Your Starting 15 Against South Africa

SpAcEd OuT

1.Healy
2.Flannery
3.Hayes

Picks itself really. With Flannery and Hayes fit the scrum should be sorted. Healy took a lot of flak against Australia for his technique but it was mostly Haye's side turning not Healys which would suggest Healy was made the scape goat for what was a much larger problem.

4.O'Connell
5.Cullen

O'Connell and Cullen worked well and I believe Cullen has earned his start against South Africa.

6.Ferris
7.Wallace
8.Heaslip

No need for explanation. Simply put, our best combination available

9.O'Leary
10.Sexton

Yep thats right, I think the far better playing Sexton deserves his start.

11.Earls

Hes earned it over Horgan after his performance against Fiji

12.Wallace
13.O'Driscoll

Wallace has been one of our best players so far and stays with BOD.

14.Bowe

.......

15.Kearney

..........



1.Healy
2.Flannery
3.Hayes
4.POC
5.Cullen
6.Ferris
7.Wallace
8.Heaslip
9.O'Leary
10.Sexton
11.Earls
12.Wallace
13.O'Driscoll
14.Bowe
15.Kearney

Cuchulain

Yeah I would agree SpacedOut. Except I'd put Darcy in beside BOD. Wallace is playing well but I think he really is too lightweight for an international centre.
I also think that Darce and BOD work better together.

PhatPiggins

One thread with 3 pages of posts wasn't enough?

zenmonk

These threads are all just Deja vu aren't they.

O gara vs Sexton all over again, let's not pretend it's anything else, and now Cullen instead of O Callaghan to give it a new provincial twist.

Podge_irl

According to RTE, McLaughlin and Wallace are the only backrowers added to the squad from the Fiji game. Means one of himself or SOB on the bench against SA. Would have thought Best would be the obvious replacement really, not thrilled about either of the above having to come on against SA.

SpAcEd OuT

zenmonk wrote: »

These threads are all just Deja vu aren't they.

O gara vs Sexton all over again, let's not pretend it's anything else, and now Cullen instead of O Callaghan to give it a new provincial twist.

So anyone who wants Sexton and Cullen to start ahead of O'Gara and O'Callaghan is simply biased? Lets be honest, instead of discussing very valid selections it is you, not me, who has decided to turn this into a Leinster v Munster thing because once again it is you, not me, who can't take one of their players being dropped instead of a better performing player from Leinster.

If you hadn't noticed I had selected Earls ahead of Horgan but no, you decided to simply brand it a leinster v munster thing because you didn't like the opinions. I don't doubt that this very valid discussion will now be closed because of your contribution, well done, im sure your proud.

buck65

Buckley Flannery Hayes
DOC POC
Ferris Wallace Leamy
O Leary O Gara
Earls Wallace BOD Bowe Kearney

SpAcEd OuT

buck65 wrote: »

Buckley Flannery Hayes
DOC POC
Ferris Wallace Leamy
O Leary O Gara
Earls Wallace BOD Bowe Kearney

Buckely ahead of Healy :eek:

Otacon

buck65 wrote: »

Buckley

You're about to get roasted there. [EDIT: Too late!] I don't think he will even make the bench, but he actually did well on Saturday IMO.

For me, its:

Healy (Best prop we have)
Flannery (Best hooker we have)
Hayes (Its the Bull. Of course he starts)
DOC (Think he works better with POC)
POC (Best lock we have)
Ferris
Wallace (All three are our best backrow)
Heaslip
TOL
ROG (To start and settle the game, allowing Sexton to come on and change it all up)
Earls (Better than Horgan IMO)
Wallace (I think with Earls coming in inside him and BOD outside him, his distribution could cut open their centres)
BOD (GOD)
Bowe
Kearney

Court
Cronin
Cullen
SOB (While Leamy is a loss, we don't really lose anything having SOB here)
Reddan
Sexton (After 40-50 minutes he can provide a game-changing performance to get us over the line)

Max Power1

SpAcEd OuT wrote: »

1.Healy
2.Flannery
3.Hayes

Picks itself really. With Flannery and Hayes fit the scrum should be sorted. Healy took a lot of flak against Australia for his technique but it was mostly Haye's side turning not Healys which would suggest Healy was made the scape goat for what was a much larger problem.

4.O'Connell
5.Cullen

O'Connell and Cullen worked well and I believe Cullen has earned his start against South Africa.

6.Ferris
7.Wallace
8.Heaslip

No need for explanation. Simply put, our best combination available

9.O'Leary
10.Sexton

Yep thats right, I think the far better playing Sexton deserves his start.

11.Earls

Hes earned it over Horgan after his performance against Fiji

12.Wallace
13.O'Driscoll

Wallace has been one of our best players so far and stays with BOD.

14.Bowe

.......

15.Kearney

..........



