Ireland team to play Wales

Trojan

BOD back, and DOC to start...

The Ireland team to play Wales in the RBS Six Nations is:

15 – Girvan Dempsey (Leinster – Terenure College)
14 – Shane Horgan (Leinster – Lansdowne)
13 – Gordon D'Arcy (Leinster – Lansdowne)
12 – Brian O'Driscoll (Leinster - Blackrock College) Captain
11 – Tyrone Howe (Ulster – Dungannon)
10 – Ronan O'Gara (Munster – Cork Constitution)
9 – Peter Stringer (Munster – Shannon)
1 – Reggie Corrigan (Leinster – Greystones)
2 – Shane Byrne (Leinster – Blackrock College)
3 – John Hayes (Munster – Shannon)
4 – Donnacha O'Callaghan (Munster – Cork Constitution)
5 – Paul O'Connell (Munster – Young Munster)
6 – Simon Easterby (Llanelli)
7 – Keith Gleeson (Leinster – St. Mary's College)
8 – Anthony Foley (Munster – Shannon)

Replacements: 16 – Frank Sheahan (Munster – Cork Constitution), 17 – Simon Best (Ulster – Belfast Harlequins), 18 – Malcolm O'Kelly (Leinster – St. Mary's College), 19 – Victor Costello (Leinster – St. Mary's College), 20 – Guy Easterby (Rotherham), 21 – David Humphreys (Ulster – Dungannon), 22 – Kevin Maggs (Bath)

daveirl

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Trojan

Yeah, it's a bit strange... BBC sport agree with us. To me it seems that Eddie implies Howes place is rock solid by not mentioning him ...

O'Driscoll's return is no surprise but some eyebrows may be raised at Kevin Maggs' demotion with Gordon D'Arcy keeping one of the centre berths.

The other change in the Irish line-up from the defeat in Paris sees O'Callaghan replacing Malcolm O'Kelly.

With D'Arcy accommodated in the centre, winger Tyrone Howe and full-back Girvan Dempsey retain their starting places.

Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan acknowledged that the 59-times capped Maggs had been unlucky to lose his place.

"It was a very, very tight call but Gordon D'Arcy did extremely well in Paris and deserves another run," said O'Sullivan.

O'Kelly, who won his 60th cap in Paris, has paid for a below-par display against the French.

O'Callaghan did well when he was introduced as a replacement in Paris and he will partner O'Connell is an all-Munster second row.

Munster wing Anthony Horgan, who came on as a replacement in Paris, drops out of the Ireland squad.

Hairy Homer

Howe's not the worst. I think he's better than Kelly or Anthony Horgan. (Golden Rule of Irish Rugby- never allow on to the team a Munster player who wears a number higher than 10 on his back) But I'd have put D'Arcy at Full back instead of Dempsey and kept Maggs.

Can't complain about O'Callaghan for O'Kelly but we need a ball carrier in the pack. What has David Wallace done to deserve this bad karma?


I still think our forwards are better than the Welsh. A narrow win for Ireland on Sunday.

uberwolf

he was prepared to make big decisons, but didn't make the biggest one (Dempsey)

jonno

Dropping Maggs after his below par display in Paris is the right decision IMO. It will give D'arcy another go as well although I would have preferred him to be playing on the wing or full back. Also DOC had to be brought in as MOK hasn't had too many good run outs lately; even for Leinster Ben Gissing is stealing the show of the two locks. Other than Dempsey it is probably the strongest team available ATM.

I would have liked to have seen what Wallace and Gleeson could do together in the back row so hopefully he'll be back soon as well.

Irish win I think but it won't be plain sailing:(

daveirl

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hallelujajordan

I'm amazed. . . . I would have thought that BOD and Maggs together would be our strongest midfield pairing . .. Would love to have seen D'Arcy on the wing in place of Howe . .

