~~~~~ Rugby Live Schedule:~~~~~
UPCOMING INFO : Wales vs Ireland live Rugby Match
COMPETITION NAME : Six Nations
COMPETITOR :Wales vs Ireland
DATE : Saturday,12th March 2011
TIME/WHEN START : 17:00 GMT, 17:00 local
Status : Live
You can Watch HD Video Quality on your pc so don't mis to watch this regular season RUGBY mach live on your pc , so click on live stream link to watch this GAME live with HD qualty video don't mis to grab this opportunity.
SIX NATIONS RUGBY SCHEDULE 2011
..........................................
Saturday 12 March 2011
17:00
Six Nations - Wales v Ireland
Millennium Stadium
Cardiff United Kingdom
Sunday 13 March 2011
15:00
Six Nations - England v Scotland
Twickenham Stadium
London United Kingdom
Saturday 19 March 2011
14:30
Six Nations - Scotland v Italy
Murrayfield Stadium
Edinburgh United Kingdom
Saturday 19 March 2011
17:00
Six Nations - Ireland v England
Aviva Stadium (Lansdowne Road Stadium)
Dublin Eire
Saturday 19 March 2011
20:45
Six Nations - France v Wales
Stade de France
Saint-Denis France
Win a trip for 2 to the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zeland
Catch all 2011 Tri-Nation, European Cup and 6 Nations rugby games at Smileys.
Hineken specials and prizing during matches
Go to donnellygroup.ca or inquire within for game times.
The Donnelly Group in partnership with Heineken, is excited to announce that we will be sending two lucky customers on a trip to the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, which includes flight, accommodations and match tickets. To enter this draw, simply attend Smiley’s Public House – located at 911 West Pender during any 6 Nations or Heineken Cup match and fill out a ballot for your chance to show your true colors at RWC 2011.
Smiley’s Public House will be televising all 6 Nations matches, with all Ireland and England games being shown live and all others on replay.
Smiley’s Public House is mandated by our cable provider to charge a $20 entrance fee for all live 6 Nations games, however in lieu of this, we will be offering great specials and giveaways for all fans during matches.
THIS MONTH
March
Saturday, March 12th 9:00am - Wales v Ireland (Live)
Sunday, March 13th 7:00am - England v Scotland (Live)
Saturday, March 19th 9:00am - Ireland v England (Live)
Saturday, March 19th 11:45pm - France v Wales (Live)
Stalking opportunity: Your friend and mine, Rob Smyth, is about to unleash a brilliant book about football. To find out more, follow him at his new twitter thing, @footballbook
Teams:
Ireland: Shay Given; John O'Shea, Sean St Ledger, Richard Dunne, Ciarán Clark; Séamus Coleman, Glenn Whelan, Darron Gibson, Damien Duff; Jonathan Walters, Kevin Doyle.
Wales: Wayne Hennessey; Neal Eardley, Sam Ricketts, Danny Collins, James Collins; Andrew Crofts, David Vaughan, Andy King; Simon Church, Robert Earnshaw, Hal Robson-Kanu.
7:39pm: Kuwait, Antigua, Oman, Gambia, Iceland, Syria and Guyana. Just some of the 115 countries who are better than Wales, according to the latest Fifa rankings.
7:40pm: Out toddle the teams. Owing to the FAI's extravagant pricing policy most seats are empty. Well done lads.
7:41pm: The garda band are giving a particularly doleful rendition of the Welsh national tune. Mindgames.
7:43pm: The Welsh tune is followed by a perkier-than-usual blast of Amhrán na bhFiann. The tens of people who know all of the words croon along.
1 min: Ireland set the game in motion. Doyle immediately looks for Walters, a strange choice in the Irish line-up, if you ask me. Also, why aren't Ireland wearing their green jerseys? They certainly don't clash with Wales' red?
2 min: After Wales fail to properly clear an Irish freekick - Earnshaw showboating on the edge of his own area - Whelan aims a decliate curler just over. "Why the hell are Given, O'Shea, Duff, and Dunne playing?" thunders Daniel Barron. "Why not give some new faces a chance?" I adisagree. There are already enough withdrawals - you have to retain sufficient regulars to help give the newcomers a feel for the level. And Given needs a game.
5 min: It's all Ireland so far. Duff seeing plenty of the ball on the left and, indeed, he's just curled a cross over Hennessy and onto the back post! To the keeper's relief it bounces to safety. Fluke goal averted. "Don't green and red look the same if you're color blind?" toots Daniel Barron anew. "That could be an explanation." Good point, hadn't considered that, narrow-minded swine that I msut be.