1.Healy
2.Flannery
3.Hayes
4.POC
5.Cullen
6.Ferris
7.Wallace
8.Heaslip
9.O'Leary
10.Sexton
11.Earls
12.Wallace
13.O'Driscoll
14.Bowe
15.Kearney

Cant really disagree with most of that selection, though I would have maybe picked Horgan or D'Arcy over Bowe. I'd agree that sexton should play, his kicking masterpiece this weekend alone is better form than ROG has had this season.

GymJim

buck65 wrote: »

Buckley Flannery Hayes
DOC POC
Ferris Wallace Leamy
O Leary O Gara
Earls Wallace BOD Bowe Kearney

In spite of the fact I'm Mushy's biggest fan, couldn't put him in the scrum against SA.

Whatever about that why would you play an off-form (and injured) Leamy instead of Heaslip? That's just ridiculous

GymJim

Max Power1 wrote: »

Cant really disagree with most of that selection, though I would have maybe picked Horgan or D'Arcy over Bowe. I'd agree that sexton should play, his kicking masterpiece this weekend alone is better form than ROG has had this season.

What? You can't be serious?! If so I'd love to know what D'arcy or Horgan would offer over him?

That team is bang on for what should play but ROG and DOC will play still I reckon.

Risteard

1.Healy
2.Flannery
3.Hayes
4.Cullen
5.POC
6.Ferris
7.Wallace
8.Heaslip
9.TOL
10.Sexton
11.Earls
12.Wallace
13.BOD
14.Bowe
15.Kearney

16.Cronin
17.Court
18.DOC
19.Leamy if fit otherwise SOB (Best not added to squad:()
20.Reddan
21.ROG.
22.D'arcy

Nothing really controversial though if Trimble continues on ther way he is for Ulster then I'd like to see him in the 6 Nations on the bench. He's possibly one of our most powerful backs and he could make an impact ifrom the bench.

Wallace and Sexton could unleash our outside backs where I think we definitely have the edge against the Saffers. Our pack will have to front up bigtime, especially in the back row, to give them good ball though.

accensi0n

buck65 wrote: »

Buckley Flannery Hayes
DOC POC
Ferris Wallace Leamy
O Leary O Gara
Earls Wallace BOD Bowe Kearney

Yeah, same for me except I'd have Duffy in at fullback.

PhatPiggins

SpAcEd OuT wrote: »

So anyone who wants Sexton and Cullen to start ahead of O'Gara and O'Callaghan is simply biased? Lets be honest, instead of discussing very valid selections it is you, not me, who has decided to turn this into a Leinster v Munster thing because once again it is you, not me, who can't take one of their players being dropped instead of a better performing player from Leinster.

If you hadn't noticed I had selected Earls ahead of Horgan but no, you decided to simply brand it a leinster v munster thing because you didn't like the opinions. I don't doubt that this very valid discussion will now be closed because of your contribution, well done, im sure your proud.

Already a three page thread on this topic. Keep your knickers on and try scrolling down the page before getting on your high horse.

outwest

i think hayes shoud be dropped, he been out worst palyer for the two games.
put ross in. at least he has match practise.

healy
flan
ross
doc
poc
ferris
wallace
heaslip. very lucky leamay is injured
tol
sexton
earls
wallace
bod
bowe
kearney

coinin
court
cullen
sean ob
redden
rog
horan,

hayes is doesnt have the match pracis, he was given two das and produced very little. he will be back for 6 natis after another ew games.

disapointed with the amountof new caps handed out during the AI.

GiftofGab

SpAcEd OuT wrote: »

Buckely ahead of Healy :eek:

In fairness thou as much as i hate Buckely, he does have great ball carrying skills and proved this further during the Fiji game.

I think he did enough to warrent a place on the bench.

He is still nowhere near international standard.

buck65

accensi0n wrote: »

Yeah, same for me except I'd have Duffy in at fullback.

Glad someone saw the joke.!

buck65

outwest wrote: »

i think hayes shoud be dropped, he been out worst palyer for the two games.
put ross in. at least he has match practise.

hayes is doesnt have the match pracis, he was given two das and produced very little. he will be back for 6 natis after another ew games.

disapointed with the amountof new caps handed out during the AI.

What on earth is the 6 natis?

SpAcEd OuT

PhatPiggins wrote: »

Already a three page thread on this topic. Keep your knickers on and try scrolling down the page before getting on your high horse.

You might want to scroll up as I wasn't referring to you

Risteard

GiftofGab wrote: »

In fairness thou as much as i hate Buckely, he does have great ball carrying skills and proved this further during the Fiji game.

I think he did enough to warrent a place on the bench.

He is still nowhere near international standard.

I don't think so.

I think he is the most skillful, hands wise, of all our props and he is a good ball carrier and counter-rucker but he can't scrummage and if you can't scrummage you shouldn't be a prop. If he can sort out his scrummaging to get it to a consistent and decent level, then I'd say he could make the bench but until then, I'd have Court there.

