Ireland
can take some comfort from this "plucky defeat",
but hopefully not enough to keep O'Stunted in his job after the
Six Nations.
After being ripped apart in the
first half Ireland fought back in the second as the French team
relaxed and Lievremont started to change out his side early, knowing
the game was in the bag. The Irish front five performed well, particularly
with the introduction of Best and Mick O'Driscoll and a bizarre
penalty try and Wallace barging over gave Ireland a brief glimmer
of hope. In the end, however, it was too little to late.
Heaslip, Jackman and Kearney all
performed reasonably well and certainly were not Ireland's worst
performers. Their ability to slot into the team, and indeed Trimble's
performance in centre, makes one wonder why O'Stunted hasn't given
more fringe players meaningful game time over the last three years.
However the omission of Tommy Bowe was brought into stark focus
in the first half as Ireland's acute lack of real pace was cruelly
exposed by Clerc and Heymans. Surely now Bowe should be selected
for the Scottish game in place of Murphy, or even Dempsey. What
price that Kearney is dropped and the lumbering Horgan is re-instated.
This selection will tell us if O'Stunted wants to develop Ireland
or not.
On the Ulster boys, Trimble was the stand out player of the first
half and he frequently worried the French midfield. Unfortunately
he covered so much ground in defence that he fell off the pace
in the second half, but he will be able to pace his game better
with more experience at this level. Rory came on and had a near
perfect performance, replacing the plucky but absolutely knackered
Jackman, and Rory should be starting against Scotland with Jackman
coming on with twenty to go.
With nothing meaningful to play with for the rest of the Six
Nations Ireland must look to develop the team and Bowe, Boss,
Cullen, Best, Sexton, Keogh and Fitzgerald should all be given
runs over the next few games. Unfortunately, however, O'Stunted
will concentrate on self preservation rather than team development.
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Divorce and Despair!
The
FRU can exclusively reveal a rather strange and
unforeseen side effect of the demise of the UR Message board,
namely that UR has been named as ''co -respondent'' in
a number of recently filed divorce petitions!!
A spokesman for UR's legal advisors, Messers ''Sue, Grabbitt
& Runne'', highlighted that a consistent theme in all
the petitions was that spouses felt they could ''put up''
with their husbands as long as the miscreants were secreted in
a room ''wittering away ' on the message board. However,
since the demise of the UR message board, many women claim ''it's
all become too much for them to bear'' and they are blaming
UR for their plight. Specifically they claim, they have had to
withstand unrelenting diatribes about ''the rush defence'',
''Cornerflag'' and ''the smugness'' of some
members of a rugby supporters web site. One particular damsel
who appeared to be at the end of her tether - a Mrs Grimm-Park
- claimed that her husband can be heard repeating the same refrain
all day ''I wouldn't please the So and So's at UAFC to post
on their Message board. again !''
Two other petitions,from a Mrs Ball and a Mrs Van Heslink, were
largely incomprehensible and contained allegations that were so
bizarre that they couldn't be taken seriously!
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Did You Know?
David Duckham, the great Coventry, England and British Lions wing, who made his international debut against Ireland in 1969, must rate as one of the most under-used players in English history. Statistics show that in his 36 caps for England he received an average of fewer than three passes a game. It is testament to his skills that he managed to pick up 10 tries.
From THE TRIVIA LOVERS'
GUIDE TO RUGBY
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Rugby on TV
Friday
15th February
17:10 Sharks v Western Force Super 14 Sky Sports Xtra (17:00-19:00)
19:10 Llanelli v Glasgow Magners League BBC2 Wales (19:00-21:00)
BBC Interactive (19:00-21:00
19:30 Edinburgh v Munster Magners League Setanta Sports 2 (19:20-21:30)
19:30 Ulster v Dragons Magners League Setanta Ireland (19:30-21:45)
19:30 Montpellier v Biarritz Top 14 British Eurosport 2 (19:15-21:15)
Saturday 16th February
06:35 Blues v Chiefs Super 14 Sky Sports 2 (06:30-08:30)
08:30 Waratahs v Hurricanes Super 14 Sky Sports 2 (08:30-11:00)
14:15 Bath v Wasps Guinness Premiership Sky Sports 2 (14:15-17:00)
Sky Sports HD2 (14:15-17:00)
17:05 Cheetahs v Lions Super 14 Sky Sports 2 (17:00-19:00)
17:30 Ospreys v Connacht Magners League Setanta Sports 1 (17:25-19:30)
S4C (17:10-19:20)
19:30 Leinster v Cardiff Magners League Setanta Sports 2 (19:00-21:30)
S4C (19:20-21:30)
Sunday 17th February
13:00 London Irish v Leicester Guinness Premiership Sky Sports 1
(13:00-15:30)
Friday 22nd February
16:00 Cheetahs v Western Force Super 14 Sky Sports Xtra (16:00-18:00)
18:05 Bulls v Crusaders Super 14 Sky Sports Xtra (18:00-20:00)
19:10 Wales v Italy U20 International BBC2 Wales (19:00-21:00) BBC
Interactive (19:00-21:00)
19:30 TBC Top 14 British Eurosport 2 (19:15-21:15)
Saturday 23rd February
06:35 Chiefs v Waratahs Super 14 Sky Sports Xtra (06:30-08:30)
08:40 Brumbies v Highlanders Super 14 Sky Sports Xtra (08:30-10:30)
15:00 Wales v Italy Six Nations BBC1 (14:50-16:50) BBC Interactive
(14:50-16:50) BBC HD (15:00-17:10) S4C
17:00 Ireland v Scotland Six Nations BBC1 (16:50-19:00) BBC Interactive
(16:50-19:00)
20:00 France v England Six Nations BBC1 (19:50-22:00) BBC Interactive
(19:50-22:00)