Argentina tour squad announced

Ireland Squad

Forwards (17)

Neil Best (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster)

Simon Best (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster)

*Peter Bracken (Wasps)

*Tony Buckley (Shannon/Munster)

Leo Cullen (Leicester)

Stephen Ferris (Dungannon/Ulster)

Jerry Flannery (Shannon/Munster)

Keith Gleeson (St.Mary’s College/Leinster)

Jamie Heaslip (Clontarf/Leinster)

Trevor Hogan (Shannon/Leinster)

Bernard Jackman (Clontarf/Leinster)

*Shane Jennings (Leicester)

Mick O’Driscoll (Cork Constitution/Munster)

Malcolm O’Kelly (St.Mary’s College/Leinster)

Alan Quinlan (Shannon/Munster)

Frankie Sheahan (Cork Constitution/Munster)

Bryan Young (Ballymena/Ulster)



Backs (13)

Isaac Boss (Ballymena/Ulster)

Tommy Bowe (Belfast Harlequins/Munster)

*Brian Carney (Clonakilty/Munster)

Gavin Duffy (Galwegians/Connacht)

*Robert Kearney (UCD/Leinster)

Kieran Lewis (St.Mary’s College/Leinster)

*Barry Murphy (U.L. Bohemians/Munster)

Geordan Murphy (Leicester)

*Tomas O’Leary (Dolphin/Munster)

Eoin Reddan (Wasps)

Jeremy Staunton (Wasps)**

Andrew Trimble (Ballymena/Ulster)

Paddy Wallace (Ballymena/Ulster)

* indicates uncapped player

**Subject to Fitness Test

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7 uncapped players and most of the senior squad left at home.
Should make for some interesting rugby. It will be an interesting tour, mostly to see if we can cope without the household names.

Amz

Nice to Carney in there.

GreenHell

No Darragh Hurley, disappointing. Wonder if he is injured.

athtrasna

Am delighted to see Tony Buckley included, about time he got some proper recognition.

Diamondmaker

Exciting looking squad, some reaql talent and even a bit of experience!

Bests. Gleeson, Cullen, Flannery, Okelly, Sheaha, Murphy - Trimble and Bowe to a lesser extent in the backs

Is it a worry that there are so many experienced out of favour players in the forwards for a development squad?

I suppoe it is good good to have them playing just before the WC though.
If this was next summer Id expect to see most of the above not there.

I think we will se that carney fella in the WC openers, cant wait hes class.
A true Leinster man

Linford

Anyone know why Luke Fitzgerald not included in the squad

tHE vAGGABOND

Thats a brilliant squad. Lets give our backup players a game or two!

I really would love Reddan to have a stormer over there, and take the 9 shirt tbh. He offers more than Stinger imho

Lets have a look at Paddy Walace again, this time with some pressure on him. Playing at 10 against folks who have actually played the game before

I really hope Cullen and/or Hogan plays well, and gets that 2nd Row bench spot. its clear Mick O'd is not a good option there IMHO.

Same for Carney, no harm having someone exciting as a 'impact' player for the wing, but I think thats trimble's spot to loose.

Its a shame they cant magic a young potentially world class prop from somwhere I would rather they had brought more 'kids' but its a tour for players to fight for world cup places more than a real development tour I suppose..

GreenHell

*cough* Darragh Hurley

Nukem

GreenHell wrote:

*cough* Darragh Hurley

Couldn't agree more!

Anyone care to predict the starting 15 and the 7 subs for the first match?

Diamondmaker

Linford wrote:

Anyone know why Luke Fitzgerald not included in the squad

Yeah its odd to see he gets capped and then dropped to the "B" team for Churchill Cup. Pwerjaps his tender years have had him put off another while before he gets to start sniffing around senior tream again after WC....

I saw him this morning on way to work, he drives an ickle golf bless the wee lad:)

nacho libre

Is Johnny O Connor injured? Or is he that far down the pecking order nowadays?

Linford

nacho libre wrote:

Is Johnny O Connor injured? Or is he that far down the pecking order nowadays?

I think he is that far down in the pecking order...

