Ireland Team Talk/Gossip/Rumour Thread

duckysauce

looks like they are enjoying where they are staying more, than the last world cup.

LostPassword

mrboswell wrote: »

Look they are grand...it obviously wasn't boozing all the way:
http://tinyurl.com/3j5xeuc

Looks like savage crack - especially those funny wee sled things. I wouldn't be worried about a night on the lash at this stage either - probably a good thing for acclimatisation The only worry is that they're over-reacting to the last world cup and bending the stick too far in the other direction.

phog

GerM wrote: »

I'm seriously dubious about Kidney's famed motivation and man management skills at this point. Article in the Independent reveals that Jennings was another person told before his one appearance that he would not be heading to NZ. He knew walking out on the pitch against France that nothing other than pride was on the line for him

I'm sure Jennings is delighted to be travelling to NZ now but he must be under no illusions that he's just there to make up the numbers given that he was told he wasn't going without him ever having played a minute. Makes me think that DK had his mind made up from day one on a lot of things which isn't a good way to select a side.

Most managers have their teams selected well in advance, anyone following Irish rugby must surely have been aware that Jennings was probably not going to make the plane. As you haven't posted the link, I've no idea of the conversation was between the two of them or who told the Independent that this was indeed a fact but I serioulsy doubt it was a plain forward "you're not travelling" type of chat between coach and player. Do you think Coady and Ryan didnt tell thier players that they were unlikely to make the panel for the All Ireland in advance.

Do you want Kideny to revert to the text message, get one and you're in dont get one and wait for RTE to annouce to the team to find out.

MaryKing

GerM wrote: »

I'm seriously dubious about Kidney's famed motivation and man management skills at this point. Article in the Independent reveals that Jennings was another person told before his one appearance that he would not be heading to NZ. He knew walking out on the pitch against France that nothing other than pride was on the line for him

I'm sure Jennings is delighted to be travelling to NZ now but he must be under no illusions that he's just there to make up the numbers given that he was told he wasn't going without him ever having played a minute. Makes me think that DK had his mind made up from day one on a lot of things which isn't a good way to select a side.

Jennings isn't a child and like most adults will want to have known where he stood. Unfortunately for him as well, he was coming back from an injury and from all accounts David Wallace was in superb form. Niall Ronan put in some decent games when he more than likely knew he hadn't a breeze of a chance. I'd be pretty sure most of those guys knew anyway how they were doing in comparison to others competing for their various positions. Jennings opportunities were going to be limited as backup because of his lack of versatility and particularly his lack of physicality which was shown up against France when he did get a chance to play.

MaryKing

TheHighRoad wrote: »

Heard from a mate in Queenstown that the Irish lads who went out were a disgrace. They were literally falling around the place and Ronan O'Gara could barely speak. Not surprising, I saw Cian Healy out on the piss on Tuesday night..isnt he meant to be recovering? Justindee...."everyone needs to let their hair down" ?!!? its a feckin week before the world cup starts, do you even know how detrimental a night on the sauce can be to recovery, muscle and cardio? At the top level it can make the difference.

24 hours of flying/jetlag takes it out of you - a sniff of a drink and you could be any ones and most those guys probably have been off the drink for the last 2/3 months when in training which would make it even easier to get drunk on nothing.

justsomebloke

Ok unless anyone has any prove of any of this there is to be no more mention of it. Anyone breaks that and they get a 2 week instant ban

appropriate posts have been deleted

Gracelessly Tom

MaryKing wrote: »

Jennings isn't a child and like most adults will want to have known where he stood. Unfortunately for him as well, he was coming back from an injury and from all accounts David Wallace was in superb form.

Wasn't Wallace just coming back off injury as well??

MaryKing

Gracelessly Tom wrote: »

Wasn't Wallace just coming back off injury as well??

I just read the article in the Indo. Jennings was told that he wasn't starting against France, not that he wasn't travelling to the world cup*. Then David Wallace pulled up with a strain, Jennings was pulled from the Connacht game and started the French game.

*That reduced his chances of going because he wasn't going to get any chance to play before the squad had to be selected the Monday after the French game.

Wallace wasn't coming back from an injury - just a strain in training. Jennings broke his arm in the Magners Final - the match which David Wallace was superb in, winning MOTM.

If Jennings was fit to play earlier, he would have started ahead of Niall Ronan in the Scotland game.

TheHighRoad

Joe the Santa wrote: »

Ok unless anyone has any prove of any of this there is to be no more mention of it. Anyone breaks that and they get a 2 week instant ban

appropriate posts have been deleted

Could I put up a video of ROG from that night that my friend sent me or would that be a no-no?

MaryKing

TheHighRoad wrote: »

Could I put up a video of ROG from that night that my friend sent me or would that be a no-no?

You & your friend want to start a repeat of what happened in '07?