7 min: Eardley miscontrols a bal. in the right-back position and has it nicked off him by Duff ... who fluffs the cross.
9 min: Wales, who are looking quite disjointed, concede another freekick in a dangerous position. Whealan pardons them by wafting it over. "Given the dearth of quality for Trapp to choose from, is it better to go with Premiership benchwarmers like Walters and Whelan, or Anthony Stokes, who is scoring buckets of goals in Scotland?" wonders Hugh Collins. I don't think there's much reason to have a look at Stokes at this stage - he's simply not good enough - and there is a nostalgic appeal to deploying a big centreforward, though I have yet to see any evidence at Stoke that Walters has the wherewithal to make it at a high level. Shane Long might be a better bet.
12 min: Wales rumble forward for the first time in the game. Robson-Kanu curls in a decent cross but Earnshaw can't get to it.
14 min: Vaughan swings in a freekick from the right, triggering a spot of head-tennis in the Irish box before Gibson boots clear.
16 min: After a decent spell of ball retention by Ireland, Duff and Walters combine cannily, almost working an opening. But Eardley eventually snuffs out the danger.
18 min: Robson-Kanu turns too quickly for O'Shea, who clatters him from behind. In keeping with the ineptitude of the tackle the referee opts against booking the Irishman.
20 min: Collins launches a long ball towards Earnshaw, who had no chance whatsoever of winning against the Irish defenders, what with each of them being two feet taller than him.
22 min: Ireland still dominating possession, and Walters and Doyle galloping gamely all over the shop to offer options. In other news, good to see an ad for Tayto on hoardings around the pitch. Always though Mr Tayto is a ringer for Dick Advocaat.
24 min: Ricketts floats a cross into the box. Easy clearance by Dunne.
26 min: Penalty for Wales? No, the ref decides that Coleman did not trip Church. Not saying he wasn't correct, but it might be worth pointing out that the ref is an Irishman.
30 min: After a lenghty lull, Earnshaw reinvigorates the game with a burst through the Irish defence. The dozing St Ledger brings him down outside the box. "I just paid $130 to renew my Irish passport, and realized that all I've got to remember soccer-wise for the last ten years of citizenship is the fiasco of Saipan and the handball heartbreak of Paris," weeps Justin Kavanagh. "And now they don't even wear green at home?! That's it … I'm applying for a new international identity." Have you considered asking to become a member of the Israeli secret service? They owe Irish passport holders a favour, no?
31 min: Earnshaw sends his freekick into the empty stands behind the goal.
33 min: Nice ball by Crofts to Earnshaw, who attempts to find Church on the overlap, but Clark shows his speed by sprinting back to cut the pass out.
35 min: A shot on target, the first of the match! Doyle produced it after a bold run across the Welsh box and he clearly doesn't have a high opinion of his club-mate Wayne Hennessy, because he sent the ball trickling straight at him. The keeper confounded the striker by saving. "Ireland played the USA in the late '80s in Boston and the stadium announcer asked patrons to take off their caps and remain standing for the Irish National Anthem," blurts Steve Dahlgren. "Cue a emotional rendition of "Danny Boy" and a look of utter bewilderment crossed with 'WTF?' from the 11 Irish players standing to attention."
37 min: Robson-Kanu lets the ball run under his foot when all he had to do was control it and knock into the box where, for the first time, there were three Welshmen waiting for it.
38 min: Coelman, who hasn't really made the anticipated impact so far, tries to burst past Ricketts down the right but is fouled. Gibson cuts the freekick back to Coleman, who dinks the ball towards the penalty spot, where Clark meets it with a decent header. It floats narrowly wide.
40 min: Dainty play by Duff and the impressive Clark to thwart a Welsh attack of sorts.
42 min: Noble stuff from St Ledger, who initially intervened to stop Earnshaw from scampering clear on goal and then, after letting the ball run away from him, dived full length to head it off the ground before Robson-Kanu could reclaim possession for Wales.
44 min: Lovely move by Wales, the best of the match. After some patient passing, Eardley fizzed the ball in to Church, who, with a feint and a twirl, nudged it on the Church, who fired low and hard from 20 yards. Given gathered at the second attempt.
Half-time: Let us pause to catch our breath. Or, to be more precise, get reanimated. For this is a slow burner. Or maybe just a flaming waste of time.
