Ireland never looked out of control in Dublin as they beat defending Six Nations champions Wales 26-3. Johnny Sexton was on fine form, kicking two early penalties and converting Chris Henry's try, before Paddy Jackson came on and rubbed salt in the wound with a converted try of his own.
*Updated: Official extended highlights now updated above
dude... are you Welsh?
*Understanding internet sarcasm...
Internet sarcasm or tongue in cheek comments are not your strong point are they...
anyone know where to find the full version of the match? i'm in south america. thanks.
I'd agree, if his hand went up closed fist but it didn't. I dont think he is even stupid enough to risk breaking a thumb for a cheap shot. It was just an accident for me.
He got suspended once for stamping so now everything he does on a rugby pitch he does out of thuggery. Doesn't that make sense to you?
Sexton if you could've kicked like that last year Ireland could've achieved historic victory against the ABs
Glad to see the maul back in action, just shows how potent it can be to attack...
This is a bit hypocritical, as I pity these "anyone-but-England" celts, but I must admit I really enjoy watching Wales lose at rugby...
Much as I love a free-flowing spectacle of running rugby, I'm not sure you can describe the Irish forward-dominated style of play as boring. It's just smart rugby. They still fling the ball about when the chance, but they're doing so at the right time and in the right parts of the pitch. Schmidt's influence in all of this, as well as the sensible tactical kicking game, is no coincidence and he deserves a lot of credit.
Just to add, it used to be more common with the 'crouch, touch, engage' calls...
I've been caught on the 'engage' where the prop swings...
Whacking the flanker is a common tactic used. When playing on the flank I've been caught upside the head a few times.. One of those tactics that's probably used to make the flanker go spare and give away a penalty. Not sure about it's use on Warburton who seems to be someone who stays out of trouble a lot...
Ireland had a good game plan which allowed them to dominate the game, unfortunately it was fairly negative, just using set piece dominance to crush Wales. The tactics were spot on though, I took a lot of bravery from Schmit to see the Welsh pack couldn't handle the heat.
Barnes was crap for both teams. Barnes allowed both teams to get away with dirty play on the floor (lenient towards the Welsh). It was shit reffing to let Halfpenny get away with knocking it into touch, but equally, Sexton got away with a kick that went out straight on the full. I thought William's tackle on BOD was legal in the end; BOD went over so easily, it would have been impossible to get arms around him before he hit the floor.
CIAN HEALY NEW EXACTLY WHAT HE WAS DOING. HE'S A GOOD PLAYER, BUT A COMPLETE THUG.
Yeah but crap quality
Good game by Ireland. A bit light on backline moves for my liking but the team as a whole functioned really well. Everybody looked very comfortable in what they did and the individual and collective strengths were exploited to their fullest. I haven't seen Ireland dominate a team like that in every single way since...the reverse fixture last year.
Wayne Barnes though needs to hang his head in shame. I was watching the match with Italian commentary and they were absolutely laying into him for the whole match because of his ridiculous performance. By the end they were actually just laughing and saying, "The referee's decision is final" because they couldn't explain his ridiculous decision-making. Aside from the fact that the Welsh players were lying all over the ball in the first 20 minutes with impunity and that Barnes kept penalising Irish players for legitimate turnovers, his inability to spot the shoulder-charge on O'Driscoll is quite damning and when he gave Wales a lineout after Halfpenney had clearly knocked it into touch was just beyond ridiculous. Then there was a knock-on that he missed and at least one forward pass. Also, was he afraid of Phillips, because any other referee would have given him a stern warning about being a gobshite and penalised him but Barnes just let it slide. And then that Liam Williams shoulder to the face at the end should have been penalised as well because it was just so blatant. I like the fact that he can make big calls when he needs to (Hartley red card) but he's quite lacking in all other aspects of being a referee.
All I can say is that I'm glad his poor performance didn't cost Ireland the game like it did two years ago. Please IRB, start investing more in developing good referees.
Not to me. Simply accident I think.
I'm not particularly interested in seeing the rise of tactical brawls in the game of rugby.
O'Driscoll should get a round of applause by all the players from each team at the end of the 6 nations
BBC moved their satelite and we can't get it in France anymore (bbc way better than french tv for rugby) .... Gutted...
What about the punch from Healy to Warbuton while binding in the scrum ? Was funny but looked like it was on purpose !
What about the cheap shot on Jackson after he scored his try?? That is the most cowardly thing you can do on a rugby pitch, hope williams is cited and receives a lengthy ban.
Its an interesting idea DrG, I think it would probably have the desired effect as players would be rewarded in the long term by club/sponsors. But it's probably more the games stance on allowing fights, might put parents off allowing kids to start the game. Or thats the way the RFU may see it..
I just had a thought right, I know the MP seemed to start all these little shoving matches after the whistle etc so it's not necessarily applicable...butttt....
...One thing that could somewhat eradicate 'fighting' in rugby DURING the game, would be for referee's to let play continue... I mean imagine these massive French brawls that we saw a while ago where you have near 15v15 where the ball pops out and one guy decides if he picks the ball up he can make it to the try line whilst the others sort each other out... I reckon most would stop scrapping or not get involved very quickly... especially if the game is on the line.. just a thought..
I don't see a problem necessarily with a scrum half having a dig as often as he can; the scrum halves of old were perfectionists at being little shits!, the problem I have with Mike Phillips is this tough man thing where he has to be the 'enforcer'.
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm no chicken, but I'm sure MP is probably quite 'hard', so I'm not saying he can't handle himself, but at the end of the day he appears to impose himself on others through his height and size, and it NEVER amounts to anything...
As we had a short while ago, comments about what referee's have said to each of us, the one which had me laughing and that I think fits very well here, is the comment about a referee saying 'either punch each other already or get on with the game.' Now for all MP's in your face, getting involved in everything, crap, he never appears to do anything, other than cuddle or shove... which is a bit tiring to watch, at least if he threw a sneaky dig and set the whole thing off with punches everywhere we could all sit back and watch with amusement, but it's the kind of cute shit that you sit back and think, don't kid yourself Mike, the likes of Martin Johnson, Bakkies Botha, Grewcock, Buck Shelton, etc, would fooking eat you alive, it just so happens that the levels of punishment now are not worth the risk of giving MP a quick clock on the conk!
Somebody needs to punch Mike Phillips in the face. He's such a moron.
Glad to see the couple of cheap shots shown in the clip ended in a Welsh players going off. The shoulder charge on Drico had cracked ribs written all over it but hey it's indestructo Drico and yer man goes off with a shoulder injury. Wales have some very social players but they were tactically nobbled today. You can bet England will target to set piece and 9 and 10 channel so Gatland will a plan B which he clearly lacked against his old employer.