We were Beaten by France - So What!

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Leper

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The French were much better than us. They defended nearly everything we threw at them including Peter -take-a-tumble-O’Mahony. They attacked with flair exploiting everything that could be exploited. Both teams exhibited good plays and it was generally a good game.

Some of our sports journalists haven’t copped on that sport is sport and you win and lose some. That’ll always be the case. Nice to see our three veterans being especially presented to the crowd just before the game.

If I have a gripe it’s our 16th man, the ‘freebie’ crowd who hardly managed a decent shout of support after they had tucked into their free nosh and “freer” pints. Pity they wouldn’t leave their tickets for good rugby supporters. I hope they smother in their labelled woolen blankets (probably supplied free too).

And while I’m on a roll, our out-half didn’t deserve all the criticism sent in his direction. He’s human and we all make mistakes. He learned more in that game than in all his previous international games and he knows that.

Well Done France.
 
I agree completely Leper. That French team will beat us four games out of five. We missed Lowe and Hansen on the wings and we missed Ringrose in defence, particularly his ability to keep the defensive structure in place, but even with a full strength team I don't think we'd have had an answer for their power and their defensive structure. It was obvious after 15 minutes that they were going to beat us.
From being a supporter of Crowley starting at 10 I now think that Prendergast was the right choice. He's defensively weak but his kicking and passing game are better than Crowley's, though Crowley is better attacking with ball in hand.

The next question is will a resurgent England give Wales a sufficiently heavy beating to stay ahead of us in the table. I suspect that they will and we'll finish in third place.
 
Better team won, no arguement with that. Interesting in the IT today how Eoin Doyle ripped the ref as bad on both sides. I'd agree with his view that POM should have got at least one card for a non arms tackle for example but that infamous French try also should never have been allowed.

There is an element of maybe not an end of an era here but certainly heading in that direction. Aside from the 3 who retired, almost half of the squad are well into their 30s now and even if some of them survive to the next World Cup, there is a cliff edge of retirements coming in the next 3 to 4 years or so and very few youngsters have really put their hands up, especially in the back line.

It will also be interesting to see if Crowley gets a central contract given Leicester are supposed to have offered him €700k a year.
 
Purple said:
We missed Lowe and Hansen on the wings and we missed Ringrose in defence, particularly his ability to keep the defensive structure in place
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I can't argue with that, but Big Joe needs a good talking to. Pull and drag at the opposition, test the quality of their attire by all means, but not in front of the ref, FCOL Joe, it's not like you can slip under anyone's radar. That and the other yellow card allowed the French to run riot although the 2nd was down to dangerous carelessness rather than stupidity. Massive disappointment though.
 
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