Grim recollections: For some reason this match has got me thinking about my own bleakest experience on a pitch. It was at U-14 or U-15 level, a midweek match in Dunsink, and hailstones. Our keeper got injured early doors so I had to go in goals against our rubbish hosts. As my team-mates monopolised possession down the other end of the pitch, local urchins amused themselves by breaking milk bottles and firing the shards of glass at me. When I went over to dispense some instant justice, or probably just threaten to, our manager, after branding me a thug, took me off and opted to play on with just ten players. The anger still burns.
And you, what is your bleakest footballing memory?
46 min: Ch-ch-changes: Long on for Ireland (in place of Doyle) and Gunther comes on instead of Eardley for Wales.
47 min: Vaughan has looked cecent for Wales, his passing crisp and progressive.
48 min: Duff collects the ball off Duff, wanders across the box and bangs the ball straight at Hennessy. "Speaking from a purely narrow local perspective, what sort of game is Andy King having tonight?" parps Mark Clayton of the Leicester Mercury. Well, he hasn't put a foot wrong. Nor put one obviously right. Which is to say, I haven't really noticed him.
51 min: Earnshaw flops to the ground theatrically, the ref waves play on so Duff does so. Ireland tear forward and Long is presented with the best chance of the match, but gets too far under his shot and slashes it over the bar from 14 yards. That's a bad miss. "Any idea what the attendence is?" chunters Adam Walker. "It's not on the aviva staudium website since they don't want us to know. what they do want us to know of, however, is the progression of this team over recent years by topping their homepage with a stellar image of a pre-Trap starting XI from 2005 including Clinton Morrisson, Stephen Elliot, Graham Kavanagh and Paddy Kenny." The commentators aren't revealing the attendance but I can confirm that there are at least two spectators - I know this because they have just run on the pitch and momentarily brought this already-tame match to a halt. They've been shooed away now so that may well be that for tonight's entertainment.
54 min: King catches the eye! By being fouled by Gibson, who stuck in the sort of tackle he obviously picked up from Paul Scholes at Old Trafford. "Bleakest football experience? Easy," remembers Kevin Porter. "Watching Wolves humiliated by
Chorley 0-3 in the second replay at Burnden Park in November 1986. Fortunately West Bromwich Albion were on the point of selling us three useless cast-offs Andy Thompson, Robbie Dennison and Steve Bull."
56 min: Long puts his wieght about up front, the ball squirts through Collins's legs and then Duff, with only the keeper to beat, falls over while attempting to shoot. Hennessy does well to stifle his laughter long enough to prevent the ball trickling into the net.
58 min: Irish change: Coleman off, Fahey on. "As a regular sunday league player in Sarf London there are quite a few grim experience for me to recall," mourns Jack Duncton. "But the worst has to be the time when I had stayed in brighton the night before and got the 4am train to get back home to get the kit in Morden to then go and play in Dulwich. I had ahem been awake most of the night and vaguely remember coming into Victoria, however my next memory was then being woken up by the guard in sunny Brighton again, some 3 hours later and 1 hour before kick off. My dad was hastily press ganged into taking the kit to dulwich then awaiting me in East Croydon (grim enough in itself) to drive me to the game. Many broken traffic laws later arrived at the said pitch 15 minutes into the game with my team only having 10 men. Got changed out onto the pitch to proceed to give away a penalty with my first touch. We went on to lose 1-0, which did nothing to soothe the mother of all hangovers after a 120 mile round trip. 3 years on and there are still trust issues with some of my team mates."
GOAL! Ireland 1-0 Wales (Gibson 60') Wow! That's one for Nasa to study! Gibson swapped quick passes with Whelan and then rocketed the ball into the top corner from 28 yards!
61 min: Wales substitution: Vaughan off, Ledley on.
63 min: Fahey gives the ball away in midfield, but Dunne strides across to pilfer it back off Robson-Kanu. "Most chilling football memory? I was maybe eight or nineand our one soccer match was away against another local primary school," sudders Nigel Percy. "We'd never played as a team before and never did again. We lost 11-0 and I don't even remember the ball coming near me, but that wasn't the worst. The worst was next day, as I and a few others trundled across the playground in our sports kit to the gym, the female sports teacher/person/sadist said, loudly enough for all to hear, 'It's no wonder they lost 11-0 looking like that'. Sartorial sadism mixed with footballing criticism, and from a female, undid my budding masculinity and I only played hockey from then on."
65 min: Church cuts in from the right and lashes a respectable shot just wide from 20 yards. Given had it covered. "My worst football experience was grim indeed," trembles Greg O'Ceallaigh. "Playing a match in Balally in the freezing cold where the (small) local kids fired (very hard) berries at my legs with a catapault. Then their (large) older brothers told us they would kill us if we retaliated. We just had to keep moving, bunched away from the touchlines, towards the centre of the pitch. Their wingers found this very convenient. We lost."
