Something that I feel is being overlooked is the favorable match schedule we have, compared to Italy and Russia. Russia are playing Italy tomorrow, so when we play them at the weekend they're likely to be fatigued. Similarly, Italy have to play the US next Tuesday before playing us the following weekend. I'm confident we can win both and then it'll be time to re-group for the quarters.

Three? We only have Russia and Italy left in the pool.

All three are potential banana skins but we have the momentum and the will and guile to overcome all three, regardless of what they do to each other. We will need a couple of bonus points really, then we can all relax.

Agreed S_P... Italy have quality but they'll need to convert that into tries and they are not great at that. To be honest we might struggle with tries against some opponents but I suspect that we'll put Russia away with a BP.

Ireland had a great game plan, choke off the ball at the break down, prevent the outside backs getting the ball. I'm convinced that BOD shot out of the line that time to force McCabe to run it, instead of getting the ball out wide to the actually talented players.

Very impressed by them, and hopefully we can show a little more try-scoring ability in the Russia and Italy games. Not taking Italy for granted though, they beat France this year, and are looking like they have a pack worth paying attention to.

Very important that we are ruthless against Russia and run up the scores. If Italy can beat Russia and then USA before they face us then the will still be in with an oustide shout of progressing if they can beat us. They'll need to score plenty against both Russia and USA (which I can't see them doing though) to help themselves..

Ireland had a great game plan, choke off the ball at the break down, prevent the outside backs getting the ball. I'm convinced that BOD shot out of the line that time to force McCabe to run it, instead of getting the ball out wide to the actually talented players.

Very impressed by them, and hopefully we can show a little more try-scoring ability in the Russia and Italy games. Not taking Italy for granted though, they beat France this year, and are looking like they have a pack worth paying attention to.

Big result. Massive step up in intensity on the past few games. Everyone showed great hunger for work today. Australia were poor on the day but to keep such a talented side to 6 points is a superb achievement. Having said that you'd hope there's more in this Irish side yet especially as an attacking force.

The front row (pray they stay fit), Ferris (who has been immense considering how little game time he's got until now) and O'Brien in particular put in outstanding displays. Half back is still a problem area, rog and sexton had their moments but neither particularly convinced, scrum half is a toss up. Scrum half wasn't a tough job today behind that pack and with Pocock missing, the Oz back row looked average.

O'Driscoll isn't 100% but still made a big contribution today, fell off 1 or 2 tackles but his presence alone is worth a huge amount to this team. His chase for the penalty that hit the post demonstrated the tireless effort he puts in for the side at a time when you'd imagine he'd be out on his feet. 99.9% of the time the kick would go between the posts or wide and the effort made chasing it in would go unnoticed.

The major positive is that the focus in the squad and management seems to have remained on finishing out the group with two good results and securing the top spot. We need to push on from here and put down another couple of markers heading into the q/f as top of the group(hopefully). Players need to stick their hand up next week as viable alternatives, we won't go far with 18/19 man squad. Italy is a potential banana skin but we know what they bring to the table and should be capable of dealing with it.

There will be a lot of twists and turns yet before the q/f lineup is decided but lets hope this result can lead to greater things.

I have to give credit where it is due.  I truly did not think they had a chance against Australia as nothing up to this point in the warm up games or the USA match lead me to believe otherwise.  England has proved in past WC that 10 man rugby can be successful so if they do not slip up against Italy there is a path to the final for them.  I do though think they will have to get the backs going if they are to truly be successful.  Wales could be on the horizon should they get past Samoa and I think Gatland knows how to neutralise the 10 man game.  I guess we should just enjoy this historic win and congratulate the pack on a strong effort.

The big difference this time round is we have a coach who knows how to win as against a coach who thinks he knows how to win. If the pack stays fit they will frighten everyone including the kiwis. The backs do need to spark, but they have time now.

Fantastic result,well done Ireland.Opens up the whole competition.

The key word here is potentially...

We have to deliver against Russia and Italy first, and Italy won't be scared of our scrum like the Aussies. Need to see a lot more from the backs than commited defence if we're going to top the group and force the Aussies into a tough group....

Fantastic result,well done Ireland.Opens up the whole competition.

game to change when o gara comes in and that should happen before half time. Come on pull the finger out

The way i see it
1) We made a very poor side look like a competitive international team
2) We got it all wrong in the first half esp. trying to cut back in where there pack was and ignoring the outside flanks was a mistake
3) Some of the calls (lineout at end of 1st half in particular) were un-believeable. why when we were beating them up in the pack/scrum/maul didn't we just call POC @ 4 and rumble over?  No we had to throw to the tail and peel around into one of 4 of their professional players??? mind boggling if you ask me...



However
No one is raising the crups of the problem imho. BOD is injured and is NOT playing to his own very high standard. Our centre partnership was nowhere last sunday morning and the amount of missed tackles made by 12 & 13 was shocking. Ye lads are talking about moving Darcy (sound no problem with that he has plenty of time to show whats left in his locker) but Brian is our biggest problem and no one is talking about it.

The silence of our so called rugby critics on this is deafening (tv and print)

nobody  can  disagree  that  ireland  were  pure  muck.  that  accepted,  what  can  ireland  do  to  turn  things  around?

I'm the definition of the eternal optimist when it comes to the Irish rugby team (and Connacht for that matter), but I agree that things are not looking good for them in terms of success at this world cup (and by success I mean a semi final appearance). Having said that, I still believe they have the ability to put a couple of big performances together. Going into the game against the Aussies with no form will take a lot of the pressure off them, and I think they need that. Some dry conditions might help too (although it would help the Aussies too). I'd be far more concerned if we were talking about major scrum issues, or a poor lineout - those seem fine (assuming we remain injury free). We just need to string phases together, get quick ball, eliminate the knock ons and we'll be sorted. One well worked try against quality opposition and we'll be like new men. Told you I was an optimist!

PS: I felt we were unlucky not to get the bonus point at the end of the game yesterday. If Kidney hadn't made as many changes in the pack I think we'd have done it. Also, I'm pretty sure the ref made a bad call towards the end when he awarded them a 22 kick out - their lad brought the ball over their try line which should have resulted in another attacking scrum.

IMHO Earls is a winger. He prefers it there and looks better there.

He most certainly is not a centre nor a full back of international stanadard. Would still rather have Fitzgerald there ahead of him, far better in heavy traffic and better defender too by a long way....

Wouldnt mind seeing Earls at full back again. D'arcy could do with a good kick in the arse!

IMHO Earls is a winger. He prefers it there and looks better there.