Future International Replacements

[irelandfan123]

Been watching Chris Henry lately , and he is developing into a good 7. His fetching is great lately and his general passing game is improving having a hand in some tries. He also has leader quality's , captaining the wolfhounds and ulster. After one bad match he has been forgetting by the Irish public.

In the 2014 Irish team I see

1.healy
2.best
3.hagan
4.touhy
5. hopefully POC's still going
6.Ferris
7. Heaslip
8. O'Brien
9.Murray
10. Sexton
11. trimby
12.mccfadden
13. Cave (really want to see him on the international stage , cant understand how he hasnt had a berth yet)
14. Bowe
15. Jones

Not much different but the Irish team seems to sick to players until they are ready to retire

 

[big ginger 8]

BG8, I cannot agree enough with what you say about 7s in attack, there its more about linking - but this is why I say have Heaslip take that role, as he has the best hands and is the worst carrier of the the three. And you're right enough about defence - particularly as you can't use what you don't have (but I do think ideally you have a fetcher).

I disagree with your analysis of Ireland's carrying, O'Connell's poor, Best has improved massively in these stakes recently but is still fairly average (and too brilliant around the park to drop for Cronin), Healy and Heaslip are both good enough but nothing amazing at international level (and Heaslip will be required to do the donkey work). Plus, there's no one in the backline who can carry like a forward if Trimble isn't selected, and even then he's one man - most backlines these days have 2 or 3 absolute monsters. O'Brien and Ferris are pivotal for Ireland. My analysis is also why I'd get Tuohy in there asap, as he's a very good carrier.

Interesting on Leavy. Was playing 7 for Ireland U18s in the spring and didn't look too bad at it from the telly, but does seem to have the 6 build pat. As good as people say?

I think PO'C was an absolutely shite carrier he just fell over but has improved loads since his injury and I rate Hely has a very good carry seriously just think back to his run against Aus on his debut has had plenty of good ones since but that really sticks in the memory. I know what your saying about the back line if McFadden gets in their despite not being to big is a very powerful carrier and Bowe is ok for it. It's not great but I prefer a back line that uses ingenuity instead of brute force so I'm not to worried about back line carriers. Should also note that Murray is a good carrier of course you can't do a crash ball with a scrum half.

Leavy is honestly a very good player as is his younger brother Adam (centre or wing) he has skills and is huge for a schools player, was the difference between us and hem though out of annoyance must say we should have won after they had 2 completely illegal tries and we had a guy sinbinned for a offense you can't get binned for at schoolboy level. Sorry about that. But yes Leavy is a very talented player with bucket loads of potential.

 

[big ginger 8]

13. Cave (really want to see him on the international stage , cant understand how he hasnt had a berth yet)

Maybe has something to do with your man Brian O'Driscoll.

 

[Darwin]

Conrad Smith - Fruen (Not too familiar with NZ centers)

Who will replace Smith is an interesting one. Smith is only 30 so could potentially play for another 4 years - the likely contenders could be very different then. However if he were (for some reason) to retire in the next year or so the obvious choice to replace him is Richard Kahui. Kahui's best position is actually a centre, despite playing well on the wing during the RWC. The problem that Kahui has is that he is very injury prone. Fruean is certainly a contender - he is devastating on attack, but needs to do a huge amount of work on his defense. Rene Ranger is another possibility if he gets a full season at 13 for the Blues, though like Fruean he has a lot of work to do (in his case mainly in decision making). An outside possibility would be the Highlanders Ben Smith, but only if he plays a season at centre for the Highlanders. Despite being an outstanding fullback, many people feel that centre is his best position. The main reason that I mention Ben Smith is that his game is so similar to that of Conrad Smiths - he's a very smart player who runs great lines and almost invariably makes the right decisions both in attack and defense.

 

[irelandfan123]

Maybe has something to do with your man Brian O'Driscoll.

yeah but Drico has missed games , I'm at least expected him to play through the warm up games , he got one game against a Connacht team and in regards to being picked for the Ireland training squads even Spence has had more recognition

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

SA IMO:

Definately out of the picture:
Guthro Steenkamp
John Smit
Gary Botha
Bakkies Botha
Victor Matfield
Danie Rossouw
Johan Muller
Fourie du Preez
Butch James (would be very surprised to see him selected at this stage)
Jean de Villiers
Bryan Habana (I wish)
Possibly out of the picture or probably maybe 2 years left:
Jannie de Beer
Juan Smith
Schalk Burger
Pierre Spies (hopefully)
Morne Steyn (with the amount of young talent coming through..)
Jaque Fourie

Going to have to take on more responsibility; core experienced group (allready pretty secure):
Tendai Mtawarira
Bismarck du Plessis
Andries Bekker
Heinrich Brussow
Willem Alberts
Francois Hougaard
Patrick Lambie
Frans Steyn
Juan de Jongh
JP Pietersen
Gio Aplon
Probably in (also depending on oversees selection policy):
Dean Greyling
Adriaan Strauss / Chiliboy Ralepele
Gerhard Mostert / Flip van der Merwe
Devon Raubenheimer / Duane Vermeulen
Ruan Pienaar
Lwazi Mvovo / Bjorn Basson
Possibly within the next 2 years:
Marcel van der Merwe / Coenie Oosthuizen
Rynhardt Elstadt
Johan Goosen / Elton Jantjies / Sias Ebersohn
Francois Venter / Johann Sadie
Too many potential young wingers to mention (sadly no-one sticking out like say Christian Wade for England does)
Jaco Taute

Biggest potential problem for the future IMO would be finding at least two world class tightheads that can go for at least 4 years (looking towards RWC 2015). Traditional weakness of limited 10's and 15's shoudn't be a problem with the right selections and good development of available young talent:
10 - Lambie/Goosen/Jantjies/Ebersohn
15 - Taute/Lambie/Ebersohn/Ludik
Other than that we are golden.

 

[ZeFrenchy]

SA IMO:


Possibly out of the picture or probably maybe 2 years left:
Jannie de Beer

Uh? You mean the guy who scored 5 DG in 1999 and hasn't played a test ever since?

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Uh? You mean the guy who scored 5 DG in 1999 and hasn't played a test ever since?

LOL, meant du Plessis, sorry.