Ireland team vs. Italy Announced

Crash

Centre Brian O’Driscoll will win his 80th cap for Ireland this Saturday when he leads the team out to play Italy in Croke Park in the opening game of the 2008 RBS 6 Nations Championship.
Ireland Coach Eddie O’Sullivan has named Geordan Murphy on the left wing, with Ulster’s Andrew Trimble named on the right wing. At halfback, Ronan O’Gara will continue his partnership with Eoin Reddan, who was named at scrumhalf to win his 6th cap for Ireland.
In the forwards, Prop John Hayes will also be reaching the landmark of 80 caps for Ireland in a front row that sees the return of Rory Best to the starting lineup. Malcolm O’Kelly also returns to the starting fifteen to extend his Ireland caps record to 92.
Ireland Team to play Italy

RBS 6 Nations Championship on Saturday, 2nd February 2008 in Croke Park at 14.00hrs.
Player / Club / Caps
15 - Girvan Dempsey (Terenure College/Leinster) 78
14 - Andrew Trimble (Ballymena/Ulster) 19
13 - Brian O’Driscoll (UCD/Leinster) 79 (Captain)
12 - Gordon D’Arcy (Lansdowne/Leinster) 36
11 - Geordan Murphy (Leicester) 53
10 - Ronan O’Gara (Cork Constitution/Munster) 77
9 - Eoin Reddan (Wasps) 5
1 - Marcus Horan (Shannon/Munster) 51
2 - Rory Best (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster) 17
3 - John Hayes (Bruff/Munster) 79
4 - Donncha O’Callaghan (Cork Constitution/Munster) 40
5 - Malcolm O’Kelly (St.Mary’s College/Leinster) 91
6 - Simon Easterby (Llanelli) 62
7 - David Wallace (Garryowen/Munster) 41
8 - Denis Leamy (Cork Constitution/Munster) 27
Replacements

16 - Bernard Jackman (Clontarf/Leinster) 4
17 - Tony Buckley (Shannon/Munster) 2
18 - Mick O’Driscoll (Cork Constitution/Munster) 11
19 - Jamie Heaslip (Clontarf/Leinster) 3
20 - Peter Stringer (Shannon/Munster) 79
21 - Paddy Wallace (Ballymena/Ulster) 6
22 - Robert Kearney (UCD/Leinster) 1
Not Considered

Jerry Flannery (Shannon/Munster) {suspension}
Paul O’Connell (Young Munster/Munster) {back}

Absolute disgrace.

burnedfaceman

çrash_000 wrote: »

Absolute disgrace.

+1

youcancallmeal

Shocking stuff

chris85

Bad, come on eddie get jackman in there:mad:

kev_s88

get jackman in there and get trimble and murphy to switch wings

good to see reddan at scrum half though

Amz

God, that's shockin'. Dunno why we ever expect change with Eddie there.

At least Reddan is starting.

thebiggestjim

Im very sad to say I hope Ireland have a terrible 6N. From there EOS will hopefully get the boot and the team can move on and work to the future.

This is a team picked to save EOS's skin and is nothing to do with improving Irish rugby.

High&Low

No Heaslip or Jackman...

What a shock...

mccutchie

Select the players in form eddie said. So he selects Trimble, Best, Easterby. The world cup found these guys in particular out, and their clubs arent exactly setting the world alight. Surely Jackman deserved a chance, along with Heaslip at number eight, with leamy in his best position at number 6. Not one recognised winger in the side and players yet again playing out of position.

We'll soon see how much of a "blip" the world cup was. Eddie should be building for the next world cup, he just wants a 6 nations victory on his cv. Well forget about it eddie cause the dressing room was lost @ wc time.

I seriously hope i'm wrong here

thebiggestjim

From the horses mouth

"We looked at Jamie Heaslip because of his form but on balance we decided to leave the back row as it is"


Why because of the back rows form in the WC?

Amz

Andrew Trimble on the wing makes baby Jesus cry

RJWIreland

well, well, well

THE SAME OLD ****ING SAME OLD!!

