Three Words

Powering in Green

Ireland 20 - 20 Australia

Ireland snatched a draw from the jaws of defeat at Croke Park today and although they didn't win the game they can certainly take away a lot of positives away from their performance. 

BBC commentator Eddie Butler perfectly summed up Ireland's approach in three words: 
"Energised and confident."

Ireland fielded a strong side against the rampaging Wallabies, and after looking dead and buried, a last minute try from BOD himself (who else?) allowed O'Gara to bag two more points and seal a hard fought draw.  (Seriously, who writes O'Driscoll's scripts?  In his 100th test match appearance he scores the decisive try to help level the score.  Praise be to BOD).

Australia should have won this game, but sadly for them they just couldn't manage it.  Hurray!  At least the smug Wallabies won't go home clutching an autumn international home nations whitewash to their puffed up green and gold chests.

The personification of the Irish performance today?

Cian Healy.

Strong running in the loose, confidence in his own abilities on his international debut and an all round gutsy performance from the Leinster prop.  Cian's got work to do to get his scrummaging up to scratch, but other than that it was an excellent first cap performance.


Maurauded in Maroon

England 16 - 9 Argentina

England on the other hand might have beaten Argentina yesterday in their new purple change strip, but after a dismal performance they were quite rightly booed off the pitch at half time.  The Argentina side contained four, yes four amateur players but despite this a dull and uninspiring England could only limp to a 16 - 9 win.

Jeremy Guscott's three word conclusion of England's performance?

"Slow and sloppy."

The personification of this?

Ugo Monye.

Flaky at fullback, shocking under the high ball and slow to allay the fears of the disgruntled Twickenham crowd.


I feel like a broken record. 

Martin Johnson:  PLEASE bring Ben Foden in to play at full back next week as I think we can safely say that the Monye experiment has been deemed a failure. 

If an idiot is defined as someone who repeats their actions yet expects to get a different result, then surely the time has come to show the world that you're not ready to take up residence in a remote village whilst wearing a dunce's hat. 

Then again, I think it will take nothing short of a minor miracle to resurrect England's hopes of beating the All Blacks next Saturday.  What is the game plan?  Do the players know it?  Does anyone care?

Still, even if the game's rubbish I can distract myself by looking at Dan Carter's biceps.  Happy days.

"Power Green" vs Green and Gold

A couple of score lines from yesterday, Friday 13th November:

France 20 - 13 South Africa

Wales 17 - 13 Samoa

So the World Champions were taken down in the south of France.  Their score on Freaky Friday 13th?  13.
Wales scraped past Samoa at the Millennium Stadium and put the ghosts of Samoa's famous wins in Cardiff in the World Cups of 1991 and 1999 to rest.  Samoa's score?  13.

Two excellent results for the northern hemisphere teams against their southern hemisphere counterparts, who both only amassed an unlucky thirteen points each.    Maybe Wales's new change strip of cack-yellow is lucky for them?

Not so mellow

Of course I'll be watching England take on Argentina this weekend, but the game I really want to watch is Ireland vs Australia at Croke Park on Sunday.  England will be proudly wearing their new purple strip whilst the Irish boys are debuting their new strip which is apparently in "Power Green" (don't you just love all the marketing bunf).  Check out the promotional shot from last month:

Dear oh dear oh dear

Anyway, beyond the boy-band style jumping in the air and the naff marketing spiel, the real question is whether Ireland will be able to "power" past the Wallabies this Sunday.  (Sorry).

I really think they can.

Last week England's centres didn't put much pressure on the debut centre pairing of Quade Cooper and Digby Ioane, and this pair of Wallabies looked as if they'd been playing at test level together for years.  This weekend I envisage that O'Driscoll (who is winning his 100th test cap when he trots out against Australia) and Paddy Wallace will cause the youthful Wallabies a world of problems in comparison, especially when the likes of Rob Kearney will be rock solid and making strong angled runs from full back and the pace of Tommy Bowe and speed and sidestep of Luke Fitzgerald are out on the wings. 

Facing up against the Wallabies forwards is an impressive Ireland pack which is rammed full of world class front men:  Flannery (Munster), Hayes (Munster); O'Callaghan (Munster), O'Connell (Munster); Ferris (Ulster), David Wallace (Munster), Heaslip (Leinster), along with debutant Cian Healy (Leinster).  I think they will put much more pressure on the Wallabies at scrum time, and in the loose will be much more rapid at providing quick ball to their scrum-half (Tomas O'Leary) than the England forwards managed to provide Danny Care with last weekend.

Oh, and don't forget Ronan O'Gara: Ireland's top points scorer of all time.

Of course, the war of words to big up the opposition has been in full flow this week, with each team playing homage to the other.  Everyone has to appear to be modest now, don't they?

"It's going to be a litmus test for us," insisted Australia coach Robbie Deans.


"They're the grand slam Six Nations champions, European Cup champions two years in 08 and 09 (Munster and Leinster), so there's an awful lot of experience and belief in the group we're playing at Croke Park."

Yep.

O'Driscoll was quick to return the compliment:

"Australia are a very smart team, the smartest in world rugby...  They think about how to break down defences and have the personnel to do that."

So who is going to win?  As a team Ireland are formidable opponents and much more of the finished and polished package than the England team that were outwitted by the streetwise Wallabies last weekend.

It's tough to call but I think with the partisan crowd of a packed Croker behind them, the "Power Green" clad Irishmen will do it.  It won't be Friday the thirteenth when these two teams meet but I still think it might be an unlucky day for the Green and Golds.