No wonder Mr Murdock is a billionaire.

mrboswell

MaryKing wrote: »

You & your friend want to start a repeat of what happened in '07?

No wonder Mr Murdock is a billionaire.

They are representing us over there and if they act the mick then they are fair game. The country is already an international joke. If they don't want to be a headline for the wrong reason then they shouldn't do anything silly.
If they haven't done anything silly then they don't need to worry about anything.

GerM

MaryKing wrote: »

I just read the article in the Indo. Jennings was told that he wasn't starting against France, not that he wasn't travelling to the world cup*. Then David Wallace pulled up with a strain, Jennings was pulled from the Connacht game and started the French game.

*That reduced his chances of going because he wasn't going to get any chance to play before the squad had to be selected the Monday after the French game.

Wallace wasn't coming back from an injury - just a strain in training. Jennings broke his arm in the Magners Final - the match which David Wallace was superb in, winning MOTM.

If Jennings was fit to play earlier, he would have started ahead of Niall Ronan in the Scotland game.

You're wrong in your first comment. Read it again. He clearly says he knew he wasn't going to be involved before he played France i.e. when he knew he was playing France but knew he wasn't in the 30 man panel:

"Exactly. I was told before I played the France game that I wasn't going to be involved, so it was a matter of getting my head around it," said Jennings. "It was obviously a huge disappointment. And then I got back into Leinster and was focusing on the first six league games before we kind of break up from there"

The point about Jennings not playing earlier is totally erroneous. Everyone knew he wasn't fit and nobody has argued otherwise. He was told he wasn't travelling before DK had ever seen him play a single minute. If Jennings had gone out and set the world on fire against France, what was DK to do then? I don't expect DK to molly coddle anyone or leave them in the dark but I don't expect him to pick his squad without having seen players play in a match environment i.e. Geordan Murphy, Mick O'Driscoll (15 minutes of action) and Shane Jennings.

I don't think there's much point in discussing it as, no matter what the story is, you seem determined to interpret everything (incorrectly) as an insult to Munster and view everything in light of that.

MaryKing

mrboswell wrote: »

They are representing us over there and if they act the mick then they are fair game. The country is already an international joke. If they don't want to be a headline for the wrong reason then they shouldn't do anything silly.
If they haven't done anything silly then they don't need to worry about anything.

The poster wants to put up a video of one Irish player, Ronan O'Gara not the entire Irish team misbehaving. You can't blame the team for dragging the country down by the behaviour of just one player.

justsomebloke

TheHighRoad wrote: »

Could I put up a video of ROG from that night that my friend sent me or would that be a no-no?

that would be a no, as date, timing and context are things that are easily misinterpreted from videos.

MaryKing

GerM wrote: »

You're wrong in your first comment. Read it again. He clearly says he knew he wasn't going to be involved before he played France i.e. when he knew he was playing France but knew he wasn't in the 30 man panel:

The point about Jennings not playing earlier is totally erroneous. Everyone knew he wasn't fit and nobody has argued otherwise. He was told he wasn't travelling before DK had ever seen him play a single minute. If Jennings had gone out and set the world on fire against France, what was DK to do then? I don't expect DK to molly coddle anyone or leave them in the dark but I don't expect him to pick his squad without having seen players play in a match environment i.e. Geordan Murphy, Mick O'Driscoll (15 minutes of action) and Shane Jennings.

I don't think there's much point in discussing it as, no matter what the story is, you seem determined to interpret everything (incorrectly) as an insult to Munster and view everything in light of that.

So you don't think Shane Jennings is intelligent enough to figure out if he wasn't getting any start against a major team in the warm up games prior to squad selection that his chances were going to be limited getting to the world cup?

Right so!

Its unfortunate that neither Geordan or Shane got a huge amount of game time - coming back from injury didn't help them. I've no doubt that Shane Jennings would have played against Scotland instead of Niall Ronan if he was fit. He obviously wasn't. Geordan had a bit of competition, so not really surprising.

It looks like Declan Kidney got the team selection correct though when you view how they all played. Sean O'Brien will be selected ahead of Shane Jennings and rightly so against Australia.

You seem determined to think that players & coaches involved are all ediots which is what I find annoying.

