Ireland Team Talk/Gossip/Rumour Thread

jamiedav2011

McCarthy and Ryan in second row, which is a good selection.

Happy with that in general.

CIARAN_BOYLE

SZ, TB, KE, GD, AT, JS, CM; CH, RS*, MR, DR, MMcC, POM, CH, JH (c). Reps: SC, DK*, MB*, DOC, IH*, ER, ROG, FMcF

goreyguy

No Touhy at all, shame. O'Gara on the bench.

ScissorPaperRock

The moustache makes Jamie hard to take seriously!

Teferi

Persisting with ROG sigh.

Happy to see Zebo at 15...I just wish he had of had a bit of a run out at Munster before starting him there against the Boks.

Fireball07

That team can win this game.

Hopefully Henry has a big game, when you get your chance, you have to take it, similarly with Zebo. Nice for McCarthy too, always a solid player.


But I'm really looking forward to see Kilcoyne and Henderson from the bench.

Winters

Did Strauss just mention the Malahide thirds team?

CIARAN_BOYLE

Fireball07 wrote: »

But I'm really looking forward to see Kilcoyne and Henderson from the bench.

I'm really excited about henderson's debut

thomond2006

Healy, Strauss, Ross, Ryan, McCarthy, O'Mahony, Henry, Heaslip (c);
Murray, Sexton, Trimble, D'Arcy, Earls, Bowe, Zebo

Bench: Cronin, Kilcoyne, Bent, O'Callaghan, Henderson, Reddan, O'Gara, McFadden

petebricquette

Winters wrote: »

Did Strauss just mention the Malahide thirds team?

I think he said the Malahide under-13 B's!

Fishooks12

Our back row looks really balanced on paper

eyeball kid

Happy enough with that selection. Probably would have preferred Jackson/Madigan on the bench instead of ROG. Was Court injured?
Also surprised that DOC isn't starting.

Quint2010

Great to see McCarthy selected. Happy enough with the rest of the team apart from Murray. Zebo is a risk but he's been playing well and has shown he can do all the basics of a full backs job-while not actually playing there. Roll on Saturday!

danthefan

Fishooks12 wrote: »

Our back row looks really balanced on paper

It does in the sense there's a 6, 7 and 8 playing but it's not nearly powerful enough, SOB and Ferris sorely missed in that regard, neither POM or Henry come close.

Grimebox

Zebo at fullback Has he ever played there?

Otacon

The only real issue I have with that team is ROG on the bench. I'm quite shocked actually with how good that selection is.

Fishooks12

Grimebox wrote: »

Zebo at fullback Has he ever played there?

Nope, but he has all the attributes to be a very good fullback. Hopefully he goes well

thomond2006

Tuohy isn't better than McCarthy, Ryan or DOC?

goreyguy

Biggest problems: ROG on bench and Murray starting..

Wish we had a powerful ball carrier at 6 aswell

in terms of 'idealistic swaps'.

I'd have started McFadden instead of D'Arcy. Though I think/hope that would've been the case had BOD not been injured.
Cave instead of Zebo, Earls moves to 15, Cave at 13.

I'd have a bench worthy of changing a game instead of "filling a gap" / "doing a job" and other Kidney-isms too. (I'd also use them!)

Tuohy instead of DOC
Marshall instead of Reddan
Jackson instead of ROG
Zebo instead of McFadden on the bench.

55-65 mins could see us turn up the temperature pretty rapidly if we did it right...

Fishooks12

thomond2006 wrote: »

Tuohy isn't better than McCarthy, Ryan or DOC?

hmmmm. I don't think Touhy can feel that hard done by considering the form of McCarthy and DOC

Plus it could also be argued that he got his chance in NZ and didn't exactly make much of an impression

Fireball07

thomond2006 wrote: »

Tuohy isn't better than McCarthy, Ryan or DOC?

Maybe at his best. But I really don't think there's much between all 4 of them. Purely on form, I'd go with DOC and McCarthy. But it was a toss-up, I'd say.

irishbucsfan

Henry is very powerful as opensides go. It's one of his strengths. Also Henderson on the bench is massive.

I don't think we have anything that can match Alberts though, we could really have used Ferris.

Fishooks12

goreyguy wrote: »

Biggest problems: ROG on bench and Murray starting..

Wish we had a powerful ball carrier at 6 aswell

POM isn't a bad ball carrier at all, no Fez obviously, but a solid option to supplement Healy, Heaslip and Strauss. I see most of your problems seem to be Munster related. Coincidence?

Fishooks12

Henderson and Kilcoyne around the 60m mark will give us a lot of impact. Can't wait to see them along with Strauss, McCarthy and Henry starting

There's a lot to look forward to Saturday. I just hope Kidney has rehtought his gameplan ideas along with his selection policy

Neil3030

Fishooks12 wrote: »

Nope, but he has all the attributes to be a very good fullback. Hopefully he goes well

He has never played full back at Munster?

This is a concern tbh.

Hype710

Biggest worry for me are the respective scrumhalves. Murray is woefully inconsistent. He was really quite good in the Stade de France against France in March so you'd hope for a good performance but we really have no way of predicting how he's going to perform.

goreyguy

Fishooks12 wrote: »

POM isn't a bad ball carrier at all, no Fez obviously, but a solid option to supplement Healy, Heaslip and Strauss. I see most of your problems seem to be Munster related. Coincidence?

I'm quite happy to see Kilcoyne on the bench, Ryan starting and Zebo starting.

Sorry for not buying into the O'Mahony hype train, and Kidney's consistent unwillingness to start a game with both Sexton and Reddan at 10 and 9.

ScissorPaperRock

With the absence of experienced players such as O'Connell, Best and O'Driscoll ROG was never going to be dropped

Fishooks12

Neil3030 wrote: »

He has never played full back at Munster?

This is a concern tbh.

He played fullback in school I think!

Look it's a concern alright but I think it's more refreshing that Kidney is actually trying things for once.