Australia v Ireland

[BRSTLDRGN]

Gordon is reaching what I like to call the 'King Lear' stage of his reign. He now must decide who to designate his power to for better of for worse. Let's hope he picks a virtuous Leinsterman as opposed to one of them mucksavages from beyond the pale to fill his mighty boots.

Whats next? The MacBeth era where all his rivals are mysteriously bumped off

 

[Feicarsinn]

Whats next? The MacBeth era where all his rivals are mysteriously bumped off

No silly. The period of Lear was followed by the joint rule of the kingdom by Albany and Edgar,a time in which "all friends shall taste from the cup of their virtue." I'm assuming in this case Albany, the stronger leader, will be Lukey Fitz and Edgar's place will be taken by Fergus McFadden but alas, only time will tell.

 

[BRSTLDRGN]

Not gonna lie, but the lack of bare boobs put me off Shakespeare :lol:

 

[lucky number 7]

twill be a noble handing down of the throne methinks...

 

[munstermuffin]

Lads I looked again at the match and well based on that I think if the World Cup was in next few months my starting XV would be:
1. Healy
2. Flannery
3. Buckley
4. O'Callaghan
5. Cullen
6. Ferris
7. Wallace
8. Heaslip
9. O'Leary
10. Sexton
11. Trimble/Fitzgearld
12. Earls (But at outside centre)
13. BOD (13 is his number)
14. Bowe
15. Murphy

Cronin/Best,Horan/Court,O'Connell,Leamy,Reddan,ROG,Kearney/Trimble

Reason I have Cullen on ahead of Paulie is well as a diehard Munster man who follows them everywhere and is lucky to work on outsides of Munster Rugby Paulie has not had a great string of form since been named Lions captain and well Cullen has been the better performer. DOC is a different tpe player to them and well DOC is performing well.

Earls and BOD is what we need as its simple BOD hasn't the legs for 13 anymore but his brain is vital and he can dictate from 12.
Earls is going to be a superb 13 and well I know we can say Bowe, Trimble and Fitzgearld can play centre but Keith is the only natural 13 there and well is a star in the making.
On the wing Luke Fitz and Bowe would be my first choice but if Trimble is on form he'll be close.

Also think there alot of twists and turns in this coming season and well I think Varley, D'Arcy P. Wallace, Jennings and Hayes will be up for the battle too.

 

[lucky number 7]

1- Healy (needs to sort out scrummaging)
2-Flannery
3-Buckly (also needs to sort scrummaging)
4-DOC
5-POC (he may hit great form when he returns hopefully)
6-ferris
7-wallace/o brien
8-heaslip
9-o leary (needs to get his acto together and take on ball like he was doing in 6N)
10- sexton
11-earls
12-Bod
13-Fitzgerald
14- bowe
15- kearney (had a bad year but should hit form again when he cops on)

 

[coonor]

I think we lost this game because we simply didn't have enough ball and this is mainly because of poor set piece. When we did have the ball at times our midfield looked dangerous but we were almost to creative and when we should have taken contact we just through away the ball. Some very poor errors aswell but I mainly blame this on a lack of experience and a very very long season for the players like Bowe, BOD, DOC etc. Ireland really do need to just keep the ball and be patient (we seem to be fine at the breakdown). also think the aussies looked quite poor but I beleive that was becasue of our stubbern team defence.

positives
- Cronin I personally thought was solid line throws were fine, great tackler and good all carrying
- I think O'driscoll and DOC worked really hard today and I think Mick really showed he can step in
- The Back row was fairly good considering their opposition
- Sexton really showed that he can kick. His defence was also very strong (our best player by a mile)
- I think P.wallace put his hand up today I personally think him and Earls in the centre could be a brilliant attacking combo (not sure about their collective defence though)

Negatives
- The scrum is awful they must it must improve (hopefully with the provinces now reallising how important it is they may work hard on it)
- Mistakes are far to common knock-ons, silly kicks, missed tackles and poor passes must be eliminated
- we barely ever have the ball we need to be far more patient and just go through the phases

I do believe we have learned alot from this tour and alot of new players were brought through. We now have alot of competion for places and I think a good rest is what is needed as our players just don't look fresh at the moment which is understandable

 

[Haysie]

No silly. The period of Lear was followed by the joint rule of the kingdom by Albany and Edgar,a time in which "all friends shall taste from the cup of their virtue." I'm assuming in this case Albany, the stronger leader, will be Lukey Fitz and Edgar's place will be taken by Fergus McFadden but alas, only time will tell.

Surely Richard the 3rd must make an appearance at some point? The war of the roses... (Read four-leaf clover) results in a team full of D'Arcys?
"Now is the SUMMER of our discontent"

 

[Kdog]

kdog the sad thing is there the only real tight head choices we have

I think that they need to find the prop with the best technique in the country(regardless of size) and take him onboard. If his technique is right but he is small they can bulk him up with weights and protein etc... That way they can have a big prop with good technique

 

[Kdog]

1 Healy(but i'd be constantly on the lookout for a replacement)
2 Flannery
3 Buckley(but i'd be constantly on the lookout for a replacement)
4 DOC
5 POC
6 Ferris
7 Wallace
8 Heaslip
9 O'Leary
10 O Gara
11 Luke FItz
12 Sexton
13 BOD
14 Bowe
15 Earls



I've always thought Sexton would make a good inside centre and that way if O Gara or Sexton was having a bad game take off the one play badly and put paddy wallace into inside centre)
Earls in for Kearney because well Kearney's been playing **** and needs to be punished for it make him fight for his spot.
and i'd be non stop looking for front rows

 

[King_D'Arcy]

I'll stand for Keith Earls, Paddy Wallace and Luke Fitz replacing D'Arcy as the 1st choice inside centre, but I draw the line at Sexton.

