After a disasterous visit to Paris and a very disappointing performance against the French, Ireland have got their 2010 Six Nations campaign back on track with a hard-fought victory in Twickenham.

It was by no means a classic performance, made more of grit and determination rather than a champagne performance. A huge amount of tackles put in by the Irish line, with the vast majority of possession to England.

A Win Is A Win

My post-match reaction was huge disappointment – we won, but just. The performance wasn’t what I hoped for: we didn’t see the back-lash against England after our Paris trip. But in hindsight, there is truth in the old sports clique – a win is a win. I went to so many 5 Nations games in Lansdowne Road with poor performances AND poor results so I have to be happy with the gritty victories.

There were some good performances across the board but for me the MOTM was Tommy Bowe who had a wonderful couple of tries.

I didn’t really have an opinion either way about Martin Johnson before this game – he’s a tough character but you have to have some respect for someone with his background in the game. However, I lost most of that respect after watching his post-match interview. You can take a look for yourself. Defeats are unpleasant for any manager, but a little graciousness wouldn’t go awry.

A shock and total surprise. Sad news for Ulster and Irish rugby, Matt is a gentleman and a superb coach and will be greatly missed.

Sources: last few minutes of the Ruggamatrix podcast, transcribed by mikerob over on the UAFC board:

LK: “the other news this way.. who is catching a flight home.. is Matt Williams… is finished up at Ulster… they’ve moved that on as well… they are looking for a new coach… which is a bit of a surprise actually.. anyway”
Presenter: “He’s done quite a good job up there Les hasn’t he? .. brought that team together in the end”
LK: “Yeah.. got a lot of young kids coming through”
Presenter: “What happened?”
LK: “… I think he had another year but… I don’t know the true details… but I know that decision was made.. I just found out an hour or two ago myself … no one was expecting anyway..”

More news as we get it.

Leinster beat Munster 25-6 in the 2009 Heineken Cup Semi Final, a reversal of the 2006 result

What a win! What a glorious, glorious win! Here’s some pictures from the wonderful occasion, and it certainly was a massive win for rugby and Ireland, as well as Leinster. After my previous post being a humorous response to the drubbing Munster gave Leinster, it’s a massive turn around.

Fantastic performance all around from Leinster. 1-15 were immense. Actually, given the growing injury list, the squad, 1-25 were immense. Leo, Mal, Cian, BOD (BOD, BOD!), Rocky, Stan, Luke, Felipe…. poor Felipe: I genuinely shed a tear when I saw his face when he had to limp off. A massive player for Leinster, he deserves the biggest accolades we can give him. A real pity to lose him (though a bigger picture positive for Irish rugby to allow us develop an indigenous outhalf).

All of them were immense. Isa did incredibly well at fullback, we were seriously worried about that selection – but with Super Rob sick, and Legend Girvan injured, we had no choice. Isa, you did yourself proud.

Brian O’Driscoll summed it up perfectly:

We had lost twice to Munster this season and we really felt we owed them one.

People had questioned our pride and passion, but I think we answered our critics. Munster are a team that pride themselves on their physicality and we had to work hard to match them. They are a great team and have been the standard bearers for such a long time.

I don’t think anyone doubts Leinster’s passion after this win.

I think some elements of the Munster-Leinster rivalry is getting out of hand. I don’t know if that’s because of the new fans being attracted to the game, if it’s because Munster have had such success recently, or what it is. I’ve caught myself thinking some thoughts I’m not very proud of a couple of times after meeting some fans who brought certain views to the table.

As far as I know, and please correct me in the comments (linking a source) if I’m wrong, of their last 10 meetings, honours are shared 5 each. In fact, of all matches historically to date (May 6th 2009) I believe that it’s exactly evens. Fans of both teams, and all Irish rugby fans, need to be aware that success can be fleeting. We need to all avoid being bad winners.

I’ll leave the last word on this to a Limerick man. From the Irish Independent Myopic Munster fans a blight on old rivalry:

By Billy Keane
This Leinster-Munster rivalry is beginning to annoy me. It has gone too far and has Tom Tommed off in the wrong direction.

I can’t handle the crowing after beating Leinster. If you want to motivate the opposition, there’s no better way than by poking fun at them, or by belittling their efforts.

We are all mixed up in the melting saucepan that is this little country. For me it has never been a question of being against Leinster — I’m just for Munster.

Those of us who cheered on our Grand Slam heroes in Cardiff didn’t care what province the winners came from; indeed, there was a spontaneous singing tribute in Thomond last Sunday when the Munster fans reprised Tommy Bowe’s greatest hit — ‘The Black Velvet Band’.