SOMEONE SHOULD SHOOT THE ****ER ON SIGHT.

I HOPE ITALY PROVE THIS TEAM HE SELECTED AT THE WCUP JUST DONT WORK AND FOR THE REST OF THE 6NATIONS AND HE LOSES HIS JOB SO WE CAN ALL LAUGH IN HIS FACE.

MikeHoncho

Doesnt even warant comment really. Its as expected.

Danger_Dave

Eddie is being studdorn because all of the media are tellling him to do this/ do that pushing him into a corner. So steady Eddie is sticking to his guns, which in previous times helped him keep his job, remeber 2 years ago before the 6nations after a terrible Autumn period, Media/ A lot of fans wanted his had or at least change. Instead he stuck with relatively the same team and they did the business for him.

Strangely i believe its going to pay off for him. The players are unbelievable psyched up for this campagin, so dont be shocked if ireland win the 6nations or get a triple crown at least. Its do or die for eddie. If eddie doesnt get the 3 home wins, i believe he'll be sacked/resign with compensation from IRFU.

Just to echo previous peoples posts, im disgusted that Jackman is not starting. The guy is in the form of his life and cant get the No.2 jersey, even for the italy game at home ! , I like G.Murphy on wing,will come inside off his wing alot and create problems, Heaslip to get 30 -35mins in the second half, same as jackman.



P.S Going to put 7 euro on ireland to get the grandslam like i always do, hope I win this time. Cmon Ireland !!!![

A-Train

Shocking but not one bit surprised! Players picked on form? Less soundbytes please Eddie!

Ulstermell0

At least reddan and murphy are starting - and the pack is more or less right with who is available.

will definitely be wanting ireland to get a big win - sad to see people saying they want us to lose - i understand the logic, but i really think people are getting way to concerned about the world cup - a tournament invented in the 80's.

Nukem

:eek: well not really, the guy is a dope!

paulusdu

Not a single shock in there, No jackman, no Heaslip, but they were never goi to get a look - in , maybe get thrown on for the second half. But Eddie is fighting for his job so he isn;t goi to take a chance. Which is a shame, both Heaslip and Jackman would have been so up for starting, and they are in fantastic form.

No offence to the Italians, but it wa the perfect game to make a couple of "experimental changes", especially with the trip to France the following week.

But no matter what team he picks, i'll still be shouting my head off for the boys at 2 on saturday

Timothy Bryce

Our biggest fears have been confirmed - No doubt Eddie will be saying "There were a few tight calls in there...particularly at hooker and in the back row".

Sure enough, Eddie - on the one hand you have a backrower from one of the worst teams in the ML/HC this season who's hardly been close to his best form....or on the other you have one of the best performing 8's in the ML/HC.

Makes complete sense.

Jerk.

Trojan

What a useless gimp we have in charge.

MikeHoncho

paulusdu wrote: »

But no matter what team he picks, i'll still be shouting my head off for the boys at 2 on saturday

Exactly whats done is done now. Its time to get behind the team.

jph100

no jackman+heaslip is a disgrace and.even if the others play well its jackman+heaslip who deserve to be there.

what if things go wrong against italy? does he then make a couple of experimental changes at the stade de france or go with the same underperforming team team?

eddie cant defend this selection. he said he wud pick players 'in form', he must have meant 'in bad form'

Eoin

paulusdu wrote: »

Not a single shock in there, No jackman, no Heaslip, but they were never goi to get a look - in , maybe get thrown on for the second half. But Eddie is fighting for his job so he isn;t goi to take a chance. Which is a shame, both Heaslip and Jackman would have been so up for starting, and they are in fantastic form.

No offence to the Italians, but it wa the perfect game to make a couple of "experimental changes", especially with the trip to France the following week.

But no matter what team he picks, i'll still be shouting my head off for the boys at 2 on saturday

Is he fighting for his job though? I think he negotiated €350K a year, so it's going to be expensive to buy him out of his contract.

If Best is the better scrummaging hooker, then he probably is the right choice against Italy, where Horan and Hayes will need all the help they can get. The difference that a hooker that can scrummage is huge.

