Sporting Gods turn us into couch potatoes
kick to give the visitors the precious away goal.
The return leg in Basle on Sunday evening finished 0-0 so the North were out. Following Thierry Henry’s shenanigans in Paris back in 2009 we know all about feeling cheated in a World Cup play-off and it will take our neighbours a long time to get over it.
Fast forward to Saturday afternoon and to the rugby in Dublin. Ireland took on South Africa in the first of the Autumn Internationals to be played on three consecutive weekends at the Aviva.
The Springboks have been in somewhat erratic form of late but they always provide plenty of entertainment and physicality. Irish rugby took a bit of a blow last week with initial indications from the world governing body that our bid to host the 2023 World Cup is not their preferred choice.
However despite this setback Joe Schmidt’s men produced a masterful performance and hammered South Africa 38-3. Ireland completely dominated their opponents and ran in four tries to record their
Ireland will be confident of beating Fiji and Argentina in their next two outing as they bid to improve their fourth place IRB ranking even further.
There was hardly time to draw breath before George Hamilton’s dulcet tones welcomed us to Copenhagen.
After that heroic victory in Cardiff some weeks ago we all hoped to get Denmark in the play-offs. Although they enjoyed quite a lofty FIFA ranking, they were a much more manageable outfit than Italy, Switzerland or Croatia.
Yes we needed to do a job on Tottenham’s Christian Eriksen but nothing else in their armoury frightened us.
Martin O Neill’s conservative away day approach provided lots for Dunphy and Brady to mull over in the pre-match build up as they again lamented the absence of poor old Wes Hoolahan.
As usual thousands of Irish fans arrived in the Danish capital to party as they ignored the Danish FA’s warnings of travelling without tickets. supporters but there was never any chance of trouble occurring.
The Danes had the best of the first half chances but Darren Randolph was again on his game as the Irish defence stood firm. The second half was a non-event with Ireland’s defensive approach completely nullifying the home side.
There was barely a shot on goal from either side during the 45 minutes as the game petered out for an ugly 0-0 draw.
I was more than happy with the outcome but the RTE panel were disgusted. Dunphy and Brady have now brainwashed Damien Duff into their way of thinking and he gleefully joined in the mudslinging.
Dunphy’s delusional ramblings would see him locked up in any civilised society. A 1-0 win at the Aviva on Tuesday night will see us through to our first World Cup since 2002. A miraculous feat in my opinion based on the players currently at our disposal.
I got up early on Sunday morning to watch the International Rules first test from Adelaide but admit it was 7am rather than 5am. However, my never been a fan of the sport. ‘What a load of sh#te’ the message read
ly dented.
There have been many fine contests and exciting encounters between ourselves and the Aussies down through the years but this was not one of them.
While there were things to be admired in the performance of Joe Kernan’s side, in particular the point taking of Monaghan’s Conor McManus, it was very poor fair overall.
Perhaps it’s just me but there seemed to be quite a pedestrian feel to the proceedings and at times players seemed unsure and uncertain as to tactics and playing rules.
Allowances have to be made for the searing afternoon heat but conditions will be no better or even worse for the second test in Perth.
Over the years many commentathe
series yet it still rumbles on.
Perhaps a big crowd and an exciting contest in Perth will breathe some life back into it, but the end could be nigh.