GOAL! Ireland 2-0 Wales (Duff 67') Gunther unwisely tried to shepherd the ball out of play, Walters rustled the ball off him and pulled it back to Long, who, according to Ray Houghton in the gantry, dummed it to Duff (but to me it looked like he just missed his kick). Duff took on touch and lifted it over the keeper and into the net from eight yards.
69 min: Ireland are worthy of this lead. Without being brilliant they have been unquestionably superior to Wales, who, without the likes of Bale, Ramsey and Bellamy, look as ordinary as drizzle.
71 min: Irish change: Duff off, Keogh says hello.
73 min: Ireland are well on top here and Wales are slipping into damage-limitation mode.
75 min: Irish change: Green on, Whelan off. "Greg you had it easy," shrieks Pat D'Arcy re: memory at 65 mins. "Dundalk youths playing Finglas in Finglas. Ball over bar, close but over. GOAL for Finglas. Chat to the ref at half time. Wanna know what happened to the car of the ref last time they lost here? Get your engine running ref, we are gonna win! Final whistle, we win 2-1,and RACE for the minibus, engine running, outta here! Lucky to get out..."
78 min: Wales can't get into this game at all. Earnshaw is receiving no service of quality and on the rare occasions that he does get the ball he fails to control it. "Worst footballing memory? My debut for Glasheen U-10s," sobs Ian in Brooklyn. "It was freezing and miserable weather. I was a sub. I was shivering and running up and down the sideline all game failing to keep warm. About 15 minutes to go, I was brought on up front with my best friend. About five minutes to go, he played me in on goal with only the keeper to beat. A finish I made daily on the green outside my house. The ball skipped up and I sliced it so bad that I was able to collect my own pass. The following day my best friend was kind enough to tell my entire class about the open goal I missed. Never had the confidence to try to play for a team again." Football's loss, no doubt.
79 min: Wales change: Earnshaw replaced by Easter. "When I was at uni, I was mocked mercilessly for using the phrase 'go in goals', rather than 'go in goal', which apparently everyone else used," warbles Leo Howard. "Such were the scars, I have since stopped using the phrase, and indeed now avoid any situation where I might inadvertently utter those words. Consider my surprise then to see you using that exact phrase. Please tell me it wasn't a typo, but was in fact accepted usage." Well it was accepted usage in my neck of the woods, though whether that's sufficiently authoritative to impress your extremely pedantic friends I don't know.
81 min: Ray Houghton cuts to the chase: "this has been a bit lame from Wales." He's not wrong.
GOAL! Ireland 3-0 Wales (Fahey 83') Fahey curls a fine freekick around the wall from 20 yards. Sweetly struck, even if Hennessy could have saved it if he'd reacted more smartly.
84 min: Wales change: Nyatanga on for Ricketts. And Ireland throw on Marc Wilson for his debut, in place of Gibson.
85 min: Irish change: O'Shea off, O'Dea on. Meanwhile, more of your painful football memories. "Way back when I was much younger we were playing a match in Fog Lane park," remembers Geoff Ashworth. "Of course only in Manchester could there be a park named thus. Against a top touring team from Belfast we were holding them to 1-1 with three minutes to go. The ball came over from the left, I soared like Tommy Taylor and planted the ball firmly in the top right hand corner of the goal with the goalie staring opened-mouthed. The best goal I ever scored. Unfortunately the goal was our own and I wanted to dig a large hole in the pitch. "
87 min: Another feeble Welsh attack founders on the rock that is Richard Dunne. "Most away games in the Wicklow League were bleak, but arriving in Arklow to be told that the pitch was unplayable was a bad omen," eeeeks Justin Kavanagh. "They sent us up a mountain, to their 'spare pitch', which was barely visible under the cow pats. I remember not wanting to have anything to do with the warm-up, pretending to tie my laces for 15 minutes while the dung flew merrily about. Play was interrupted several times due to bovine pitch invasions—it was their home ground, in fairness. No-one scored with their head, I recall. The score I've managed to forget, but the smell on that bus all the way home is something that will haunt me to the grave."
