Sorry but I am actually quoting him but I guess his stake in the forum makes it ok.Originally Posted by TRF_Feicarsinn
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Sorry but I am actually quoting him but I guess his stake in the forum makes it ok.
Learn to laugh at yourself mate, it makes life easier!
OSPREYS CALL TO ARMS: "As the Good Lord said, love thy neighbour as thyself. Unless he's a Turk, in which case KILL THE BASTARD!!!"
You should hear BG8's jokes they make look a dead camels hoof look funny
It does and I often do I have quite a self-deprecating sense of humour but he rubs me up the wrong way.Learn to laugh at yourself mate, it makes life easier!
Coming from the master of comedy himself.
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Bit of information on injuries and call ups at end of this article on Tom Rees.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rug...to-retire.html
"England have called in Bath lock Dave Attwood as cover for Tom Palmer, who has a hamstring problem. Owen Farrell has a sore shoulder picked up when flattening Imanol Harinordoquy. Northampton flanker Phil Dowson, who took a bang to the head from a France player and a boot in the face from team-mate Tom Croft, has recovered well but must undergo concussion tests before resuming training. Wing David Strettle is on the mend from the sternum injury that forced him to pull out against France. England name their side on Thursday to face Ireland at Twickenham."
England
Would be happy to see Attwood in, to be honest - Palmer had a better game when coming on, but would like to see what Attwood could bring.
If Farrell is out (which I don't think he will be) then Charlie would start and Flood on the bench. Would be good to see Charlie play with a good 9 feeding him.
If Dowson doesn't play (and with the severity of the concussion he had I presume he's on a week or two of rest) then I think Wood would come straight on to the bench.
If Strettle is fit I'd bring him in for Ashton, though I wouldn't be surprised to see him take Sharples' place.
All the player comparison stuff is a waste of time. Healy, who I dislike, has improved a lot in the scrum over the past year. I'll give him that. On an ordinary day I'd expect Cole to shove him around all afternoon, but in their head to heads, Healy has beaten Cole in the past...
What I'm trying to say is, you can certainly generalise on a prop's all-round scrummaging ability - Cole usually is very strong in the scrum, Healy often goes backwards against a good tighthead. But that isn't always the case, and sometimes props have off-days or simply can't deal with another prop's technique.
In the case of England vs Ireland, I don't think the scrum will be a big factor - Ireland are much improved from a year ago, and England have regressed; on paper I'd still say England have it better but on past matchups it hasn't worked out that way. I'd imagine the scrums will be fairly even.
Lineouts will be very important - England's is shaky and needs attention while Ireland's is normally good but they'll miss O'Connell. If England can disrupt the Irish lineout then a mega performance from Sexton/ O'Gara (let's face it one of them always plays well against us) kicking territory may not work out for them with a dodgy lineout, while we could put pressure after kicks from Farrell.
tsss...uh yeah, duhh !! My bad, thanks man...totally forgot about the points somehow lol.
Looking at that list I can understand several parts of the various match ups but three or four bother me a little.
1. The front rows. If Healy were to win this match up I would say because of his outstanding work in the loose than in the scrum Part of the reason why the French were worked so hard in the that part of the game was down to Corbisiero & Cole being such a menace. Don't think the Irish front row will have it all their own way.
2. Croft vs Ferris. If Croft repeats his barnstorming performance on Saturday I would say Croft & Ferris would be too close to call. Both are outstanding players and both would warrant a Lions call up.
3. Farrell vs Sexton. This troubles me because while Sexton is outstanding he has never, repeat never cemented his place in the starting XV and that if shockingly poor selection by Ireland because it reflects on his sometimes up and down performances on the pitch which results in him getting frustrated and at times almost giving verbals when he gets subbed for O'Gara. In a way O'Gara, like Wilkinson for England, is a bad player for Ireland not because his performances are bad or that he plays bad but because Ireland have relied on him for so long that they have found it almost impossible to adequately bed in his successor. The problem is that its 2012 and if O'Gara is still around coming on for Sexton by 2015 then something will have gone very very wrong. Such frustration must play on Sexton's mind somewhat so I feel that if he does have an off performance he may well be quickly subbed off for O'Gara.