Don't know how relevant this is, but with O'Connell out, Easterby is probably the next in line as pack leader, which I'd say gave him a good edge. My preference would have been Leamy at 6, Wallace at 7 and Heaslip at 8.

Funkstard

Absolutely speechless. When I saw this line before seeing the team;

We looked at Jamie Heaslip because of his form but on balance we decided to leave the back row as it is

I knew it was bad. Best at 2 after playing a half after coming back from injury, leaving the form Irish hooker on the bench.

Trimble on the wing, a natural centre, leaving the form winger in Ireland out of the 22 altogether, and (co-incidentally or not) subsequentally him moving to a Welsh club.

Starting Leamy at 8, who prefers/has been playing much better at 6, leaving the form 8 out of the starting line up? Easterby who has captained Llanelli into their worst ever period still gets his starting place.

A team with a centre and a full back on the wings. An 8 who plays 6. The only two changes to this from from the WC debacle have both been dictated by necessity - Murphy on the wing and O'Kelly at lock.

As I've said before, I just hope to god Eddie is gone after the tournament.

paulusdu

eoin_s wrote: »

Is he fighting for his job though? I think he negotiated €350K a year, so it's going to be expensive to buy him out of his contract.

If Best is the better scrummaging hooker, then he probably is the right choice against Italy, where Horan and Hayes will need all the help they can get. The difference that a hooker that can scrummage is huge.

Don't know how relevant this is, but with O'Connell out, Easterby is probably the next in line as pack leader, which I'd say gave him a good edge. My preference would have been Leamy at 6, Wallace at 7 and Heaslip at 8.

350k a year will be nothing compared to a half full RDS/Donnybrook/Landsdown which could be the utimate consiqunece of another poor tournament showing. Rugby is currently on a massive wave at the moment, and i think the IRFU will not hesitate too much to pay-off Eddie if they feel the bad feeling from the WC spills over to a bad showing in the 6 Nations. At the end of the day its a results-fuelled sport like any other.

Agree with you though completely about No 6, 7 and 8 though

jph100

to be honest i havent seen much of easterby this year but general consensus is he's played bad. the 4 leinster back rowers heaslip,jennings,gleeson,keogh prob deserve to be there more than him.

what age is he? hes defo not gonna be here for next world cup so dont see the point in him playing ie hes old+not playing well

bdiddy

I was p!ssed when I read it first but it mightn't be all bad.

Easterby has always done it when his back was too the wall and he was one of the only Llanelli players to have been any ways reasonable recently IMO.
Leamy has found form at 6 but should be able to carry that through at 8. I would however have prefered the popular choice of Leamy-Wallace-Heaslip but it's not a tradgedy.

Someone mentioned Bests scrummaging and they're probably right. The scrum is huge and I dont know that much about technique but if Best is that much better in this area than Jackman, he should get the nod. Jackman doesn't have Le Roux and Wright with him here. It is worrying though having a hooker, and 2 second rows from 3 different clubs.

In the backs, the selection of Trimble over Bowe with no Kearney in reserve can only be explained by the cover Trimble provides for the center. Murphy is well worth his place on the wing, probably should be full back altogether. Happy to see Reddan in anyway.

Overall, I would have prefered the popular choice of Jackman, Heaslip(with Leamy at 6) and T. Bowe starting (not Fitzgearld or Kearney btw), I would have also preferred O'Driscoll to O'Kelly but Eddies selection is not inexplicable.

Let's hope the national team and Munster can save an otherwise horrible year for Irish rugby.

**edit: misspelt Kearney

Rattlehead_ie

The only thing that I will say about the Jackman / Best selection in Eddies defense is that the Italian pack will be and are known to be huge and Best is probably the better scrumager (now thats prob the only thing he is better at than Jackamn) I would still prefer to see Jackman in there though.

No Heaslip in there I think is the wrong choice. Its not the team I woulda picked. Redden vs Stringer. I'm surprised not that I don't think Redden is good enough to compete for the place, he has played amazingly in HC,GP but I woulda thought for the 1st game Eddie woulda chossen the String O'Gara Combo just to have the team settled and play it safe.