89 min: It's petering out. No obvious positive for Speed to take from this game other than an accomplished performance from Vaughan. "Playing for Newcastle Poly in the late 70's, at Ryhope Working Man's Club, near Sunderland," scene-sets Gavin English before scene-setting some more: "Just think about that for a minute – a bunch of pretty boy students (who were generally skillful players) from Newcastle playing against a Working Man's Club from the Sunderland area – what could possibly go wrong? Cold wet January day, and I was playing full back. I went in for a full blooded slide tackle to thwart the onrushing winger, but the pitch conditions meant that I slid through a partly frozen puddle before contact with the ball. Unfortunately the winger was a "little" late and his shin made a very solid contact with my nose. I remember waking up face down in the ice puddle, in danger of drowning, with the sympathetic winger standing over me saying 'get up you f**king p**f. I was lifted off the field and had to lie for about 70 mins on a freezing cold touchline with the mother of all headaches. No idea what the final score was, but a few beers later seemed to settle the headache."
90 min: Ireland cut Wales apart with another free-flowing move, but Long miscontrolled right at the end to scupper his chance.
90+2 min: Three fine goals and plenty of positive for Trapp. Clark looked solid and enterprising, Dunne and St Ledger immaculate at the back albeit under little pressure. Duff was strong and purposefull, as was Fahey when he came on, and Walters, to be fair to him, foraged well and proved a useful fulcrum to the attack. Coleman did nothing wrong but did not sparkle as much as hoped. His time will come, though.
Full-time: It was as emphatic as the scoreline suggests. Ireland are well placed to claim only the second senior trophy in their history - and the first one, lest we forget, kickstarted their golden era .... OK, OK, let's not get carried away now.
Teams:
Ireland: Shay Given; John O'Shea, Sean St Ledger, Richard Dunne, Ciarán Clark; Séamus Coleman, Glenn Whelan, Darron Gibson, Damien Duff; Jonathan Walters, Kevin Doyle.
Wales: Wayne Hennessey; Neal Eardley, Sam Ricketts, Danny Collins, James Collins; Andrew Crofts, David Vaughan, Andy King; Simon Church, Robert Earnshaw, Hal Robson-Kanu.
7:39pm: Kuwait, Antigua, Oman, Gambia, Iceland, Syria and Guyana. Just some of the 115 countries who are better than Wales, according to the latest Fifa rankings.
7:40pm: Out toddle the teams. Owing to the FAI's extravagant pricing policy most seats are empty. Well done lads.
7:41pm: The garda band are giving a particularly doleful rendition of the Welsh national tune. Mindgames.
7:43pm: The Welsh tune is followed by a perkier-than-usual blast of Amhrán na bhFiann. The tens of people who know all of the words croon along.
1 min: Ireland set the game in motion. Doyle immediately looks for Walters, a strange choice in the Irish line-up, if you ask me. Also, why aren't Ireland wearing their green jerseys? They certainly don't clash with Wales' red?
2 min: After Wales fail to properly clear an Irish freekick - Earnshaw showboating on the edge of his own area - Whelan aims a decliate curler just over. "Why the hell are Given, O'Shea, Duff, and Dunne playing?" thunders Daniel Barron. "Why not give some new faces a chance?" I adisagree. There are already enough withdrawals - you have to retain sufficient regulars to help give the newcomers a feel for the level. And Given needs a game.
5 min: It's all Ireland so far. Duff seeing plenty of the ball on the left and, indeed, he's just curled a cross over Hennessy and onto the back post! To the keeper's relief it bounces to safety. Fluke goal averted. "Don't green and red look the same if you're color blind?" toots Daniel Barron anew. "That could be an explanation." Good point, hadn't considered that, narrow-minded swine that I msut be.
7 min: Eardley miscontrols a bal. in the right-back position and has it nicked off him by Duff ... who fluffs the cross.
9 min: Wales, who are looking quite disjointed, concede another freekick in a dangerous position. Whealan pardons them by wafting it over. "Given the dearth of quality for Trapp to choose from, is it better to go with Premiership benchwarmers like Walters and Whelan, or Anthony Stokes, who is scoring buckets of goals in Scotland?" wonders Hugh Collins. I don't think there's much reason to have a look at Stokes at this stage - he's simply not good enough - and there is a nostalgic appeal to deploying a big centreforward, though I have yet to see any evidence at Stoke that Walters has the wherewithal to make it at a high level. Shane Long might be a better bet.
12 min: Wales rumble forward for the first time in the game. Robson-Kanu curls in a decent cross but Earnshaw can't get to it.
14 min: Vaughan swings in a freekick from the right, triggering a spot of head-tennis in the Irish box before Gibson boots clear.
16 min: After a decent spell of ball retention by Ireland, Duff and Walters combine cannily, almost working an opening. But Eardley eventually snuffs out the danger.
18 min: Robson-Kanu turns too quickly for O'Shea, who clatters him from behind. In keeping with the ineptitude of the tackle the referee opts against booking the Irishman.