PhatPiggins

outwest wrote: »

i think hayes shoud be dropped, he been out worst palyer for the two games.
put ross in. at least he has match practise.

healy
flan
ross
doc
poc
ferris
wallace
heaslip. very lucky leamay is injured
tol
sexton
earls
wallace
bod
bowe
kearney

coinin
court
cullen
sean ob
redden
rog
horan,

hayes is doesnt have the match pracis, he was given two das and produced very little. he will be back for 6 natis after another ew games.

disapointed with the amountof new caps handed out during the AI.

Is 3.30 pm an exceptable time to be bladdered in Galway ?

zenmonk

Risteard wrote: »

I don't think so.

I think he is the most skillful, hands wise, of all our props and he is a good ball carrier and counter-rucker but he can't scrummage and if you can't scrummage you shouldn't be a prop. If he can sort out his scrummaging to get it to a consistent and decent level, then I'd say he could make the bench but until then, I'd have Court there.

Court was poor in the loose though, too many pens. Carried one good ball.

SpAcEd OuT

zenmonk wrote: »

Court was poor in the loose though, too many pens. Carried one good ball.

Still despite Buckleu's cameo a far better option than Buckley.

Podge_irl

zenmonk wrote: »

Court was poor in the loose though, too many pens. Carried one good ball.

Really? Only noticed him giving away one, though I wasn't playing that much attention. Ultimately he's a prop though, and Buckley is simply not good enough in the scrum. He also just can't cover loosehead.

Risteard

Didn't think that Court did too badly myself, but the be all and end all of a prop is scrummaging. Everything else is a bonus.

gosplan

Just heard that Ferris, Earls and Flannery all sat out training today due to injury.

Here's hoping tis just a precaution. Hard to think of three players we'd miss more at this stage.

danthefan

gosplan wrote: »

Just heard that Ferris, Earls and Flannery all sat out training today due to injury.

Here's hoping tis just a precaution. Hard to think of three players we'd miss more at this stage.

Did you hear how the backline lined out by any chance?

thomond2006

Team is announced tommorrow, correct?

padser

gosplan wrote: »

Just heard that Ferris, Earls and Flannery all sat out training today due to injury.

Here's hoping tis just a precaution. Hard to think of three players we'd miss more at this stage.

BOD, Hayes, O Connell???

phog

thomond2006 wrote: »

Team is announced tommorrow, correct?

Tomorrow at 13:30 live on IRFU site.

Podge_irl

gosplan wrote: »

Just heard that Ferris, Earls and Flannery all sat out training today due to injury.

Was it ever mentioned why Flannery left the pitch on Saturday. It seemed to be injury related.

tolosenc

Healy
Flannery
Hayes
Cullen
O'Connell
Ferris
Wallace
Heaslip
O'Leary
Sexton
Horgan
D'Arcy
O'Driscoll
Bowe
Kearney

Court
Cronin
O'Callaghan
Leamy (if fit) (O'Brien otherwise)
Reddan
O'Gara
Wallace

Earls played well against Fiji, but I just don't know how he'd do against the Boks, so I'm gonna go with Shaggy. Cullen is a cooler head, can't have O'Callaghan acting like he did in the Millenium Stadium. Sexton vs ROG = new and improved model, please...

bleg

the 3 lads had slight knocks. Nothing major

Podge_irl

Toulousain wrote: »

Earls played well against Fiji, but I just don't know how he'd do against the Boks, so I'm gonna go with Shaggy. Cullen is a cooler head, can't have O'Callaghan acting like he did in the Millenium Stadium. Sexton vs ROG = new and improved model, please...

Horgan has, from what I recall, never played on the left wing. So you'd be talking about moving Bowe there. We'd also end up with two very similar wingers. I think Earls is worth a punt, though I think a specialist winger would be required on the bench in that case in case he's not coping.

danthefan

Podge_irl wrote: »

Horgan has, from what I recall, never played on the left wing. So you'd be talking about moving Bowe there. We'd also end up with two very similar wingers. I think Earls is worth a punt, though I think a specialist winger would be required on the bench in that case in case he's not coping.

Yeah would also go with Earls, he's a very big future ahead and might as well get him going. Along with Sexton.

Stick_man

Train tickets booked, match tickets safely put away. Cant bloody wait.

15.Kearney
14.Bowe
13.O Driscoll
12.Wallace
11.Earls
10.O Gara
9.O Leary
8.Heaslip
7.Wallace
6.Ferris
5.O Connell
4.O Callaghan
3.Hayes
2.Flannery
1.Healy

I dont understand the calls for Cullen, he was nothing more than ok against a poor Fiji. You need to do more than that to dis-lodge one half of a line-out that went so well against the aussies. P.Wallace had a good game v aussies and fully merits the start. Earls deserves his go. And Sexton? Well he did everything asked and more but O Gara showed he is coming into form and will be eager to atone for the summer. Hopefully the scrum holds up and somehow we negate Brussow.

