J. Staunton or P. Wallace?

Amazotheamazing

Well, who should be back-up to O'Gara in the upcoming tests? Indeed, which one should start against the Islanders?

Staunton has probably the more complete range of skills needed to be an outhalf, and has been playing there (or 12) for Wasps, but Paddy Wallace has looked extremely good for Ulster and has really brought creativity to their game. There are question marks over Wallace's kicking, but he nailed a touchline conversion against Connacht, Staunton has days where he kicks from everywhere and days when he can only kick the hard ones one and misses the easy ones, very strange.

Who should EOS keep faith in?

7mountpleasant

Personally i think wallace's expierience as an out half (he has played most games for ulster as a centre) would mitigate him however brittle staunton might be.

Danger_Dave

Id agree with 7mount, Wallace as played very well for ulster but at 12 , not 10 , and also i just dont think wallace is made for international rugby. Dont know if you saw the Ireland A's in Churchill cup. He was average at best ,dnt thnk he can take the pressure of playing at 10, He mightened even be able to do it full time at ulster , when David Hump retires.

Staunton has been ok when ive seen him, but only ok. Saw some of there game agaisnt Newcastle on the weekend, him and reddan had good games, I like reddan, handy scrum half, fast of the mark, So 9 is covered at the mo with stringer/boss/reddan, altho id prefer to see Boss at the top of that list

When will Manning be eligible{sp?} to play for ireland? , again tho hes ok, but hes young so i have high hopes for him.

Also munster game on friday was funny for 1 reason, everyone in munster can see why Hickey never played for leinster, not because they have better fly halfs, but because he's Muck, Ive only ever seen him have 1 good game and that was agaisnt Trinty, when he was playn for UCD.

7mountpleasant

Manning will be eligible, however having seen him play against reivers a couple of weeks back and the other few times I have seen him I don't see him as test standard (yet) lots of dinks and stuff but he just doesn't have the vision of an o gara or humphries (yet). With regards to Staunton my main concern is his mentality.He has got skill and is quite a handy preimership player, but I just don't think he is up to test rugby, I mean imagining him up against a french , new zealand or even a argentinian back row with the high possibility of his own pack on the back foot doesn't exactly fill me with confidence(although a little bit more than humphries who I think might possibly be the better player if he got more game time).

Amazotheamazing

7mountpleasant wrote:

Manning will be eligible, however having seen him play against reivers a couple of weeks back and the other few times I have seen him I don't see him as test standard (yet) lots of dinks and stuff but he just doesn't have the vision of an o gara or humphries (yet). With regards to Staunton my main concern is his mentality.He has got skill and is quite a handy preimership player, but I just don't think he is up to test rugby, I mean imagining him up against a french , new zealand or even a argentinian back row with the high possibility of his own pack on the back foot doesn't exactly fill me with confidence(although a little bit more than humphries who I think might possibly be the better player if he got more game time).

To be fair, O'Gara regularly plays very badly against both France and NZ, indeed, he's come as close as any one player in a team sport can come to losing us games against NZ, 3 years ago he couldn't kick the ball (not sure which type) and this year, well, the less said the better really. Indeed, it's hard to think of when O'Gara has ever played well when the pack is beaten, same as most outhalves really.

It's all to play for with both players, but say Wallace had a stormer agaisnt Toulouse I'd be pretty confident he could face Italy (for example).