20 min: Collins launches a long ball towards Earnshaw, who had no chance whatsoever of winning against the Irish defenders, what with each of them being two feet taller than him.
22 min: Ireland still dominating possession, and Walters and Doyle galloping gamely all over the shop to offer options. In other news, good to see an ad for Tayto on hoardings around the pitch. Always though Mr Tayto is a ringer for Dick Advocaat.
24 min: Ricketts floats a cross into the box. Easy clearance by Dunne.
26 min: Penalty for Wales? No, the ref decides that Coleman did not trip Church. Not saying he wasn't correct, but it might be worth pointing out that the ref is an Irishman.
30 min: After a lenghty lull, Earnshaw reinvigorates the game with a burst through the Irish defence. The dozing St Ledger brings him down outside the box. "I just paid $130 to renew my Irish passport, and realized that all I've got to remember soccer-wise for the last ten years of citizenship is the fiasco of Saipan and the handball heartbreak of Paris," weeps Justin Kavanagh. "And now they don't even wear green at home?! That's it … I'm applying for a new international identity." Have you considered asking to become a member of the Israeli secret service? They owe Irish passport holders a favour, no?
31 min: Earnshaw sends his freekick into the empty stands behind the goal.
33 min: Nice ball by Crofts to Earnshaw, who attempts to find Church on the overlap, but Clark shows his speed by sprinting back to cut the pass out.
35 min: A shot on target, the first of the match! Doyle produced it after a bold run across the Welsh box and he clearly doesn't have a high opinion of his club-mate Wayne Hennessy, because he sent the ball trickling straight at him. The keeper confounded the striker by saving. "Ireland played the USA in the late '80s in Boston and the stadium announcer asked patrons to take off their caps and remain standing for the Irish National Anthem," blurts Steve Dahlgren. "Cue a emotional rendition of "Danny Boy" and a look of utter bewilderment crossed with 'WTF?' from the 11 Irish players standing to attention."
37 min: Robson-Kanu lets the ball run under his foot when all he had to do was control it and knock into the box where, for the first time, there were three Welshmen waiting for it.
38 min: Coelman, who hasn't really made the anticipated impact so far, tries to burst past Ricketts down the right but is fouled. Gibson cuts the freekick back to Coleman, who dinks the ball towards the penalty spot, where Clark meets it with a decent header. It floats narrowly wide.
40 min: Dainty play by Duff and the impressive Clark to thwart a Welsh attack of sorts.
42 min: Noble stuff from St Ledger, who initially intervened to stop Earnshaw from scampering clear on goal and then, after letting the ball run away from him, dived full length to head it off the ground before Robson-Kanu could reclaim possession for Wales.
44 min: Lovely move by Wales, the best of the match. After some patient passing, Eardley fizzed the ball in to Church, who, with a feint and a twirl, nudged it on the Church, who fired low and hard from 20 yards. Given gathered at the second attempt.
Half-time: Let us pause to catch our breath. Or, to be more precise, get reanimated. For this is a slow burner. Or maybe just a flaming waste of time.
Grim recollections: For some reason this match has got me thinking about my own bleakest experience on a pitch. It was at U-14 or U-15 level, a midweek match in Dunsink, and hailstones. Our keeper got injured early doors so I had to go in goals against our rubbish hosts. As my team-mates monopolised possession down the other end of the pitch, local urchins amused themselves by breaking milk bottles and firing the shards of glass at me. When I went over to dispense some instant justice, or probably just threaten to, our manager, after branding me a thug, took me off and opted to play on with just ten players. The anger still burns.
And you, what is your bleakest footballing memory?
46 min: Ch-ch-changes: Long on for Ireland (in place of Doyle) and Gunther comes on instead of Eardley for Wales.
47 min: Vaughan has looked cecent for Wales, his passing crisp and progressive.
48 min: Duff collects the ball off Duff, wanders across the box and bangs the ball straight at Hennessy. "Speaking from a purely narrow local perspective, what sort of game is Andy King having tonight?" parps Mark Clayton of the Leicester Mercury. Well, he hasn't put a foot wrong. Nor put one obviously right. Which is to say, I haven't really noticed him.
51 min: Earnshaw flops to the ground theatrically, the ref waves play on so Duff does so. Ireland tear forward and Long is presented with the best chance of the match, but gets too far under his shot and slashes it over the bar from 14 yards. That's a bad miss. "Any idea what the attendence is?" chunters Adam Walker. "It's not on the aviva staudium website since they don't want us to know. what they do want us to know of, however, is the progression of this team over recent years by topping their homepage with a stellar image of a pre-Trap starting XI from 2005 including Clinton Morrisson, Stephen Elliot, Graham Kavanagh and Paddy Kenny." The commentators aren't revealing the attendance but I can confirm that there are at least two spectators - I know this because they have just run on the pitch and momentarily brought this already-tame match to a halt. They've been shooed away now so that may well be that for tonight's entertainment.
