Tag Archives: Paddy Wallace

Match Preview: Ireland vs New Zealand @ Hamilton

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Steve Hansen was right: New Zealand didn’t play that well in the Christchurch test. Some of that was forced on them by an aggressive, hard-nosed Irish performance, but they also made a number of unforced errors. Ireland didn’t perform cleverly or with the required level of concentration and aggression in a number of areas in the Auckland test [especially after the first half hour] and as a result handed New Zealand not just the result, but also the big performance. England caved in a similar way in Lansdowne Road in 2011, and let Ireland play close to their potential.  Continue reading →

New Zealand 22 – 19 Ireland: Match Reaction #1

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Ireland’s tempo and intensity was where it needed to be, but the team didn’t show much cutting edge out wide. There’s room for improvement as to how we play once we have the ball.

While this was a very good performance from Ireland, it’s not as though it can’t be improved upon. In some ways it was similar to the 15-6 win over Australia in RWC11 – you couldn’t fault the intensity of the players on the pitch, or the decisions made by the management in selection or substitution, but tactically there’s still quite a lot of ground for improvement. That’s encouraging. It’d be downright grim if you had played as well as you could possibly play and not beaten a team who weren’t at their best. Continue reading →

The Fingers Of The Red Hand

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Even for The Mole, there has almost been surplus coverage of the Heineken Cup final in Twickenham. Ulster and Leinster have been analysed, examined and dissected in such depth that it is very difficult to consider any angle that would contribute anything further in the search for clues as to which team might have the ascendency in this game. Continue reading →

Pre-Match Nerves

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The Mole was fortunate enough to do a postgrad with a number of interesting, well-rounded people. At the weekends, they would pursue pleasant, sociable activities. The Mole would play matches of a Saturday and spend most Sundays hungover, like a good ol’ stereotype. What would it be like to pursue pleasant, sociable activities with well-rounded people? Where would the nerves come into play? That blood pumping, stomach churning switched-on feeling of a Saturday morning that served as a precursor to the main event. You’d miss it. Continue reading →

Heineken Cup Semi-Final Preview: Ulster vs Edinburgh

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There were quite a few people who picked Ulster to knock over Munster in the quarter-finals, even though it was played down in Thomond Park, where Munster had been invincible at the quarter-final stage for over a decade … but who were the geniuses that had Edinburgh over Toulouse? Continue reading →

Paddy Wallace: All The Touring Gear In The World

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Same Amount of World Cups as ROG and Paulie, Biy!I’m a Paddy Wallace fan in that I disagree with the amount of abuse he gets. That’s not actually true – I like how Wallace plays, because he’s a smashing footballer and a brave if undersized defender. His recent appearance at outhalf for an Ireland Select XV against Connacht showed that he’s still a great distributor and can run a mean backline. With that said, even those keen Wallackamaniaks [that’s what we’re called] amongst us may have forgotten that this will be Paddy’s third Rugby World Cup. Continue reading →