Buckley and Hayes to start for Munster V Connacht

figs86

Tony Buckley will start at loosehead and Hayes at Tighthead for Munster's game versus Connacht.
Horan is on the bench.

Personally I think this is a great selection as Horan as been ineffective (as has Hayes but we all know we've no options) and Buckley definitely has the raw power and ability to become a very good prop and effective.
If they're all as bad as each other you may as well but on the two huge guys to help the setpieces with more mass in scrum and greater lifting ability in the lineout.

I really would have liked to have seen them both start for Ireland in the 6 nations and hope they do in future. Horan used to be worth playing as he was handy around the park in the loose but he really isnt at the races (notwithstanding his finishing of rog's cross field kick in 6 nations)

what do you other members of the front row union think?

remus808

Hayes and Buckely is not really a feasible front-row partnership. They're both tightheads, plus you can't really have your loosehead bigger than your tighthead! Also Hayes isn't long for this world, i'm guessing he'll retire by the end of 08. Horan has his moments, both good and awful.. But we need to work on developing a proper partner for Buckley at loosehead. Hopefully Healy will grow into this role. (Although thats thinking in terms of Ireland and not Munster obviously)

Spaceman Spiff

karmabass wrote: »

Hayes and Buckely is not really a feasible front-row partnership. They're both tightheads, plus you can't really have your loosehead bigger than your tighthead! Also Hayes isn't long for this world, i'm guessing he'll retire by the end of 08. Horan has his moments, both good and awful.. But we need to work on developing a proper partner for Buckley at loosehead. Hopefully Healy will grow into this role. (Although thats thinking in terms of Ireland and not Munster obviously)

If you want to devellop props, they probably need to go to England. Or the IRFU could just start naturalizing Georgians and Argentinians.

bugler

There's no reason why your LH can't be bigger than your TH. That's typically the case whenever Andrew Sheridan takes the field.

Arguably Buckley would have been better off developed as a LH. But Ireland could do with both.

Mushy's best attributes are actually away from the set piece. His carrying and even his hands are very good.

Unfortunately it looks as though Daragh Hurley isn't going to make any headway at Munster. But he's as promising an Irish prop as I've seen the past few seasons.

GreenHell

Hasn't Hurley been injured for the greater part of this season?

Looked the real deal last season.

marco_polo

bugler wrote: »

There's no reason why your LH can't be bigger than your TH. That's typically the case whenever Andrew Sheridan takes the field.

Arguably Buckley would have been better off developed as a LH. But Ireland could do with both.

Mushy's best attributes are actually away from the set piece. His carrying and even his hands are very good.

Unfortunately it looks as though Daragh Hurley isn't going to make any headway at Munster. But he's as promising an Irish prop as I've seen the past few seasons.

I would hope to see Daragh to progress next season and see a fair bit of ML action at the very least. He has as least as much potential as Cian Healy in my book, albeit Cian has the edge in terms of senior experience at the moment, as he is a little higher in the pecking order at Leinster.

Both are still very young for props so I would worry too much about their immediate progress. If even one of them develops into an true international standard LH in the next few years then we will be fine.

bleg

anybody know who's starting in the centre for munster?

Eoin

bugler wrote: »

There's no reason why your LH can't be bigger than your TH. That's typically the case whenever Andrew Sheridan takes the field.

Absolutely - it's generally the norm, and better for scrummaging, as it makes it more natural for the hooker to twist around to the left. The only thing is that you want your number 3 in the line-out to be taller, so the loosehead shouldn't automatically be number one.

bugler wrote: »

Arguably Buckley would have been better off developed as a LH. But Ireland could do with both.

Mushy's best attributes are actually away from the set piece. His carrying and even his hands are very good.

True, but a good tighthead can be harder to find than a loosehead, so it's good to see that's where he's focussing. He is a good ball handler and carrier alright (I wish Hayes could make better use of his size as a carrier), I just hopes he remembers where his primary job is, unlike Horan.

remus808

eoin_s wrote: »

Absolutely - it's generally the norm

For a loosehead to be bigger than his tighthead?? No.... just no.

Spaceman Spiff

karmabass wrote: »

For a loosehead to be bigger than his tighthead?? No.... just no.

I think they meant taller rather than bigger. Because even Sheridan isn't "bigger" than Vickery.

remus808

That guy is a tank..

Spaceman Spiff

^^^

Yes he is. He squats over 300 kilos during the damn season, you can only imagine what he does in the offseason. Vickery can power clean more though, they're both tanks. Makes you wonder what the hell Ireland is doing with their props.

Just shows you what proper conditioning can do though. He's only been a prop for a few years, if Trevor Woodman were still around, he wouldn't even be starting, he was just so much stronger than everybody else and the technique came after.

Eoin

karmabass wrote: »

For a loosehead to be bigger than his tighthead?? No.... just no.

I meant taller, and I completely stand by that.

bugler

Vickery is also quite tall for a prop, which people tend to forget. Him and Sheridan are roundabout the same weight according to the stats.

What I actually had in mind when initially mentioning Sheridan was the Sale front row. Stuart Turner who's been a regular at TH is significantly shorter and lighter than Sheridan, but they're still a handy unit.

Anyway and to the point at hand, Buckley did ok at LH. He'll be fine there at ML level. He carried well again.

As for Hurley, with Horan signing a new contract and Buckley covering both sides I don't know where he'll fit in. Will Munster be looking to sign a replacement for Pucciariello, who can cover both sides and won't be called up internationally? If not then Hurley will get gametime.