And that brings us to the last reason for being nice to Leinster — the bookies have it completely wrong and Leinster do have a chance. The All-Ireland semi-final will be some battle.

So, let’s go easy on Leinster just in case they flay us with our own words.

Wise words there in hindsight

Leicester Tigers:

Conclusion: most have been approved and sent on to be ratified, but vitally the maul collapse rule has been rejected (woohoo, that was always a bloody stupid idea), and the “sanctions” rule, which changes most penalty offenses into free-kicks (and turns union into league) has been sent back for further review. Further review? What idiots let the Aussies into the meeting?

We’ll see how it pans out – May 13th is the date they change the Laws.

ELVs recommended to be passed into law:

Law 6 – Assistant referees allowed
Law 19 – Kicking directly into touch from ball played back into 22 equals no gain in ground
Law 19 – Quick throw permitted in any direction except forward
Law 19 – Positioning of player in opposition to the player throwing-in to be two metres away from line-out and the line of touch
Law 19 – Pre-gripping of line-out jumpers allowed
Law 19 – Lifting in the line-out allowed
Law 19 – Positioning of receiver must be two metres away from line-out
Law 20 – Five-metre offside line at the scrum
Law 20 – Scrum-half offside line at the scrum
Law 22 – Corner posts no longer touch in goal

ELVs not recommended:

Law 17 – Maul, head and shoulders not to be lower than hips
Law 17 – Maul, pulling down the maul
Law 19 – Freedom for each team to determine line-out numbers

ELVs sent for further examination:

Sanctions and free-kicks

From the IRB:

“We held a positive and constructive meeting at which all stakeholders were able to share their opinions on each of the ELVs. This was an important milestone for the ELV programme and it was crucial that robust discussion was entered into and that all positive and negative impacts of the ELVs were raised,” said IRB Chairman Bernard Lapasset.

“Naturally opinions differed in several areas of the ELV programme. The IRB regards this as a healthy and positive state of affairs as the Game’s Laws have always and should continue to allow coaches and players to interpret Law so that different styles of play can be employed.”

“The Unions tabled detailed research and analysis to support their views. Everyone had the opportunity to air their views. What was clear was that there was agreement on many aspects of the ELVs and a collective will to see a return to one set of Laws to govern the Game as soon as possible.”

“This conference was not a decision-making meeting but at the end of the day the conference provided a set of collective recommendations on the ELVs to assist the IRB Rugby Committee in formulating its final recommendations for the IRB Council meeting on 13 May. Council will then decide which ELVs, if any, should be fully integrated into Law,” added Lapasset.

The Conference was the latest step in the extensive global ELV consultation and evaluation process. Attendees were also presented with Game analysis and statistical surveys from over 800 matches, involving more than 3,000 players, coaches and referees at the Elite and Participation levels of the Game from 15 IRB Member Unions.

“It is has been a long road since the genesis of the ELV programme at the Conference on the Playing of the Game in Auckland in January 2004 when national coaches and administrators gathered following Rugby World Cup 2003 to debate the state of the Game,” said Lapasset.

“Collectively the participants requested that the IRB look into the Laws of the Game and mandated it to undertake a major review in areas such as the lineout, maul and sanctions, including turning penalties for technical offences into free kicks. The Laws Project Group was subsequently conceived, as were the Experimental Law Variations with initial trials starting in 2005.”

“In the past Law changes were discussed in theory and implemented without on-field testing but importantly this ELV programme has included global practical trials. The entire process is now coming to an end and the IRB would like to sincerely thank its Member Unions for their participation in what has been an unprecedented review of the Laws of the Game,” added Lapasset.

For England – Scotland, I think this is a close game, if Scotland perform like they did in the first half against Ireland then they have a change of winning this game. On the other hand, England started off the Championship so poorly, and I really didn’t rate them (or Johnson who seems more like a captain than a manager). But England have picked it up and played well the last couple of games, resulting in a thrashing of France. Given the home ground advantage, I’ll call this as England by 7 points: England 22 – 15 Scotland.

On to the big game of the day at Cardiff. Lots of people have written off Ireland because we haven’t won the grand slam since 1948, because we’re competing with NZ for the title of top chokers of world rugby, because we’re nervous, etc. I’m happy enough to go into the game as underdog according to most bookies.

First of all the Championship. Wales might beat this Irish side, but it is highly, highly unlikely that they’ll put up more than 13 points against us. Ireland will end today as Six Nations Champions.

Ok, to the real business of the day, Ireland’s potential Grand Slam. This is tough against a good Welsh team who will be doing their damnedest to get revenge on the Irish for many recent beatings in international rugby and club competitions, and to stop us from doing what they could not do this year. Honestly I think the game will be extremely close, but I think this Ireland squad under Kidney just has a psychological edge, a new mental strength, that we didn’t have under EOS. Ireland to win the game by 2 points to win the Grand Slam.