54 min: King catches the eye! By being fouled by Gibson, who stuck in the sort of tackle he obviously picked up from Paul Scholes at Old Trafford. "Bleakest football experience? Easy," remembers Kevin Porter. "Watching Wolves humiliated by
Chorley 0-3 in the second replay at Burnden Park in November 1986. Fortunately West Bromwich Albion were on the point of selling us three useless cast-offs Andy Thompson, Robbie Dennison and Steve Bull."
56 min: Long puts his wieght about up front, the ball squirts through Collins's legs and then Duff, with only the keeper to beat, falls over while attempting to shoot. Hennessy does well to stifle his laughter long enough to prevent the ball trickling into the net.
58 min: Irish change: Coleman off, Fahey on. "As a regular sunday league player in Sarf London there are quite a few grim experience for me to recall," mourns Jack Duncton. "But the worst has to be the time when I had stayed in brighton the night before and got the 4am train to get back home to get the kit in Morden to then go and play in Dulwich. I had ahem been awake most of the night and vaguely remember coming into Victoria, however my next memory was then being woken up by the guard in sunny Brighton again, some 3 hours later and 1 hour before kick off. My dad was hastily press ganged into taking the kit to dulwich then awaiting me in East Croydon (grim enough in itself) to drive me to the game. Many broken traffic laws later arrived at the said pitch 15 minutes into the game with my team only having 10 men. Got changed out onto the pitch to proceed to give away a penalty with my first touch. We went on to lose 1-0, which did nothing to soothe the mother of all hangovers after a 120 mile round trip. 3 years on and there are still trust issues with some of my team mates."
GOAL! Ireland 1-0 Wales (Gibson 60') Wow! That's one for Nasa to study! Gibson swapped quick passes with Whelan and then rocketed the ball into the top corner from 28 yards!
61 min: Wales substitution: Vaughan off, Ledley on.
63 min: Fahey gives the ball away in midfield, but Dunne strides across to pilfer it back off Robson-Kanu. "Most chilling football memory? I was maybe eight or nineand our one soccer match was away against another local primary school," sudders Nigel Percy. "We'd never played as a team before and never did again. We lost 11-0 and I don't even remember the ball coming near me, but that wasn't the worst. The worst was next day, as I and a few others trundled across the playground in our sports kit to the gym, the female sports teacher/person/sadist said, loudly enough for all to hear, 'It's no wonder they lost 11-0 looking like that'. Sartorial sadism mixed with footballing criticism, and from a female, undid my budding masculinity and I only played hockey from then on."
65 min: Church cuts in from the right and lashes a respectable shot just wide from 20 yards. Given had it covered. "My worst football experience was grim indeed," trembles Greg O'Ceallaigh. "Playing a match in Balally in the freezing cold where the (small) local kids fired (very hard) berries at my legs with a catapault. Then their (large) older brothers told us they would kill us if we retaliated. We just had to keep moving, bunched away from the touchlines, towards the centre of the pitch. Their wingers found this very convenient. We lost."
GOAL! Ireland 2-0 Wales (Duff 67') Gunther unwisely tried to shepherd the ball out of play, Walters rustled the ball off him and pulled it back to Long, who, according to Ray Houghton in the gantry, dummed it to Duff (but to me it looked like he just missed his kick). Duff took on touch and lifted it over the keeper and into the net from eight yards.
69 min: Ireland are worthy of this lead. Without being brilliant they have been unquestionably superior to Wales, who, without the likes of Bale, Ramsey and Bellamy, look as ordinary as drizzle.
71 min: Irish change: Duff off, Keogh says hello.
73 min: Ireland are well on top here and Wales are slipping into damage-limitation mode.
75 min: Irish change: Green on, Whelan off. "Greg you had it easy," shrieks Pat D'Arcy re: memory at 65 mins. "Dundalk youths playing Finglas in Finglas. Ball over bar, close but over. GOAL for Finglas. Chat to the ref at half time. Wanna know what happened to the car of the ref last time they lost here? Get your engine running ref, we are gonna win! Final whistle, we win 2-1,and RACE for the minibus, engine running, outta here! Lucky to get out..."