Farrell on the other hand has no such issues. He's in a comfortable place with Charlie "I can kind of tackle now. I think." Hodgson acting happily as back up. He is in good form and bar the odd bad kick has played exceedingly well so far. Its his partnership with the superb Lee Dickson (keep wanting to call him Lee Dixon) that has provided the stability to give England the edge in attack and defence. He also enjoys the full confidence of his coach which is something I really don't think Sexton will have as long as Kidney is coach.
4. Kearny vs Foden. You are being generous. Foden is a real flyer but Kearny is still undeniably the King of catching
Haven't checked out the stats but based on just watching those matches, you might be right. He's been heroic in athletic ability and individual display of skills. At times all I saw in Ireland's offense was him and Bowe basically; 14 and 15 leading the charge. Incredible player...
i actually think Ireland have a great chance beating England more convincibly then Wales. But we have seen England get better and better in the 6N. Can England keep up this form? the "step-up" they showed against Wales and France was immense another performance may see them beat ireland.
The battle is i think all going to come down to penalties, and sexton will pop those over all day. It will leave England needing a try to win and i can't see it against a stubborn Irish defence.
As much as i don't want to say this, i can see this a 6point win for Ireland from penlaties made by the England pack.
It be interesting to see how we cope with the infamous choke tackles ireland do so well. We need to keep Ferris defending all game as he has done for much of the 6N and try to batter the irish centres with MANU. Last time we said we could bash up the irish centres (remember with Matt Banahan) Ireland dominated the game and won easily.
Kidney got his hands on the photocopier again:
1. Cian Healy
2. Rory Best
3. Mike Ross
4. DOC
5. D Ryan
6. Simon Easterby
7. Sean O'Brien
8. Jamie Heaslip
9. Eoin Reddan
10. Jonny Sexton
11. Andew Trimble
12. Gobshite D'Arcy
13. Keith Earls
14. Tommy Bowe.
15. Rob Kearney
Subs: Cronin, Court, Connacht guy, O'Mahony, Boxkick O'Leary, ROG. Benchwarmer McFadden.
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Big call!
OSPREYS CALL TO ARMS: "As the Good Lord said, love thy neighbour as thyself. Unless he's a Turk, in which case KILL THE BASTARD!!!"
This hinges on several things. Firstly a lot of teams have gotten wise to the whole "choke tackle" and have workarounds which have nulified it to a degree. Whether England have been watching what the likes of Wales, France and even Italy have done to get around the "two man job" (sounds so much better) I have no idea.
Secondly the level of penalties against England - an eye watering 11 - was artificially high thanks to the referee of the day. For that refer to the other thread on Rolland. I believe under another referee the penalties would have been lower probably 5 maybe 6. Still too high but England can easily improve on that.
Thirdly in terms of bashing up the centers I think Farrell - Barritt - Tuilagi have been absolutely excellent especially in defence. Why spend ages inventing a highly intricate and complicated tackling tactic that will be obsolete in 18 months when you can simply rely on the age old tactic of tackling the hell out of someone a-la Farrell on Hardinoriquy?
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No seriously...that's the actual team.Big call!
Ferris's name has been changed to Simon Easterby though. But I'll list it in the offical way, seeing as everyone's going to be curios as to what AIL club teams they play for:
IRELAND Team & Replacements (v England, 2012 RBS 6 Nations
Championship, Twickenham, Saturday, March 17, kick-off 5pm):
15 - Rob Kearney (UCD/Leinster)
14 - Tommy Bowe (Ospreys)
13 - Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster)
12 - Gordon D'Arcy (Lansdowne/Leinster)
11 - Andrew Trimble (Ballymena/Ulster)
10 - Jonathan Sexton (St. Mary's College/Leinster)
9 - Eoin Reddan (Lansdowne/Leinster)
1 - Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster)
2 - Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster) (capt)
3 - Mike Ross (Clontarf/Leinster)
4 - Donncha O'Callaghan (Cork Constitution/Munster)
5 - Donnacha Ryan (Shannon/Munster)
6 - Simon Easterby (Dungannon/Ulster)
7 - Sean O'Brien (Clontarf/Leinster)
8 - Jamie Heaslip (Naas/Leinster)
Replacements:
16 - Sean Cronin (St. Mary's College/Leinster)
17 - Tom Court (Malone/Ulster)
18 - Mike McCarthy (Buccaneers/Connacht)
19 - Peter O'Mahony (Cork Constitution/Munster)
20 - Tomas O'Leary (Dolphin/Munster)
21 - Ronan O'Gara (Cork Constitution/Munster)
22 - Fergus McFadden (Old Belvedere/Leinster)