 

[Kdog]

i'm tellin ya sexton for centre:L:L

 

[TRF_Olyy]

O'Gara over Sexton?
Earls at 15 over Murphy?
Madness i tell thee!

 

[King_D'Arcy]

Yeah, my biggest problem with that team is O'Gara. Why start an ageing players who's on a steady decline? Sexton has proven himself to be worthy of the 10 jersey. He's never played at 12. I mean we've got a host of good players to pick from who we could be playing at 12. Some people have even been talking about dropping O'Driscoll so that all of Earls, Fitz, Trimble and Bowe can start (I think dropping O'Driscoll would be utter madness however). 15 belongs to Murphy or Kearney.

 

[durbutter]

BOD to 12 with Fitz or Earls to 13. P. wallace on the bench as 10/12 cover.

 

[coonor]

RWC 1st choice backs

9)0'leary
10)Sexton
11)Fitzgerald (providing he returns to the form he had before injury)
12)BOD
13)Earls
14)Bowe
15)Kearney

replacements
reddan
wallace
murphy

Don't know whether O'gara offers us anything that sexton doesn't plus he can only play fly half while wallace can play basically anywhere.

 

[lucky number 7]

The problem ireland have with producing good scrummagers goes right down to the grassroots level .

underage props are not encouraged to learn the art of scrummaging as the maxiimum push limit is 1 metre ..this leads to players focusing so much more time and effort working on their loose play rather than learning how to destroy the opposition prop at scrumtime .

before we can really expect to produce a top quality scrummager the 1 metre rule needs to be abolished thus giving greater weight to the scrum in underage rugby and rewarding good scrum technique with penalties rather than conceding them for being too good for the opposition ..

and scrumming is all technique i have seen a 12 stone number 6 completely obliterate a 16 stone loosehead time after time winning his team penalties as he had been taught the technique perfectly...there needs to be more focus on teaching scrummaging to the youth if we are ever to intend on competing with the likes of NZ consitantly

 

[profitius]

Irish scrummaging is a laughing stock. Thats what happens when you totally neglect that area. They've finally gotten in some scrum coaches around the provinces but as far as next years world cup its too little too late. We should have an abundance of scrummagers because Irish people are generally on the stocky side.

Lads I looked again at the match and well based on that I think if the World Cup was in next few months my starting XV would be:
1. Healy
2. Flannery
3. Buckley
4. O'Callaghan
5. Cullen
6. Ferris
7. Wallace
8. Heaslip
9. O'Leary
10. Sexton
11. Trimble/Fitzgearld
12. Earls (But at outside centre)
13. BOD (13 is his number)
14. Bowe
15. Murphy

Cronin/Best,Horan/Court,O'Connell,Leamy,Reddan,ROG,Kearney/Trimble

Reason I have Cullen on ahead of Paulie is well as a diehard Munster man who follows them everywhere and is lucky to work on outsides of Munster Rugby Paulie has not had a great string of form since been named Lions captain and well Cullen has been the better performer. DOC is a different tpe player to them and well DOC is performing well.

POC hasn't had a great season for his normally high standards but he's had ****ly injuries and like most Irish players he needs a long summer off.

Cullen and even DOC are nowhere near as good as POC. His workrate alone is better then most international backrows'.

 

[dangandan]

can someone please tell me what's so good bout Kearney? he's slow, below average tackler and hes the last line of defense. ive only seen him catch up and unders, which hes not very good at anymore either. i'm hoping with the mass amount of youth talent coming through at wing and fullback they can push him out. Murphy for now but he's aging. the idea of earls at fullback sounds nice. 9. o'leary 10. sexton 11. trimble 12. bod 13. fitzgerald 14. bowe 15. earls. that to me has enough solidity and attacking spark, which has been missing. then to sort out the unsolvable issue with the front row...

 

[durbutter]

The problem ireland have with producing good scrummagers goes right down to the grassroots level .

underage props are not encouraged to learn the art of scrummaging as the maxiimum push limit is 1 metre ..this leads to players focusing so much more time and effort working on their loose play rather than learning how to destroy the opposition prop at scrumtime .

before we can really expect to produce a top quality scrummager the 1 metre rule needs to be abolished thus giving greater weight to the scrum in underage rugby and rewarding good scrum technique with penalties rather than conceding them for being too good for the opposition ..

and scrumming is all technique i have seen a 12 stone number 6 completely obliterate a 16 stone loosehead time after time winning his team penalties as he had been taught the technique perfectly...there needs to be more focus on teaching scrummaging to the youth if we are ever to intend on competing with the likes of NZ consitantly

Don't every country have that 1m rule?

Might it be scouts are looking for props who are as big as possible and contribute around the field, with scrummaging not a major priority.

Also with schools rugby all about winning, would schools coachs not pick lads who are all power and little technique who win the hit and dominate better technical scrummagers purely on size.

when these nplayers move up the ranks their size and power will be matched and neutered, and with undeveloped techniques they were slaughtered!

Any opinions? any ex schools players out there?