Macca07

Johnny O'Connor is in the squad for the Churchill Cup in the US, so I presume he's just so far down the pecking order. Don't know whats the story with darragh hurley, he's not included in that squad either. And we all saw in The Autumn games that Fitzgerald just isn't good enough to take to the WC, give him another year or two, will be fantastic. Unless, they've decided to include him already, doubt it though

TarfHead

Linford wrote:

Anyone know why Luke Fitzgerald not included in the squad

At a guess .. he's been out injured for most of since he was capped. He needs time and Argentina ain't the place to build confidence. This time last year he was getting ready for his Leaving Cert - there's no rush.

TarfHead

GreenHell wrote:

No Darragh Hurley, disappointing. Wonder if he is injured.

Maybe a couple of games for Munster would help ?

Churchill Cup is better for a young prop. He'd be holding tackle bags in Argentina.

GreenHell

He isn't on that squad either.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

Diamondmaker

Macca07 wrote:

And we all saw in The Autumn games that Fitzgerald just isn't good enough to take to the WC, give him another year or two, will be fantastic. Unless, they've decided to include him already, doubt it though

Luke has lost his place to the experience, bulk and stregth of carney.
I know who I would bring of the 2 if I had to choose.

Right choice, LF will be around when Hickie and Carney are retired plenty ahead of him.

Remeber Darcy did not go to last WC, look at him now. What would have happened a young guys confidence eaten on the world stage for being too young. ( Tait Versus Henson springs to mind here. 2 odd years to get back in reckoning! )

psicic

'Out of favour players' - I think a great way of explaining why some of our rugby talent seems under-utilised.

The absence of Luke does sadden this Leinster heart...
However, at least Rob is there.... maybe if he plays enough he can finally learn what an offload is...;)

thebaz

Bob Casey doesn't even make the Churchill squad -- he must have done something bad to Eddie -- its hardly for playing in England that he is constantly ignored ?

JenK

Diamondmaker wrote:

Luke has lost his place to the experience, bulk and stregth of carney.
I know who I would bring of the 2 if I had to choose.

Right choice, LF will be around when Hickie and Carney are retired plenty ahead of him.

Remeber Darcy did not go to last WC, look at him now. What would have happened a young guys confidence eaten on the world stage for being too young. ( Tait Versus Henson springs to mind here. 2 odd years to get back in reckoning! )

very true, give the kid time to develope. i wreckon all the 'next Brian O'driscoll' talk/pressure can do his game harm.

anyway guys, does anyone know where to get tour tickets from? i told my mate whos in South america at the moment that id keep an eye out for them since he wants to head to the game since hes on that side of the world???

Scootay

Diamondmaker wrote:

Luke has lost his place to the experience, bulk and stregth of carney.

Experience? Three hours of Rugby Union?

I do know what you're saying and I've no problem with Carney getting the nod. Luke will still be here in 2011. Of course anything could happen over the next month or so.....

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

Diamondmaker

Scootay wrote:

Experience? Three hours of Rugby Union?

I do know what you're saying and I've no problem with Carney getting the nod. Luke will still be here in 2011. Of course anything could happen over the next month or so.....

3 hrs of Union and a whole career of League open your eys and check out his CV !

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Carney_%28rugby_footballer%29

LF may be above RK in EOS pecking oder but Brian has got to be the man to bring on if old man Denis;) runs out of steam in a pressure situation.

burnedfaceman

luke fitzgerald does not deserve to be in tour squad, has barely played since january and placed crap last week. kearney would of been capped in autumn internationals instead of him were it not for injury.

Goodluck2me

Kearney actually has a good game for UCD agaisnt Belfast in that relegation decided a few weeks ago too. he has bulked up quite condsiderably since last year too. Luke is 19/20 he doesnt need to go to Argentina, even if he is good enough which i doubt yet due to lack of high profile match experince, being brought up too quickly might give him the impression he`s better than he is, and end up tait-esque. fair play to rob, its just a shame they are both vying for the same positon, why cant they be props???

Diamondmaker

goodluck2me wrote:

Kearney actually has a good game for UCD agaisnt Belfast in that relegation decided a few weeks ago too. he has bulked up quite condsiderably since last year too. Luke is 19/20 he doesnt need to go to Argentina, even if he is good enough which i doubt yet due to lack of high profile match experince, being brought up too quickly might give him the impression he`s better than he is, and end up tait-esque. fair play to rob, its just a shame they are both vying for the same positon, why cant they be props???

They would suck as props.......light weight pretty boys:D