MarVeL

Found it a very odd decision at first myself but with a slight squint of the eyes and some nice rose coloured glasses it could be thought that this is trying to put a more attacking edge in the middle of the pitch. If the forwards manage to control the game then there will be a lot for the welsh centres to mark there. Personally I would have kept Maggs and Moved D'Arcy out to the wing or even (we should be so lucky) full back but it might just work.

blindboy

I think Eddie was out on the pitch last week and maybe took a blow to the head or something because IMO dropping maggs might be somethin he might regret. Last week he didn't make any really good runs but he defended well and you ccould hardly blame any of the tries on him. He's very solid and I'm slightly disappointed that he is dropped him and Dris are a great partnership. And it's about time DOC got ahead of O'Kelly who has been poor of late. DOC had some great appearences for Munster and should be rewarded for that. We need a good lineout to create a platform for running plays and DOC gives that so. I hope to god they win...:(

evilhomer

I agree O'Driscoll and Maggs are a good partnership, but every team knows what they are going to do all the time (except when O'Driscoll pulls off a magic moment). Maggs is crash ball all the time and O'Driscoll is marked so closely nowadays. I think Eddie is trying to give defences something to think about with D'Arcy and O'Driscoll defences they will be stretched more because they are both very creative and have a bit of pace! In My Opinion that is. Dempsey is terrible and has been consistently terrible for quite some time. But he is just a stop gap till Geordan Murphy comes back(which might be before the end of the six nations!!).

qwertyup

I'm really hoping Murphy can make it back before the close.

He was a replacement in yesterday's match between Leicester and London Irish, so he must be close to match fitness. Don't think he made it onto the pitch though.

Could really do with the backline pulling out of the hat today. Completely outnumbered by the Welsh here in Cambridge, at least in terms of people who give a **** about the real "beautiful game".

GreenHell

Dropping Maggs is a big risk I think I dunno how hard or soft our midfield will be now but I think it is worth the risk we need to inject some attacking spirit into our game and it will give Wales something to think about.

I would have prefered to see Dempsey dropped and D'Arcy attacking from full back. You got to wonder when that'll will happen because it'll spell the end of Dempsey at full back to leinster. Oh the joy of having our two full backs from the same side.

If our pack dominates today we'll win, if wales get clean ball their back line could give us serious headaches.

Zer0^

all i got 2 say is good game to ireland and unlucky to wales but ireland pld well and the welsh only started to play 10mins before the end,i was at the match and i thought it was very good and also going to the match in england next week and cant wait ireland play very well and cant say much 2 the welsh but i thought ye would win ..... gl 2 ireland and gl 2 ireland in the england game \o/

Zer0^

by the way GOOD GAME Shane Byrne .

Hugh_C

Originally posted by hallelujajordan
I'm amazed. . . . I would have thought that BOD and Maggs together would be our strongest midfield pairing . .. Would love to have seen D'Arcy on the wing in place of Howe . .

As it turned out today, Howe had a good game, whereas Horgan didn't.

Can anyone explain to me why Horgan is still selected? He doesn't look useful...

Tyrrial

stringer is a little legend!
the pass he made to get the try was amazing. .... so not all munster people are bad... or to say it a different way.. one of them isn't

Trojan

Was at the game, haven't seen any of the tv reports/replays so wondering if people can clarify some comments I've read.

O'Gara - it was mentioned in one of the reports that he had a poor showing. Was I at a different game? He looked superb from my vantage - place kicking difficult with the wind, postional excellent, as for the block and chase... amazing!

Darcy looked pretty damn good too - justifying his selection 100%. Not so sure about Horgan and Howe. Swervin Girvan had an alright game but it's tough to justify his selection given the competition for backline places.

Maggs was pretty good - I think we need to make room to give him a starting spot from now on.

Murphy *could* be back - played as a sub in the Leicester - Irish game - thought he was only going to get a run on for 15 mins at the end, but he was brought on after 10 mins due to an injury, and played well. Pity there's no game for him next week to prove his full match fitness - could he be selected on the bench?

How did MOK play after we lost O'Callaghan? Looked like he did averagely to me.

Wales were messing about a lot trying to disrupt our lineout and they even succeeded once or twice - we were pretty dominant otherwise (and good throwing by Byrne). Think we have enough to do the same to England?

uberwolf

Originally posted by qwertyup
I'm really hoping Murphy can make it back before the close.

He was a replacement in yesterday's match between Leicester and London Irish, so he must be close to match fitness. Don't think he made it onto the pitch though.

he was brought on after only 8 minutes and played the rest of the game. quite well by all accounts. though not up to full fitness. Not a likely for vs. England squad IMO

daveirl

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