Joe the Santa

Joe the Santa wrote: »

that would be a no, as date, timing and context are things that are easily misinterpreted from videos.

but I'd happily take a PM...

ironingbored

jacothelad wrote: »

The background of most rugby players from N.I. is that they are from middle class, Unionist families, educated to a high level and have attended State or Independent grammar schools which represent all shades of our society. We may see ourselves primarily as 'British' but we are also Irish. I am happy to have the best of both worlds as I see it. I've been interested and involved in rugby since the 1950s, playing for Methodist College, Queens, Collegians etc.as well as in Wales. I have to say that I have never met any of our internationals from here who ever exhibited any concern at all about playing for our rugby team, or indeed anyone in the rugby fraternity who gave a flying fox for any of our 'politicians' and the sectarian type of politics that sadly seems to be the outsiders view of what happens here. It isn't the real picture by any stretch of the imagination. Most of the political clowns from all shades got short shrift. There have been a few players I'm sure like the unpleasant Davy Tweed although it is fair to say that he did not enter the game through the school route. The only other one I ever met got killed by a land mine in South Africa. There is no need for Rugby and politics to mix. I am happy to say that as a unionist by tradition, I'd have been ecstatic to stand at Lansdowne under the Irish flag alongside the rest of the team. It's the way it has been since Ravenhill no longer had real games. There is no need to change it. I'm not sure what the reaction would be among the 'Irish' players if the shoe were on the other foot as it were, at Ravenhill. To be frank, we couldn't care less.

Thanks for the post.

I think that all of our rugby players regardless of background or culture are excellent examples of young, confident and intelligent (bar DOC of course! individuals particularly representative of the new, mature Ireland both North and South; borne out of the playing of GSTQ in Croker to the Queen's visit.

GerM

MaryKing wrote: »

You seem determined to think that players & coaches involved are all ediots which is what I find annoying.

Total and utter nonsense.

Ignored.

mrboswell

MaryKing wrote: »

The poster wants to put up a video of one Irish player, Ronan O'Gara not the entire Irish team misbehaving. You can't blame the team for dragging the country down by the behaviour of just one player.

I wouldn't blame the whole team if it was true. But what I stand says. Any inappropriate actions would most likely be seen by the general public in a negative way. They should behave in a decent way.

Regardless of whether its one person or a group, public figures are fair game when they cross the line. I would expect to see any player, from any team, that was drinking excessively in the home stretch to the world cup to be named and shamed.

MaryKing

ironingbored wrote: »

Thanks for the post.

I think that all of our rugby players regardless of background or culture are excellent examples of young, confident and intelligent (bar DOC of course! individuals particularly representative of the new, mature Ireland both North and South; borne out of the playing of GSTQ in Croker to the Queen's visit.

I'd have huge admiration for the likes of Trevor Ringland & Nigel Carr both great players (NC's career was finished by an IRA bomb back in the '80s on his way to a world cup training session).

Those guys were real heroes as despite what was going on all around them, they still continued to play for Ireland.

Its interesting that Trevor Ringland became a Unionist politician and resigned because the Leaders of the UUP wouldn't go to an All-Ireland Final if an Ulster team was in it.

MaryKing

mrboswell wrote: »

I wouldn't blame the whole team if it was true. But what I stand says. Any inappropriate actions would most likely be seen by the general public in a negative way. They should behave in a decent way.

Regardless of whether its one person or a group, public figures are fair game when they cross the line. I would expect to see any player, from any team, that was drinking excessively in the home stretch to the world cup to be named and shamed.

From what I understand, this was in their own downtime/private function - so they are not fair game for some person to take sneaky videos of them. You will never see them out and about if people are going to do that to them.

And how do you know they were drinking excessively and how do you know that from a video? If they had two pints, would you judge that to be excessive? I think its well known that Ronan O'Gara gets drunk on a glass of beer. Add in that they have been in camp for the last 2 months, jet lag etc. and you just don't know how they are going to react to even one pint.

Willie John McBride was very lucky there was no video cameras around to record the hotels that his teams are supposed to have wrecked when on tour.

justsomebloke

I have said it already so another mention of the incident without proof is a 2 week ban

RoryMc23

Good to see the Irish team is training at high altitudes though... It will help them acclimitise to no end.

theboss80

So with our games n the pools on at weekends are we gonna be getting team announcements as usual on Thursdays? and if so what time will they be at I'm wondering?

duckysauce

RoryMc23 wrote: »

Good to see the Irish team is training at high altitudes though... It will help them acclimitise to no end.

match is a week away, and it was altitude sickness he was suffering from , so my friend says who is over in nz :rolleyes:

durkadurka

I've been to queenstown and its not at 12000 feet or anything.

Edit: Wikipedia says it's at 1157 feet which is not that high.

thomond2006

Is Healy fit/touch and go/unfit for the USA game? Writing a preview now.

Hagz

thomond2006 wrote: »

Is Healy fit/touch and go/unfit for the USA game? Writing a preview now.

Apparently not

GerM

durkadurka wrote: »

I've been to queenstown and its not at 12000 feet or anything.

Edit: Wikipedia says it's at 1157 feet which is not that high.

To put that in context, it's about 80m higher than Kilternan in south Dublin where DLSP play.

Nosebleeds all over the pitch.

durkadurka

Johnny won't be getting an extra 20m on his kicks anyhow!