The Irish team and managment are at Carton House to review the Scotland match and try to sort out the penalty crisis. They are also going to talk to the IRB about some of the decisions that referee Nigel Owens made during the match.
It's about time that this sit down happened, but there are 2 problems with it:
1. Only the starting 15 are at Carton House.
The problem with this is that it doesn't look good for the other lads to get a start for the Wales game. They could easily get it into their heads that no matter how they do for their province during the weekend, the starting 15 has already been picked. That is an absolute confidence sapper and bad for the provinces. Why should these guys give it their all at the weekend if they think there's no competition for places?
Also, there's more than the 15 giving away penalties (anyone remember Denis Leamy before the Scottish drop goal?).
2. Bothering to talk to the IRB about some of the decisions.
The Irish players are professionals and before and after every game you hear them talk about "you have to play the ref". These guys watch videos of the refs before games to see what gets him blowing the whistle. During the game you figure this out too. Even at my level of rugby (J4) we figure out what the ref blows for, and we don't get the benefit of hours of expert video analysis! They shouldn't bother going to the IRB for clarification, they shouldn't be trying to point the finger and move the blame away from themselves. They need to take responsibility and sort it out between themselves as a team.