My Ireland team to face the All Blacks

Conero

To be honest even I was surprised by some of the selections I made, but I generally think it's a solid team given the players we presently have available. Those excluded is largely becasue they are unavailable through injury or were not included in the 34 man squad for the series. So here it is:

15 Rob Kearney
14 Luke Fitzgerald
13 Brian O'Driscoll
12 Gordon D'Arcy
11 Tommy Bowe
10 Jonny Sexton
9 Peter Stringer
1 Cian Healy
2 Rory Best
3 Tom Court
4 Donnacha Ryan
5 Devin Toner
6 Sean O'Brien
7 Stephen Ferris
8 Jamie Heaslip

Subs:
John Hayes
Sean Cronin
Donnacha O'Callaghan
David Wallace
Eoin Reddan
Ronan O'Gara
Keith Earls


If available, I probably would have included O'Connell, Casey, Leo Cullen and Geordan Murphy in the 22. I believe this line up leaves us with a strong and experienced bench to fall back on which is something we missed in the previous games. Any comments much welcomed

Judgement Day

Deckchairs and Titanic comes to mind.

PS Welcome to the Boards.

brianthebard

Boss doesn't even make the subs, is he injured?

lologram

No Mike Ross, but plenty of room for John Hayes?


Is that you Declan?

danthefan

Conero wrote: »

Subs:
John Hayes

Fail.

Conero

lologram wrote: »

No Mike Ross, but plenty of room for John Hayes?


Is that you Declan?

Yeah, I get your point, and believe me I was considering it to. It's just to me, while undoubtedly Mike Ross should be a replacement for Hayes in the long run (and should definitely DEFINITELY start against Los Pumas) the Bull just has that international pedigree we might need against the all blacks. Correct me if I'm wrong, but has Mike Ross ever started a test for Ireland?

Don't be so harsh on the bull; he's been a magnificent servent of Irish rugby, as cliched as that is to say.

chupacabra

I would go with the following.

15. Luke Fitz
14. Tommy Bowe
13. BOD
12. D'Arcy
11. Earls
10. Sexton
9. Boss (Stringer will be mutilated if picked)

1. Healy
2. Best
3. Ross :rolleyes:
4. DOC
5. Toner
6. Ferris
7. SOB
8. Heaslip

16. Cronin
17. Court
18. Ryan
19. Wallace
20. Stringer
21. ROG
22. Kearney/Trimble

Podge_irl

Conero wrote: »

the Bull just has that international pedigree we might need against the all blacks.

Em.....no.

P_1

Would probably go with

15. Murphy
14. Bowe
13. O'Driscoll
12. D'Arcy
11. Fitzgerald
10. Sexton
9. Stringer
8. Heaslip
7. O'Brien
6. Ferris
5. Toner
4. O'Callaghan
3. Ross
2. Cronin
1. Court

16. Best
17. Healy
18. Cullen
19. Leamy
20. Boss
21. O'Gara
22. Earls

Having said that I cannnot see anything other than New Zealand doing us prison style

stephen_n

1. Healy
2. Cronin
3. Ross
4. Toner (would prefer Cullen but assume he is not fit)
5. DOC
6. Ferris
7. Wallace (SOB is the future but Wally has more experience)
8. heaslip

9. Stringer
10. Sexton
11. Fitzgerald
12. BOD
13. Bowe
14. Earls
15. Dempsey

16. Best
17. Court
18. Ryan/toner
19. SOB
20. Boss
21. ROG
22. Kearney

lologram

Conero wrote: »

Correct me if I'm wrong, but has Mike Ross ever started a test for Ireland?

Don't be so harsh on the bull; he's been a magnificent servent of Irish rugby, as cliched as that is to say.

Ross has. He has 2 caps, one as a starter.

I wouldn't describe the posters here as 'harsh' on John Hayes. Pretty much everyone (definitely including myself) has thanked him for his service to the team, at one stage or another.

But at the same time, the massive consensus is that he's completely past it and shouldn't be playing. It's been discussed ad nauseam; he just isn't up to it. He'll get absolutely mullered by Tony Woodcock at the weekend, if Kidney selects him. Woodcock himself was given a hard time by Dan Cole in the England game last week, so that's how much Hayes is not up to it.

Ps welcome to boards

CouchSmart

pithater1 wrote: »

Would probably go with

15. Murphy
14. Bowe
13. O'Driscoll
12. D'Arcy
11. Fitzgerald
10. Sexton
9. Stringer
8. Heaslip
7. O'Brien
6. Ferris
5. Toner
4. O'Callaghan
3. Ross
2. Cronin
1. Court

16. Best
17. Healy
18. Cullen
19. Leamy
20. Boss
21. O'Gara
22. Earls

Having said that I cannnot see anything other than New Zealand doing us prison style

Not just picking on you but I don't really get this whole Court over Healy thing. Personally I don't think it's even a close call. I really don't see where it's coming from?