Murphy on wing - I don't mind seeing that, might have been better suited to full back, but against Itiallians Murphy inclusion in the team and his "attackign" game will disrubt a not so special italian back line.

But as Mike says, I don't give a flying F**k about the team as long as they perform and Ill be in the pub watching the game cheering my country on

COME ON IRELAND

shmaido

I think I just died a little reading that team sheet, un-fnerking-beleivable, "picked on form"-my arse

redmca

thebiggestjim wrote: »

From the horses mouth

"We looked at Jamie Heaslip because of his form but on balance we decided to leave the back row as it is"

What's this WE bit ????

If POC and Horgan weren't injured, we would effectively be back where we started against France & Argentina.

Of course while we all hope for a good win on Saturday, this selection only confirms that EOS is consolidating his view that whatever blip occurred in France, it had F**K-all to do with him or the make-up of the team.

razorblunt

Riduclous, but what are the chances of EOS being sacked, I mean there's 3 years severence to be paid which would limit the budget for a replacement which would probably mean we end up with Michael Bradley or something.


D'Arcy shouldn't be starting neither should Horan. O'Kelly and Easterby should have done the decent thing and retired after the WC.

death1234567

I am surprised by the level of outrage, did people really think he would pick Jackman or Heaslip? No chance he was always going to stick with the same aul trollop that he always picks. Look at the back row FFS. No genuine seven in the 22. Joke. At least stringer isnt there. I cant wait for Hookie to go through him on saturday. No doubt the pre match build up will be better then the game.

tHE vAGGABOND

Declan Kidney is the next Irish manager - no question's, if's or but's..

I would rather appointment came sooner than later, thats all!

Half that team have had no form since around this time last year! Lets hope they surprise us and prove us wrong..

ngriffin

those people who r saying hope ireland lose should be ashamed. support ur country

Geordan Murphy a good choice should have been there in the wrc.
best is a better scumager then jackmen and against italy thats what we need.
jackman is a great player and hope eos buts him and buckley on in the last 20 or so. buckley is a great player and is playing so well.
easterby is good in the auld line outs but heapslip should be playing.

Rog is back in form


go on IRELAND

case_sensitive

Dropping Stringer is a token offering to those who say he's learned nothing, which he has proved with this selection.
Come on, Italy at home is an absolute banker, and he plays this same tired selection! D'arcy hasn't had a great game in well over a year, why not move the complacent genius from 13 to 12, put Trimble in at second centre, where he belongs. Bowe and Murphy/Kearney on the wings. Personally, I'd love to see Murphy play at 15 as well as he does for Leicester, but like John Aldridge, he can't seem to convert club form into international success.

+1 on Best, wtf? Jackman is the form hooker, nuff said, Easterby anjd MoC should be put out to pasture, and take your pick from Leinster's starting pack to fill the gaps.

I got a headache reading the teamsheet, I want to shake Fast Eddie until his head falls off.
The only other saving grace is that with the exception of Jennings, Cullen et al, he could make it mostly right at half time.

I'll be there at Croke Park, €75 a ticket, with all my friends and half my team, I just hope that this team of has-beens and out-of-position individuals can pull together, I really do.

With Eddie in this sort of form, I can honestly see us losing to Wales and coming 4th.

Punchbowl

Well, in terms of a starting line-up, it is a big step forward on the team that lined out in the WC. Back then, we were all lambasting EOS for not starting O'Kelly, Best and Murphy, well he's done that now.

Also, this is a team that needs a confidence boost, not to be torn apart, so it's fair, with the changes, to expect EOS to give them a chance. I am confident that they will find form and comfrotably dispence of Italy. This is also a great chance for Eddie to show that he has learned something from the WC and he WILL use the bench, and that's where you will see Kearney and Jackman get their chances..

Again, one liners insulting EOS are not only not clever, they are also very very boring to read.

eyeball kid

Not surprising in the least but still very disappointing.

