Same every championship, 1 big performance scrape through the rest, if not lose. We are serious contenders for the wooden spoon now. Unfortunately I expect our wait for victory over our nemesis France will continue for yet another year. It’s disappointing we only have 1 trophy worth talking about to show for the last 13 years, and to lose to Scotland… Kidney sadly will have to stand down after this 6nations.

Irish fans are so fickle, writing off an out half that was thrown in at the deep end, sayin 2 of the best sportsmen we ever produced are gone and nothing left to offer is ridiculous, get a grip people, weve had 2 bad games and a bad autum series, these are the same people that were saying we were goning to win the grand slam! Get a grip!! One minute were world beaters next were not…

I think some of the young lads are showing promise of a good Irish team to come, just wish Kidney had out them out there during the test matches before xmas to get them forming as a team. I think some fans are giving Jackson a seriously hard time as well, he is only new to this and he kicked well in terms of putting the ball into touch, think he just got nervous.

Mate, it’s the attitude like that that makes us losers. It is not acceptable to lose games like that with such a talented side. Unfortunately this is an attitude that percolates down through Irish society and is the biggest stumbling block to our success

Rob Cunningham we cannot win the wooden spoon as we’ve beaten Wales. The wooden spoon is only given if you lose all 5 matches. 1 win/draw and 4 losses only means last place.

Makes me laugh Tom. Are these tweeters experts of the game?? Ye’d swear they were.

I hear you Les!

Good stuff tom , rog should have started , Ireland would have been out of sight by 50 min ,best should be captain ,and Ryan is animal

Are you an expert Les?

At least he’s not pretending to be, not being touted as one either, imo he is making more sense than what ‘Twitter’ are saying whoever those people were

Those people are supporters of the game. We all entitled to our opinions and twitter is a great tool too share your thoughts on any matter.

Hey there Les Rock… here at HarpinOnRugby we’re always looking for expert opinion if you’d like to share yours feel free to drop me a line and we’d be happy to publish on the site

Big time.

Considering Wales let us have free reign in the first half I would say it was a fluke.

It’s not that they were flucky against Wales, it’s that it took so much out of our ageing stars and really opens our eyes to the fact we have a group of younger players coming through who haven’t yet got the passion or desire that needs to be shown when wearing the Irish jersey and also the management have completely let down themselves and the country with the choices they made prior to the game.

It was not a poor Scotland team. The were able to steal ball at the line out and were impressive in the scrum.

The defensive work rate of Scotland was outstanding too. They were lucky with Paddy Jackson missing kicks, but they deserved that win. They fought hard for it

No. Ireland were better than this. They are not any more.

At last, a voice of reason

I have to disagree. He should finish out his contract, there is no point in putting in an interim coach for the last two games. Besides, who would you get for the job.

Most of them probably were soccer fans until Ireland won the GS :-(

where exactly are we as a rugby nation Willy. We play the same teams year in year out but have only one grand slam to show for in what one would describe as a golden generation. We have yet to win a knock out game in World Cups.

The players are the darlings of the media and it is definitely affecting them. They’re believing the hype. Check out how easy the papers will go on them in the morning specifically the Independent which gave our captain 6/10 after the English game.

think your right time to get the young lads out and ready for the WC

The kick was something you’d expect from a 12 year old.
His biggest error was the very last pass of the game, a simple 10 12 pass thrown yards infront of Marshall

To say bod is finished just goes to show how much some off these people know. His pass for zebos try is clear indication off the genius this guy possesses . Granted he is commin to the end but still has a lot to offer. Sadly the great Rog is at the end but it must be remembered what he gave to irish rugby.short memories nd all that. Dec kidney I feel has takin this team as far as he can. Also must be remembered the list off top class players injured yet kidney , weather he wanted to r not has brought through some good young players. Finally madigan isn’t goin to walk in and solve r problems but would have him on bench behind Jackson v France if sexton isn’t fit

Could you use actual words please?

But How much of that grand slams ground work ad been laid by EOS?

World cup France !!!

The same EOS who was hounded out of the job by the same kind of fickle ‘fans’ tweeting above?

mattoid – youve bought rose tinted glasses then. Comical O’Sullivan and Keith Wood hounded Gatland out of a job in the first place. You live by the sword you’ll damn well die by it. O’Sullivan inherited the Gatland team and got all the plaudits. Now look where we are. Galtland recognised all over the Rugby World as a serious coach, we bin him and he takes Wales to Grand Slams etc. Boy do your moans about fickle lose water quickly. And as for ROG, while he has brilliant times he has had the opposite too. It isnt too many years ago we all laughed AT him as he started to cry about not being able to play with a ball in Italy, not once either mind you. Bernard LePorte, when interviewed by RTE, openly stated back to back years that their game plan was to attack the 10 channel and remove any threat from O’Gara. The first year, if you recall, there was a brilliant photo in the world press of Betson holding O’Gara horizontal and grinning “Job Done”. Lets start looking forward rather than the old school boy club selection style that has kept us handcuffed for far to long. WE have decent talent in ALL FOUR PROVINCES. The green jersey is no longer the domain of one or two Provinces.

Well Paul that was a nice rant! For the record, I also think that getting rid of Gatland was one of the worst decisions the IRFU ever made, and I also agree that trial by media is not the way for any sporting organisation to do business – the media (including the RTE pundits, with the possible exception of Brent Pope) can be every bit as fickle as the tweeters I was referring to.
I’m not sure where you’re coming from with your reference to two provinces, given yesterday’s team sheet?

As I said mattoid, we have now some excellent talent in all 4 Provinces and we should be selecting from that pool of players. For too long, up until very recently, we have stayed with tried (although Im not sure always about trusted) arrangements. BOD & D’Arcy being one example. I think that we need to move away from that especially as, IMHO, D’Arcy has failed to deliver for quite a while. Look, for example, at the 2nd row. We have a book full of very useful players who can fit in there very easily and even some of them who can move into the back row without any problem but for a long time we relied on our old, and of course, previously excellent, work horses like POC and O’Callaghan. Sadly, I cant get RTE as I live in France so its usually from the Irish Times, Indo and here that I get my proper Irish coverage other than that its listening to Moore & Butler – God help me. I believe that with an outsider, not O’Shea, who wont be influenced by the old school we can take the excelent pool of talent in Ireland and make a serious contender, year after year for the Slam and top 4 finishes in the RWC. I believe that.