78 min: Wales can't get into this game at all. Earnshaw is receiving no service of quality and on the rare occasions that he does get the ball he fails to control it. "Worst footballing memory? My debut for Glasheen U-10s," sobs Ian in Brooklyn. "It was freezing and miserable weather. I was a sub. I was shivering and running up and down the sideline all game failing to keep warm. About 15 minutes to go, I was brought on up front with my best friend. About five minutes to go, he played me in on goal with only the keeper to beat. A finish I made daily on the green outside my house. The ball skipped up and I sliced it so bad that I was able to collect my own pass. The following day my best friend was kind enough to tell my entire class about the open goal I missed. Never had the confidence to try to play for a team again." Football's loss, no doubt.
79 min: Wales change: Earnshaw replaced by Easter. "When I was at uni, I was mocked mercilessly for using the phrase 'go in goals', rather than 'go in goal', which apparently everyone else used," warbles Leo Howard. "Such were the scars, I have since stopped using the phrase, and indeed now avoid any situation where I might inadvertently utter those words. Consider my surprise then to see you using that exact phrase. Please tell me it wasn't a typo, but was in fact accepted usage." Well it was accepted usage in my neck of the woods, though whether that's sufficiently authoritative to impress your extremely pedantic friends I don't know.
81 min: Ray Houghton cuts to the chase: "this has been a bit lame from Wales." He's not wrong.
GOAL! Ireland 3-0 Wales (Fahey 83') Fahey curls a fine freekick around the wall from 20 yards. Sweetly struck, even if Hennessy could have saved it if he'd reacted more smartly.
84 min: Wales change: Nyatanga on for Ricketts. And Ireland throw on Marc Wilson for his debut, in place of Gibson.
85 min: Irish change: O'Shea off, O'Dea on. Meanwhile, more of your painful football memories. "Way back when I was much younger we were playing a match in Fog Lane park," remembers Geoff Ashworth. "Of course only in Manchester could there be a park named thus. Against a top touring team from Belfast we were holding them to 1-1 with three minutes to go. The ball came over from the left, I soared like Tommy Taylor and planted the ball firmly in the top right hand corner of the goal with the goalie staring opened-mouthed. The best goal I ever scored. Unfortunately the goal was our own and I wanted to dig a large hole in the pitch. "
87 min: Another feeble Welsh attack founders on the rock that is Richard Dunne. "Most away games in the Wicklow League were bleak, but arriving in Arklow to be told that the pitch was unplayable was a bad omen," eeeeks Justin Kavanagh. "They sent us up a mountain, to their 'spare pitch', which was barely visible under the cow pats. I remember not wanting to have anything to do with the warm-up, pretending to tie my laces for 15 minutes while the dung flew merrily about. Play was interrupted several times due to bovine pitch invasions—it was their home ground, in fairness. No-one scored with their head, I recall. The score I've managed to forget, but the smell on that bus all the way home is something that will haunt me to the grave."
89 min: It's petering out. No obvious positive for Speed to take from this game other than an accomplished performance from Vaughan. "Playing for Newcastle Poly in the late 70's, at Ryhope Working Man's Club, near Sunderland," scene-sets Gavin English before scene-setting some more: "Just think about that for a minute – a bunch of pretty boy students (who were generally skillful players) from Newcastle playing against a Working Man's Club from the Sunderland area – what could possibly go wrong? Cold wet January day, and I was playing full back. I went in for a full blooded slide tackle to thwart the onrushing winger, but the pitch conditions meant that I slid through a partly frozen puddle before contact with the ball. Unfortunately the winger was a "little" late and his shin made a very solid contact with my nose. I remember waking up face down in the ice puddle, in danger of drowning, with the sympathetic winger standing over me saying 'get up you f**king p**f. I was lifted off the field and had to lie for about 70 mins on a freezing cold touchline with the mother of all headaches. No idea what the final score was, but a few beers later seemed to settle the headache."
90 min: Ireland cut Wales apart with another free-flowing move, but Long miscontrolled right at the end to scupper his chance.
90+2 min: Three fine goals and plenty of positive for Trapp. Clark looked solid and enterprising, Dunne and St Ledger immaculate at the back albeit under little pressure. Duff was strong and purposefull, as was Fahey when he came on, and Walters, to be fair to him, foraged well and proved a useful fulcrum to the attack. Coleman did nothing wrong but did not sparkle as much as hoped. His time will come, though.
Full-time: It was as emphatic as the scoreline suggests. Ireland are well placed to claim only the second senior trophy in their history - and the first one, lest we forget, kickstarted their golden era .... OK, OK, let's not get carried away now.