Players like Jackman, Heaslip, Bowe, Cullen, Jennings et all must really be wondering what they have to do to get a look in.

ngriffin

bowe isn't great outside of club rugby tho.
the rest will get a look in if eos uses his bench thats what never does

Eoin

Punchbowl wrote: »

Well, in terms of a starting line-up, it is a big step forward on the team that lined out in the WC. Back then, we were all lambasting EOS for not starting O'Kelly, Best and Murphy, well he's done that now.

Also, this is a team that needs a confidence boost, not to be torn apart, so it's fair, with the changes, to expect EOS to give them a chance. I am confident that they will find form and comfrotably dispence of Italy. This is also a great chance for Eddie to show that he has learned something from the WC and he WILL use the bench, and that's where you will see Kearney and Jackman get their chances..

Again, one liners insulting EOS are not only not clever, they are also very very boring to read.

I thought it was Neil Best that people were after to play instead of Easterby - Rory Best started at least a couple of the games.

Out of the other two - O'Kelly is there because O'Connell is injured, and I agree with him being picked over Mick O'Driscoll - but I think Cullen should have been in the squad instead of O'Driscoll in the first place.

Murphy is there because Hickie has retired; Bowe and Kearney being the other two options on the wing, so Murphy has actually changed to being one of the default choices.

Funkstard

tHE vAGGABOND wrote: »

Declan Kidney is the next Irish manager - no question's, if's or but's..

I reckon the Leinster contingent will have something to say about that...

mikep

razorblunt wrote: »

Riduclous, but what are the chances of EOS being sacked, I mean there's 3 years severence to be paid which would limit the budget for a replacement which would probably mean we end up with Michael Bradley or something.

The rumour mill has it that Bradley was due to get the gig as the blazer boys thought the bould eddie would get the next lions tour...Bradley was gonna be a stand in replacement with a view to making it permanent.....

mikep

Oh yeah..forgot to add GO ON IRELAND!!!!
Im gonna be in Tenerife freakin out the natives roaring at the telly!!!!:D

figs86

unfortunately almost everyones predictions have come to pass on eddie picking a staid, stale, boring, same old same old side

jackman and heaslip not starting - disgrace

i love geordan murphy and hes a pretty decent wing but playing him out of his usual position and leaving kearney on the bench - cmon eddie for F*$% sake!

siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh

worst bit is -> he's going to leave them on the fooking bench until the game is over and at least 70 minutes have been played

so if/when they do get on, not enough time to impress so they remain ''unproven'' in eddies eyes

hope heaslip/jackman/kearney gets on and shoves his face in it by playing an absolute blinder

....then he'll probably justify leaving them on the bench as a ''supersub'' or ''ya....he's an option....''

CONOR O SHEA for ireland job! lets go over to twickenham and steal him back from the english!

toomevara

Just come in from work and seen the team, have I slipped into an alternate universe where the World Cup never happened and all the form Irish players in key positions died in bus crash...God help us, what a freakin' muppet...

terry mac

jph100 wrote: »

to be honest i havent seen much of easterby this year but general consensus is he's played bad. the 4 leinster back rowers heaslip,jennings,gleeson,keogh prob deserve to be there more than him.

Without wishing to pick on you in particular, there's been a lot of talk about form players etc.

Personally I don't see how Jackman, Cullen, Jennings, Gleeson, Heaslip, Kearney can all be "on form". If they were all "on form" how come Leinster couldn't beat Edinburgh away, scraped past them at home, barely raised a gallop at Toulouse and were sh*** at Leicester. If they were all on "top form" how come Leinster were so awful in the HC.

Maybe Eddie thinks an On Form Jamie Heaslip is a worse player than "Not Firing on All Cylinders" Simon Easterby. I'd tend to agree with him.

jph100

Funkstard wrote: »

I reckon the Leinster contingent will have something to say about that...

off topic but what happened there when he was at leinster?

what year was it+why was it unsuccessful?

High&Low

Isn't it kind of ironic that two of the controversial selections; Best (ridiculous decision)and Trimble (maybe not so controversial) are from Ulster....

Conspiracies about quotas anyone?

