I'm starting to get sick of looking at the Ireland team sheet. Kidney & co. have been in charge of this team for some time now, but it is essentially the same as when O'Sullivan was around. I know they say a good team doesn't become a bad one over night, but this team has been around for a very long time, with very little change to it. The only changes that have happened are through injury and retirement.
Ireland are going to go to this world cup with the same team that capitulated in France 4 years ago. Every other team in world rugby has blooded new players and experimented with the way they play and the vast majority of them have progressed. Ireland experimented a little with playing Jonny Sexton for a more expansive game, but used a slow, defensive scrum half inside of him for most of that. So for the most part, it seemed that the experiment failed. It only failed because of the poor personnel choice for the game plan to work. For a game like that to work you need a quick scrum half (Peter Stringer/Eoin Reddan), an openside flanker to link play (Shane Jennings) and a general mindset in the whole squad that this is the way forward. When you have that mindset it encourages players to off load and run angles off the ball carrier. The only players running angles are Sean O'Brien and Sean Cronin. And very few players are even looking for off loads let alone executing them.
On another subject, if the penalty issue is still ongoing after this match a radical change is needed in the playing personnel! It probably should have been done already, but if it continues for a fourth game in a row it has to be a case of desperate times, call for desperate measures.
No comments:
Post a Comment