Kenteach

Kidney keeps trumpetting about having a squad, having 25 or 26 players to call on. It was the downfall of EOS that he relied so heavily on so few players. With that in mind, we simply must take advantage of playing a top, top side in a match with nothing at stake. That means there are genuine questions to be asked in the selections in almost every area. We would nearly all agree on most of the first fifteen if all our players were fit and on top form and we had to play a one-off meaningful match. But what are our viable alternatives? They need game time. So I'm looking forward to the selections at 1,3,4,7,8,10,11 and 12, if only to see what Kidneys actual policy is on squad development, as opposed to media sound bites.

WeeBushy

Toulousain wrote: »

Healy
Flannery
Hayes
Cullen
O'Connell
Ferris
Wallace
Heaslip
O'Leary
Sexton
Horgan
D'Arcy
O'Driscoll
Bowe
Kearney

Court
Cronin
O'Callaghan
Leamy (if fit) (O'Brien otherwise)
Reddan
O'Gara
Wallace

Earls played well against Fiji, but I just don't know how he'd do against the Boks, so I'm gonna go with Shaggy. Cullen is a cooler head, can't have O'Callaghan acting like he did in the Millenium Stadium. Sexton vs ROG = new and improved model, please...

I think with D'arcy and Wallace it a one or the other situation for the 22. From the bench ROG covers out-half and Bowe (and I guess Horgan at a push) can cover centre so there's no need for Wallace on the bench, it leaves us with no cover for the back three.

I'd go with your team but have Earls starting and Horgan on the bench as cover for the wing. Or visa versa, not too pushed on that one. My heart would say Cullen to start, but don't think he did quite enough to oust DOC.

thomond2006

There was a quote from Kidney in today's Irish Examiner (page 20) that strongly implies that O'Gara will start:

"The only reason for leaving Ronan (O'Gara) out today was to make sure the team knew what to do when he wasn't around. The team have to get used to playing without Paul (O'Connell) and Brian (O'Driscoll) as well as Ronan. I try not to build a team around one or two players".

Podge_irl

thomond2006 wrote: »

There was a quote from Kidney in today's Irish Examiner (page 20) that strongly implies that O'Gara will start:

He'll start, Kidney is giving out the same vibes he was before Aus. The only problem with that being Sexton won't get any meaningful gametime - he'll more than likely only get on if the game is won or lost. Which is fair enough in one respect, I wouldn't have changed fly half mid-game against Aus either and I always thought it silly how rigidly Gatland stuck to changing half-backs at 60 minutes. Just a bit of a shame.

He is ultimately a conservative coach wrt selection, I've never understood why people claim otherwise. I'd be pretty willing to bet that we'll see the same team as against Aus except with Earls starting in Fitz's place. The biggest problems with the team against Aus were in places were we're short of alternatives anyway. The front row and back row were the main problems, with Leamy out, Best was the only one who could conceivably have come in and that was never likely. Hayes is a worry, but who do you put there? Court or Ross are the only real options, and they really could have been worth a punt but dropping the Bull would have been pretty ballsy. I think he deserves this game at least to see if he's still up to it, but I would like to think Court will come off the bench this time if the scrum gets a going over again.

Max Power1

irishrugby.ie wrote:

15 - Rob Kearney (UCD/Leinster)
14 - Tommy Bowe (Ospreys)
13 - Brian O'Driscoll (UCD/Leinster) (capt)
12 - Paddy Wallace (Ballymena/Ulster)
11 - Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster)
10 - Jonathan Sexton (St. Mary's College/Leinster)
9 - Tomas O'Leary (Dolphin/Munster)
1 - Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster)
2 - Jerry Flannery (Shannon/Munster)
3 - John Hayes (Bruff/Munster)
4 - Donncha O'Callaghan (Cork Constitution/Munster)
5 - Paul O'Connell (Young Munster/Munster)
6 - Stephen Ferris (Dungannon/Ulster)
7 - David Wallace (Garryowen/Munster)
8 - Jamie Heaslip (Naas/Leinster)

Replacements:
16 - Sean Cronin (Buccaneers/Connacht)
17 -Tony Buckley (Shannon/Munster)
18 - Leo Cullen (Blackrock College/Leinster)
19 - Denis Leamy (Cork Constitution/Munster)
20 - Peter Stringer (Shannon/Munster)
21 - Ronan O'Gara (Cork Constitution/Munster)
22 - Gordon D'Arcy (Lansdowne/Leinster

Well lads theres the team, looks like a lot of it was as expected (with one obvious exception at ten)

WeeBushy

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055749540