Ireland brought down to earth by Canada in second WXV1 match

This player that has been mentioned several times these past three years by kiwi’s and also mentioned that they were “watching him closely” and “doing a lot of analysis on him”.

By the way, the kiwis are not the only ones who have been watching other players closely…

The bits & pieces he has implemented have delivered a mixed bag of results so far, so much retrofitting you can try to get a Ferrari engine into a Honda Civic. It either fits or it doesn’t.

Possible reason could be that DMac does not have the ability to mimic another player or because the player is just way more talented than DMac.

My money is on the latter and this is why he was eventually dropped.

Won’t be surprised if Razor brings in another 10 next month.

DMac = Poor man's version of Manie Libbok.

He's creating chances, the team will get better at finishing them and he'll improve too. We need to be patient.

Where was the bad luck with cards? I put those down to brain fades rather than luck. Also put it down to different standard of reffing across the club and international levels.

Would also add game management or fatigue? last 20mins has been a challenge all year. Not sure what's the causal there

And Owens is correct. A red card should be a red card. Unfortunately, under the 20 minute red card law, we have two classes of red card:

1. An "in real time" red card for serious dangerous foul play where the ref ejects the offender & reduces the team for the remainder of the game (I think Owens is hinting that refs may be copping out by using the upgrade option?), and,

2. An upgraded red card for serious dangerous foul play where the offender is ejected for the remainder of the game but can be replaced after 20 minutes.

Why the difference in punishment? Surely for consistency, #1 must have the 20 minute replacement law too. Further pro rata punishment will of course be meted out by the judiciary.

So, no, I don't think a further law is needed. Just the tweaks I suggest to bring consistency of punishment for a red card, & to punish 2 yellows differently. It's a system definitely worth keeping imo.