Ireland And O2 Ireland Wolfhounds Squads Announced

[Amiga500]

What about McFadden at 12 and D'Arcy at 13?


Remember 2004 folks?

 

[killer08]

zebo should get some time with wolfhounds now surely after the munster game

 

[Conal]

http://www.irishrugby.ie/news/25435.php

here have been several enforced changes to the Ireland senior and O2 Ireland Wolfhounds squads, following the weekend's action in the Heineken Cup and British & Irish Cup.

Paddy McAllister sustained a knee injury while playing for Ulster Ravens in the British & Irish Cup and has been replaced in the senior squad by Leinster loosehead prop Jack McGrath.
Munster winger Simon Zebo will move up to play for the Wolfhounds as Luke Fitzgerald has failed to recover sufficiently from injury to either be considered for the game against the England Saxons or for the Ireland training camp.

Meanwhile, Ulster winger Craig Gilroy has been called into the senior squad to replace Zebo.

Andrew Conway, who was also due to train with the senior squad in Limerick as one of the six additional players, has had to pull out due to injury, with his Leinster team-mate Fionn Carr replacing him in the senior squad.

anyone know what to make of this??

i think kidney underrates gilroy

 

[Luimneach18]

http://www.irishrugby.ie/news/25435.php




anyone know what to make of this??

i think kidney underrates gilroy

yes just seen the article on bbc sport glad to see gilroy being brought in at only at 20, 21 and reguarly starter for ulster i think he could be a great prospect for ireland was very suprised when he got excluded but glad to see kidney has brought him in bearing in mind i do also like zebo as well very much.

 

[jovialjonny]

Nice to see Zebo get a run, game is on sky too so can take a look at how this lot shape up.

Coughlan in for cullen is an interesting one too.

On the whole it feels the irish fans on here are a bit knives out for deccie. Seems a bit harsh to me, there are 4 long years and an awful lot of rugby to play between now and 2015, there has to be a balance between playing your best 15 vs developing for the future.

Worth remembering he's the most successful Irish coach ever in terms of medals in the cupboard and you're dudes with a big opinion on d'internet! He's earned a bit of trust.

I think England will find themselves the wrong side of that line this year and Wales may do too.

Really with the full squad deccie has in now the only whine of omission is paul marshall. We are blessed with a glut of good scrumhalves so I wont lose too much sleep over that.

Midfield pairing is about the only place I'd like a little more adventure.

 

[King_D'Arcy]

Nice to see Zebo get a run, game is on sky too so can take a look at how this lot shape up.

Coughlan in for cullen is an interesting one too.

On the whole it feels the irish fans on here are a bit knives out for deccie. Seems a bit harsh to me, there are 4 long years and an awful lot of rugby to play between now and 2015, there has to be a balance between playing your best 15 vs developing for the future.

Worth remembering he's the most successful Irish coach ever in terms of medals in the cupboard and you're dudes with a big opinion on d'internet! He's earned a bit of trust.

I think England will find themselves the wrong side of that line this year and Wales may do too.

Really with the full squad deccie has in now the only whine of omission is paul marshall. We are blessed with a glut of good scrumhalves so I wont lose too much sleep over that.

Midfield pairing is about the only place I'd like a little more adventure.

But it has to be recognised even by Kidney that choosing the likes of Cullen, Jennings, O'Callaghan and Wallace for the full squad is a waste of space when we have younger guys available in their positions who are playing a good bit better than they are. That's not choosing your strongest team; it's just being overly conservative.

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

As King D'arcy has said, if the experienced players were the form players, nobody could (or should criticise) Kidney for picking them. Clearly though, the likes of Cullen and O'Callaghan and Jennings in particular haven't shown the type of form to merit inclusion over players like Tuohy, McCarthy and O'Mahoney.

I don't advocate blanketly discarding any player over the age of 30 in the name of development either. Two years is plenty of time to get somebody up to speed at international level. Players like Tiernan O'Halloran and Rhys Ruddock for example should wait their turn and not get called up simply because they're talented and born after 1990.

 

[Peat]

On the whole it feels the irish fans on here are a bit knives out for deccie. Seems a bit harsh to me, there are 4 long years and an awful lot of rugby to play between now and 2015, there has to be a balance between playing your best 15 vs developing for the future.

Worth remembering he's the most successful Irish coach ever in terms of medals in the cupboard and you're dudes with a big opinion on d'internet! He's earned a bit of trust.

I think England will find themselves the wrong side of that line this year and Wales may do too.

Really with the full squad deccie has in now the only whine of omission is paul marshall. We are blessed with a glut of good scrumhalves so I wont lose too much sleep over that.

Midfield pairing is about the only place I'd like a little more adventure.

From the outside looking in, as someone who's followed Irish rugby quite closely for the last couple of years - he has earned that trust, and he's spent the last couple of years using it up. 2009 was a fantastic year for Irish rugby; since then, the international game has floundered. Kidney's gameplan has not got the best out of the players, his selection choices have put far too much emphasis on who he's worked with and trusts over who's in form, and there have been poor results.

There's not a lot of excuses if things go badly here. The Irish provinces are stronger than they have ever been as a collective, there are relatively few injuries, a lot of the other 6N teams are in a bad way... it's all set up for Ireland. Kidney hasn't really nailed himself to doing anything due to effectively picking a squad of 54, so we'll see where that goes, and how the results go - as really that's all he'll be judged on. But, to repeat myself, there are no excuses if they don't.

Finally - if you think Irish fans here aren't fond of Kidney, wait until you see the rest of the net...

 

[Saintjay]

From the outside looking in, as someone who's followed Irish rugby quite closely for the last couple of years - he has earned that trust, and he's spent the last couple of years using it up. 2009 was a fantastic year for Irish rugby; since then, the international game has floundered. Kidney's gameplan has not got the best out of the players, his selection choices have put far too much emphasis on who he's worked with and trusts over who's in form, and there have been poor results.

There's not a lot of excuses if things go badly here. The Irish provinces are stronger than they have ever been as a collective, there are relatively few injuries, a lot of the other 6N teams are in a bad way... it's all set up for Ireland. Kidney hasn't really nailed himself to doing anything due to effectively picking a squad of 54, so we'll see where that goes, and how the results go - as really that's all he'll be judged on. But, to repeat myself, there are no excuses if they don't.

Finally - if you think Irish fans here aren't fond of Kidney, wait until you see the rest of the net...

I am not convinced it is all set up for Ireland. First up a welsh team with the knowledge and belief they can beat Ireland when it matters. Then an away trip to the rugby world cup finalists.

Irelands tournament could be over after the first two games. Then again they could get off to a flyer and sweep all before them, they just have a very very tough start.

 

[Peat]

I am not convinced it is all set up for Ireland. First up a welsh team with the knowledge and belief they can beat Ireland when it matters. Then an away trip to the rugby world cup finalists.

Irelands tournament could be over after the first two games. Then again they could get off to a flyer and sweep all before them, they just have a very very tough start.

It's not easy but then international rugby isn't. If Kidney can't get at least one win from those games, he's in the wrong job.

 

[Saintjay]

It's not easy but then international rugby isn't. If Kidney can't get at least one win from those games, he's in the wrong job.

Very true, I think it's going to be very tight this year with Ireland, Wales, France all losing at least one match. I would be very surprised if anyone makes the slam.