the sake of all real rugby fans, get a real rugby person to write these articles. Just my opinion. I await all the red thumbs. Thank you and good night.
Peter O’Mahony 6/10. We did witness the same match? Maybe I benefited from TV replay and maybe my understanding of a decent 6 being a pest to the opposition differs. Brave, energetic, tough and a constant at the breakdown deserves better than 6!
Mullins, what’s the Craic.
1 win so far? That is a load of sh@te. Kidney needs to go now.
Another game blown,Murray taken off when his having stormer,wanna go too specsavers up in the management box,time for kidney etc too go,new ideas,new approach,Conor o’shea,Joel Schmidt, axel foley dream new irish management team……
Joel Schmidt ??? Eh hello ?? POM should have been man of the match. Murray was his slow self. Average at best. As for Best. Very average. Kidney for the bin. Bring it on.
Murray average at best? I have no idea what match you were watching so. He was doing a fantastic job marshalling the troops and protecting Jackson. That went out the window after he came off.
Why all the red thumbs. All I said was Murray was average and Peter O’Mahoney should have been man of the match. Best was anonamous and Kidney needs to go. ????
Because red thumbs are just a way of people showing they disagree with you.
Most people, myself included, thought Murray had an excellent game!
Clueless darach. Murray was outstanding.
O’Mahoney a 6 ?? Holy jaysus what were you watching. Mc Fadden gave a real ballsy abrasive display. Well done to Paddy Jackson for showing great maturity and getting it done. Finally for the Great One quite simply the greatest sportsman ever to wear a green jersey no matter what the code. The likes of Roy Keane isn’t fit to clean his boots. They’ll be talking about Brian O Driscoll in a hundred years time.
Declan Kidney 0 . . . never seen an obvious Man of the Match taken off with 20 minutes to go, with the match still to be definitely won
Hard on Murray and McFadden!!
Both had excellent games.
O’ Mahoney also deserved a higher score!
Good game from the Irish, some limitations exposed but we knew that before today.
A convincing win in Italy and we can turn what has been an underwhelming campaign into something a little more positive! We have given fringe players game-time and many have responded!
Should leave the squad stronger looking towards the summer….
Surely a typo, Peter O’Mahony 16… Also BOD full marks. Truly heroic and inspirational .
sickening result.france didnt deserve d draw
Yes they did if we couldn’t even get one point in the second
A wee bit early after the game for doing player ratings, at least watch it again without the emotion.
POM was awesome. How many turn overs? but I think we were a wee bit lucky. How many kickable pens did the French miss?
Three, and PJ missed two long rangers
Kidney made changes for the sake of it at the usual time
France were there for the taking if we showed as much composure as we showed bravery.Draw that feels like a loss , it was a penalty to Ireland at the end when the French prop ensured that Earls couldn’t compete with Picamoles for the touch down.
Cant get over decision to replace Murrey after only 60 mins. Completely controlled French backs with his super box kicks all through first and second half Limiting the French to kick all the time. What we’re the management team looking at out there??? Thanks for some great memories deccie but you need to go now along with the rest of that blinkered management team…
i dont recall a good box kick from Murray in the second half but he was playing well. Problem was we were camped out in the French half for the third quarter but could not deliver the killer blow. I think DK may have brought on Reddan to try to create something different and prevent what eventually happened.
Im not a Conor Murrary fan infact I’m one of his biggest distracters but in all honesty he was a mile the best player on the pitch today, I have no idea why anyone would take him off the field today.
Others who played well today
McFadden, ryan, healy, O’Brien Mahoney, Jackson and heaslip stood up to be counted.
The one man who still amazes me is Brian o Driscoll an inspiration and the measure of the best of everything that is Irish
Seriously Chris, why do you hate every player associated with Munster? and you are always harping on about how biased other people can be .. try support the players that represent your country at least
Geariod I said nothing bad about any munster player yesterday. Infact the opposite if anything.
I said Murrary was MOM and the ryan and mahoney were two of the better players so why the anti munster abuse for the above comment
I really think a 6 for Mike Ross is way too kind. He was getting screwed in the scrum all day and didn’t offer anything else around the park!!
A good performance by Ireland, or at least a better performance. We have been unbelievably unlucky in this six nations with injuries. Even in this game to lose our centres at the same time is unheard of. I’ll give Kidney the benefit of the doubt, we didn’t score in the second half and he needed to change things. Ireland definitely in transition…keep the faith.
Another missed opportunity against the weakest team in the RBS . Played well for 60 and the last bit we let France in. Not a good Day
Two players chasing the ball may engage ” shoulder to shoulder” Law 26. It was not foul play.
Yeah engage shoulder to shoulder but did he not raise his elbow?IMO he did watch it again
You have no idea what your doing Sean.
mcfadden definitely deserved more than 6!
I give them a schoolboy’s rate. They should have done better. France were poor
keep the Leinster Munster rubbish out of it lads please
POM 6 but Ryan and McCarthy 8???? What didn’t POM do? He was immense! One of top performers and Murray should be 9!
Peter O’Mahony will have to retire in four years, his too small for the way he plays!
small?
Wha??
Well, with all these big ratings, how come we didn’t win this one? Tiredness and a still shallow squad perhaps. Don’t really think Mike Ross deserved a minus 6 either..
1. Because our squad lacks the depth of the French one. Look at the subs they were able to introduce.
2. They persisted with Michalak at 10.
In how many matches have you see Ireland make a bright start and end up in last-ditch defense mode due to attritional injuries?
All games this season except Murrayfield.
Extinguished career?
Driscoll can’t retire from the Ireland team while is still contracted to play for Leinster, them is the rules according to Shane Horgan Re. theR.T.E. rugby expert.
Average score well over 5 would indicate we won well. You are being generous, individual performance is not as important as being able to play as a team.
Random thoughts. If the team rated so highly, only four of the starting team rated below 7 and the largest group rating 8 how come we didn’t win the game? What rating would the captain get for his role as captain. And a rating for Kidney? Not sure what a pass rating is but I’m guessing Kidney’s performance this season doesn’t make it. But with O’Shea unlikely to give up his life and career in London for the Irish job it’s impossible to short list any obvious candidate for the job that would meet with general approval. Surprise player of the day? Jackson, he has a future.
Why a surprise?
He’s been playing supremely well for Ulster and also had a great game in green against the scots (goal kicking aside)…
Not quite sure what your definition of great is but in my humble opinion his performance on his debut was not great.
I can accept the no penalty decision but didn’t the French defender carry the ball over? I always thought that was a 5 metre scrum?
He took possession of the ball when it had already passed the line = 22 drop out
As one of his biggest detractors I have to say Heaslip was so much improved yesterday, he was committed, vocal and obviously the try helped. :-)
POM a 6? He engineered 3 turn overs against the much vaunted French back row. An 8 for me. Murray showed what Munster fans have seen for a while. Top class performance. Makes his substitution all the more head scratching. 9.
Well done Jackson and Marshall. Looked like old hands. Looking forward to seeing the other Marshall called up and getting a run with these 2.
On a side note, thoughts with and hope Reddan heals quickly.
Your getting closer to marking out of ten but not quite there yet
Watched the game tonight, Donnacha Ryan, O’Mahony and Murray were great yesterday. And what’s with that 2nd anthem, is there any other country in the world that has 2 anthems?