Maybe Tommy Bowe is not Ulster enough, not being from the 6 counties...

spank_inferno

I'm sure its not true of course but in my darkest doubts I do wonder if there is a quota thing going on also with Ulster players.

None the less the irish team announced is more than good enough to beat Italy. And who knows, with the massive squad changes in France we might sneak a victory over there too

Eoin

terrymac wrote:

Personally I don't see how Jackman, Cullen, Jennings, Gleeson, Heaslip, Kearney can all be "on form". If they were all "on form" how come Leinster couldn't beat Edinburgh away, scraped past them at home, barely raised a gallop at Toulouse and were sh*** at Leicester. If they were all on "top form" how come Leinster were so awful in the HC.

Maybe Eddie thinks an On Form Jamie Heaslip is a worse player than "Not Firing on All Cylinders" Simon Easterby. I'd tend to agree with him.

In fairness, I think the Leinster pack are providing a far more solid platform this year than we've seen them do for a while.

A few pundits think that Easterby is there because he has experience as Captain and Pack Leader. With O'Connell gone, they need an experienced head to step up. If anything, Eddie must prefer Leamy to Heaslip at 8.

High&Low wrote: »

Isn't it kind of ironic that two of the controversial selections; Best (ridiculous decision)and Trimble (maybe not so controversial) are from Ulster....

Conspiracies about quotas anyone?

Maybe Tommy Bowe is not Ulster enough, not being from the 6 counties...

Funny, I would have thought that Trimble out of position on the wing (where he was shown up a few times in the RWC) was a more "controversial" choice than Best, where he is supposedly the best scrummager of the hookers.

zAbbo

Disgraceful.

Yeah, we should win, and somehow Eddie will be justified in his selection.

A centre, and a full back are on the wing, Eddie does love his players who can cover 2+ positions.

Our only out&out wingers Carney & Bowe aren't even in the squad, both probably feeling quite disillusioned with the Irish set-up at this stage

If ever there was a time to experiment, It's now with Italy (diasterous RWC) at home.

Picking on form is barefaced fooking lies.

How on earth is Leamy the form 8 in the country when he's spent more time at blindside (and played well!).

Jackman is certainly the form hooker, because Best has been fooking injured!

Bowe is the form winger, yet doesn't make the cut, instead Murphy (Full Back) and Trimble (Centre) are starting, it's absolute madness.

Weather Eddie want's to admit it or not, the RWC happened, this bunch of players were brutal, not just a few games, but the whole pre-RWC tests as well (Scotland & Italy!), thats a run of 6-7games that Eddies golden generation were rubbish.

We'll win, I don't doubt it, but we need much more than that. Something tells me this is Eddies last hoo-ha at bagging a Championship, I think he's gone either way.

Sadly I've mixed emotions, I want us to win, but I also want Eddie out...

Stev_o

Jaysus alot of new faces on the rugby forum all of a sudden^^ Typical Irish sports eh

Anyway back to the rugby , well what did you expect people we have all been saying all along that he would pick this squad the only if question was really how got the pairing with DOC.

Now secondly people need to cut this Italian experiment attachment out maybe they didnt watch the 6N matchs last year or the pre RWC warm up match. Yes im aware that it will be a much different Italian team that has many faults but some positives.

My main problems are these

That backrow is the worst in Europe. Yes its true its slow and slow and slow big but did i mention slow?? It SHOULD have been Wallace[ Well really Glesson or Jennings] Leamy Heaslip. Instead we get a Easterbunny who has done jack all this season with Leamy out of position and Wallace at 7. Sorry but everyother team in the 6N has a better paired backrow then we do.

WHY oh why does EOS insist that wings can be filled by FB's and centres who dont play their trade there????? This just follows up the fact he doesnt think that their is a "specialised" position on the pitch and that anyone can fill any slot. Im very much expecting Horan to be placed at OH at this stage -_-. Id echo the absence of Bowe and the questioning of not having Murphy at FB.

Overall nothing new wasnt going to be surprised. I just find the fact that Gatlands using Ospreys....sorry Wales squad sort of biasedly