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Forwards (13)
Mouritz Botha (Saracens)
Alex Corbisiero (London Irish)
Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers)
Tom Croft (Leicester Tigers)
Phil Dowson (Northampton Saints)
Dylan Hartley (Northampton Saints)
Joe Marler (Harlequins)
Ben Morgan (Scarlets)
Tom Palmer (Stade Francais)
Geoff Parling (Leicester Tigers)
Chris Robshaw (Harlequins)
Matt Stevens (Saracens)
Rob Webber (London Wasps)
Backs (11)
Chris Ashton (Northampton Saints)
Brad Barritt (Saracens)
Mike Brown (Harlequins)
Lee Dickson (Northampton Saints)
Owen Farrell (Saracens)
Ben Foden (Northampton Saints)
Charlie Hodgson (Saracens)
Charlie Sharples (Gloucester Rugby)
David Strettle (Saracens)
Manusamoa Tuilagi (Leicester Tigers)
Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers)
The following players will return to their clubs this evening:
Dave Attwood (Bath Rugby)
Calum Clark (Northampton Saints)
Karl Dickson (Harlequins)
Toby Flood (Leicester Tigers)
Joe Launchbury (London Wasps)
Lee Mears (Bath Rugby)
Jordan Turner-Hall (Harlequins)
Thomas Waldrom (Leicester Tigers)
Weird that Doran-Jones is not named anywhere and I swear I saw a interview with Mallinder saying Tom Wood was with the squad last week so weird he isn't there especially as Dowson could miss the game with concussion.
Palmer's hamstring must be fine else we would of kept Attwood. I would prefer Attwood anyway to be honest.
I wonder if Brown may get a start as he deserves a chance anyway and Foden's baby girl was born today so his attention might be elsewhere.
Last edited by B10; 13-03-12 at 06:52 PM.
England
Same 22 again then.
Good point on Foden, however I think he'll still start.
I thought he was going to pick O'Mahony but it seems Kidney's ultra consistency beats his Munster bias.
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"Out to O'Driscoll"
"O'Driscoll around Davies, He's wrong footed Cuthbert"
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Apart from Sky being up his arse (just like Armitage before him), what exactly has Brown done to warrant a "chance" apart from being this generations Ian Balshaw to Fodens' Jason Robinson?
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Played very well for Harlequins.
Have to be pretty one eyed to say he hasn't been...
To be fair to Mike Brown he hasn't had the chance to do amazing Iain Balshaw-esque things like pass a ball 30 meters to the goal posts or pretend he's a tighthead prop when he should be acting like a full back...
I think the Kidney bias applies largely to players who played under him at Munster. He's probably disgusted that O'Mahony had the cheek to take a place from Leamy, Wallace or Quinlan (despite the injury status or retirement status of said players).
His loyalty is now switching to players he's stuck with at international level...i.e D'Arcy, Heaslip. Otherwise Coughlan would obv be starting ahead of Heaslip if there was a sensible head coach (Coughlan > Heaslip + Morgan + Fattytau + Ian Balshaw+ Pierre Spies + Brian O'Driscoll all added together).
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Maybe so. But Foden has been considerably better.You have to be considerably 2 eyed to see that.
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Please please please IRU remove Kidney, we'll need your players to not be completely stagnant for the lions tour, if only so we can keep the welsh contingent as low as possible... But seriously, the choke tackle is effective but its irritating to watch an amazingly talented team confined to the same strategies such as the 'Loop' back move and choke tackle...it's like having an X brain yoyo and only knowing the Walk The Dog trick.
Oh and yeah, I think we all know Foden is all we'll ever need at fullback. If I hear anymore so-called rugby experts suggesting we stick foden on the wing and put brown on the wing, I will scream.(I am referring basically Austin Healey, but still..)
Last edited by HenryChinaski; 13-03-12 at 09:33 PM.
Indeed he has....I don't see your point?
It was said before the Six Nations that if Foden's kid was born mid-Six Nations (I think the due date was the day of the France match?) he might miss the following match, so Brown would be a capable replacement. That's all anyone's saying.
Agreed with Olyy. Brown is a solid full back who is better / more reliable than Balshaw was.
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If it would actually work, it would be awesome. Shame it almost definitely wouldn't.
Interesting random stat of the day: according to the torygraph, Ferris has made more passes and offloads than Barritt.
Not surprising he also set up two tries.
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