Hit 'em hard.

[Gatsid]

I'm with RF would much prefer to see SOO back than keeping IR around. Personally I have no time for it and think its a waste of time.

[rant]
The biggest problem with IR is that is a contact sport and the Irish sook about the contact dished out by the Aussies. Sure you can say well the Aussies shouldn't dish it out because the Irish are 6 inches shorter and half as strong, but if the rules state its contact you don't go easy on your opponent just because they are smaller. I mean if I as a 17 year old walk onto the field for Seniors footy you wouldn't expect the 22 year olds to go easy on me. Once you step out onto the field it becomes an equal playing field where everyone is treated equally. Riewoldt refused to come of the field against the Lions so they tested him and he was then in deep trouble, he had the chance to go off but decided to stay on the field and therefore be treated like everyone else on the field. At the end of the day if the Irish don't like the contact ensure that the rules change before the next series or don't walk onto the field. I mean they don't run slower because the majority of them a quicker than us do they? They don't purposefully lower their skills with the round ball because we normally use an oval one do they? So why should we have to be less physical because they normally arn't ?
[/rant]

[DC]

Like Rambo said, "They drew first blood", when gilbee was deliberitely kneed in the head causing him to require 4 stiches.

Obviously there were cheap shots by Ireland in the first game and I was surprised how unphysical the first game was played by the Aussies.

Ireland started it, we finished it.

If you want to go around and knee players in the head then be prepared to cop it back.

[Rossoneri]

Is this before the receptionist drops the knees into your back when you go to pick up a piece of paper on the floor.

Or when your talking to your manager and she whacks you, breaking your nose?

f*** this is pathetic. So now we're down to the 'he started it!!!' argument? I thought i was taught in about year 3 that if a year 1 kicks your ball away, you don't go and punch him up.

The fact that someone initiates a confrontation NEVER justifies cracking a nut with a sledgehammer. Unless you're George Bush, or someone of equal intellectual capacity.

Ok Jimmy, so if im playing against you in a football match or whatever, and I give you a whack, then I can continue to run around the field knowing that you want give us a whack the next time I go for the ball?

Turn it up!

[jimmyc1985]

Is this before the receptionist drops the knees into your back when you go to pick up a piece of paper on the floor.

Or when your talking to your manager and she whacks you, breaking your nose?

f*** this is pathetic. So now we're down to the 'he started it!!!' argument? I thought i was taught in about year 3 that if a year 1 kicks your ball away, you don't go and punch him up.

The fact that someone initiates a confrontation NEVER justifies cracking a nut with a sledgehammer. Unless you're George Bush, or someone of equal intellectual capacity.

Ok Jimmy, so if im playing against you in a football match or whatever, and I give you a whack, then I can continue to run around the field knowing that you want give us a whack the next time I go for the ball?

Turn it up!

Missed the point. Again.

Never have i said the Australians shouldn't have the right to retaliate because they're up against physically inferior opponents. My position from the outset is that they are entitled to retaliate appropriately. Clearly, i am of the belief that the Australians did not do so.

I'd also point out that i think the Irish adminstrators did over-react to the most recent game. Again, that is not to say there wasn't a substantial element of truth in what they were saying, but by coming out and bleeting as they did, they invariably polarise Australians in their belief that it was just a case of sour grapes. Had the Irish coaching and administrative staff not made such a fuss, i guarantee you that more Australians would be sympathetic to the idea that the Australian team played in a manner that was much better described as 'spiteful' rather than 'tough'.

[Rossoneri]

After the first quarter, the game was weak as piss.

Fact of the matter is, if they take this part out of the game, no one would talk about. The irish say "if you want to box, then lets box" etc. The aussies will love that. The irish are the stupid ones here. If they actually played their own game rather than watch the aussies, they would actually win.

[ealesy]

Finally seen the Pearce tackle on Gerhaty....my god after all their bleating about that I would've thought something about it must have looked at least slightly suspcious.

Good hard tackle....unfortunately for him his head was the first part of his body to make contact with the ground.

Can't believe the Irish expect anyone to believe that Danyle Pearce was intentionally trying to take him out either.

Sure maybe if Pearce had smacked him in the face or ran through him behind play.

Simple fact is that he was the victim of a very good tackle that he wasn't expecting and as such was not in position to protect his head.

Sure the Aussies made noises about targeting him during the week, mainly because he committed a dog act the previous week, and I dare say there were a few Aussies players that probably were looking to rough him up if the opportunity presented itself, but that wasn't what happened in the Pearce tackle.

Yet to hear any Aussie even complain about the fact that an Irish guy deliberatly hacked Campbell Brown's knee and forced him off the field. We made mentioned of the fact that a few of the boys copped knees in the back etc, to point out the Irish aren't the poor little innocents they are trying to make themselves out to be.

[Rossoneri]

With the pearce tackle, the rules of this crap is that you cant throw a player to the ground when he is being tackled. So while it should have been a free kick, I dont think that there was much malice in that incident.

I think their coach should go back and put his slippers on, smoke a pipe and place a blanket over his shaking legs and let the players take matters in their own hands.