You can follow my updates on Twitter @AMcDermott where I’ll be ranting and raving as the games go on.

Man-bags are a great place to carry a couple of extra hipflasks and a few cans of beer.

I didn’t see much of the Italian visit to Twickenham, what little I did see was predictable but nothing awe-inspiring from England. From the Italian performance they’re still the whipping boys of the 6N, although Scotland look like they might be racing Italy to this years Wooden Spoon.

Ireland had a wonderful start to the championship with a fantasic win over a decent French side at GAA headquarters. France had an experimental but dangerous side and it was real back and forth stuff. Ireland managed to keep the penalty count lower than the French, and with a couple of really spectacular tries from both sides, it was a pleasure to watch. Eventually I think our experience and team play won out, I’m really happy we didn’t let them back in before the final whistle like we might have last year. Great defensive performance there. Particularly delighted for the 3 try scorers – Heaslip for show-casing himself in the Lions selection year, and BOD and D’arcy for both getting deserved scores and coming back into form after a quiet 12 months (particularly for the injured D’arcy). The photo shows my view of the pitch – I was in the middle of a huge crowd of really sound French guys, fantastic folks and not a sore loser amongst them after the game.

Wales are getting rave reviews after what was probably the most boring Six Nations game I’ve seen in years. They are the defending champions, and I expect they’ll improve hugely, particularly by the time we meet them in the last round, but I think the BBC et al are going a little over the top based on a yawn-inspiring performance against a pathetic Scotland team who did their best to knock themselves out. Literally.

I think Williams will enjoy watching the replay of Webster going for a smashing tackle only to knock himself unconscious, and what back wouldn’t want to smile about a tight-head prop knocking himself out after going for a dirty in-the-air hit? btw good call from Alain Roland on Webster, the medico’s should have taken him off the pitch immediately.

Aside: On that point, it’s something that happened during a J4 match recently, one of my teammates took a bang to the head and went down like a tonne of bricks. He immediately rolled up on his feet and continued playing, and noone insisted he go off. In hindsight and after some post-match discussion we agreed it was bad form to have him continue and I very much regret not following my first instinct in forcing a substitution. For all of us, amateurs and pro’s alike, let’s bear in mind that head injuries aren’t to be messed about with, and ignore the player if they want to play on, it’s not worth the risk.

@joescanlon rightly recommended that I mention @patrickphelan‘s analysis of the Twitter #merde tag which people were using to flag tweets related to this game – great work there Patrick!

If you know of another good 6N round 1 post please mention it in the comments.

Must attend:

• Hong Kong Sevens Tournament (rugby) – there are loads of rugby 7s tournaments, this is the original headline event.
• State of Origin series (Australian rugby league)
• A Superbowl (American football)
• An All-Ireland GAA football final with Dublin beating Kerry, Meath, Cork, or Tyrone.  Actually, make that 4 All-Ireland finals (with Dublin …)
• Tour de France Alpe D’Huez stage finish

Would like to attend:

• Heineken Cup final (rugby), preferably with an Irish team, preferably not Munster again (I don’t mind Munster, it’s just the bloody fans that are annoying).
• Rugby World Cup final
• Snooker World Championship match at The Crucible
• The Ashes (cricket)
• CFB Bowl game (American college football)
• MLB World Series Game 7
• NBA Championship Game 7

What about you, sports fans, what sports events must you attend before you meet your maker? Post a comment and let me know!

Updates from Twitter (I’m @AMcDermott):

@TheMenace said: @AMcDermott Ireland vs England 6 Nations at Croke Park. Although I think you’ve only got 1 more chance to do that

@interactivemark said: @AMcDermott Stanley Cup game 7 (preferably w/ NY Rangers) any Olympic event (preferably ice hockey) and the running of the bulls.

My call on the match is very tight, both in terms of scores and playing style, with a fair amount of kicking in the first half, opening up a bit after the 30th minute or so when people settle. It’s too close to call a winner, but I just think Munster might shade it. I had a look around the online prices from the bookies and across the board they’re all shading it Munster by 1-2 points.

Current odds, 3 hours before kick-off:

VCBet Munster 8/11, Toulouse 11/10
Blue Sq Munster 8/11, Toulouse EVENS
Bet365 Munster 4/5, Toulouse 11/10
Stan James Munster 5/6, Toulouse EVENS
Celtic Bookmakers Munster 4/5, Toulouse 11/10
PaddyPower Munster 4/5, Toulouse 23/20

Well, good luck Munster!