Username37

stephen_n wrote: »

1. Healy
2. Cronin
3. Ross
4. Toner (would prefer Cullen but assume he is not fit)
5. DOC
6. Ferris
7. Wallace (SOB is the future but Wally has more experience)
8. heaslip

9. Stringer
10. Sexton
11. Fitzgerald
12. BOD
13. Bowe
14. Earls
15. Dempsey

16. Best
17. Court
18. Ryan/toner
19. SOB
20. Boss
21. ROG
22. Kearney

You must really dislike the option of Murphy if you want to call Girven out of retirement!

P_1

CouchSmart wrote: »

Not just picking on you but I don't really get this whole Court over Healy thing. Personally I don't think it's even a close call. I really don't see where it's coming from?

Well I was thinking in terms of who will have the greater impact off the bench. Bringing Healy on after 60 mins to run at a tired defence might have something going for us.

Username37

pithater1 wrote: »

Well I was thinking in terms of who will have the greater impact off the bench. Bringing Healy on after 60 mins to run at a tired defence might have something going for us.

I think you should pick the best team to start no matter what. Considering Ross isn't considered then Healy and Court should be our two starting props because that is the best front row available to us, its nonsense to leave a better player out for impact reasons.

LowOdour

i havent seen enough of ross to say how good he is, but im suprised at the amount of people that looking for some so inexperinced to start such a big match. He must be better than i thought

Morf

LowOdour wrote: »

i havent seen enough of ross to say how good he is, but im suprised at the amount of people that looking for some so inexperinced to start such a big match. He must be better than i thought

No it's just Hayes is currently as poor as everyone thinks.

Podge_irl

LowOdour wrote: »

i havent seen enough of ross to say how good he is, but im suprised at the amount of people that looking for some so inexperinced to start such a big match. He must be better than i thought

He can actually scrum...

outwest

id go for

court
croinin
ross
cullen
toner
muldoon
wallace
heaslip

stringer
sexton

wallace
bowe

luke
earls
murphy. or even duffy.

bench. best healy( even tho i think he not international standard yet. would maybe like to see wilkonson) doc sob redden rog duffy( cover fullback and centre)

bod dropped because he either injured or playing poorly, he has been one of our worst players to in the 2 games.

muldoon because leamy and ferris have both been poor when they got there chances. muldoon was good in the summer and did well so far this season.

play this team or any team either way were going to get hammered by new zealand. kidney has ignored the new rules. give me eddie any day over kidney, were been could of lost of 7 game in a row to samoa. were gonig to get destroyed in the 6 nations. england and france in the aviva, on current form we will get destoryed.

CouchSmart

outwest wrote: »

healy( even tho i think he not international standard yet. would maybe like to see wilkonson)

Is this a joke? Fair enough you can argue Healy mightn't be international standard but he's so far ahead of Wilkinson it's not even funny.

Username37

outwest wrote: »

id go for

court
croinin
ross
cullen
toner
muldoon
wallace
heaslip

stringer
sexton

wallace
bowe

luke
earls
murphy. or even duffy.

bench. best healy( even tho i think he not international standard yet. would maybe like to see wilkonson) doc sob redden rog duffy( cover fullback and centre)

bod dropped because he either injured or playing poorly, he has been one of our worst players to in the 2 games.

muldoon because leamy and ferris have both been poor when they got there chances. muldoon was good in the summer and did well so far this season.

play this team or any team either way were going to get hammered by new zealand. kidney has ignored the new rules. give me eddie any day over kidney, were been could of lost of 7 game in a row to samoa. were gonig to get destroyed in the 6 nations. england and france in the aviva, on current form we will get destoryed.

Duffy isn't considered due to injury.

Ferris was actually one of the few players who played ok against South Africa.

You don't think Healy is international standard and then you say you want to put Wilkinson there :rolleyes:

How could you put Wallace ahead of D'arcy after his performance yesterday?

How on earth was O'Driscoll the worst player against South Africa? He never even got the ball Also against Samoa I think you can safely say that John Hayes and Ronan O'Gara were worse.

Bogsnorkler

Username37 wrote: »

Duffy isn't considered due to injury.

Ferris was actually one of the few players who played ok against South Africa.

You don't think Healy is international standard and then you say you want to put Wilkinson there :rolleyes:

How could you put Wallace ahead of D'arcy after his performance yesterday?

How on earth was O'Driscoll the worst player against South Africa? He never even got the ball Also against Samoa I think you can safely say that John Hayes and Ronan O'Gara were worse.

Thought ROG was better than BOD the last day. Made a few headwrecking errors but i was happy enough with him. He's made the call between himself and Sexton closer, although i cannot understand why String Sexton combo haven't been tried yet........

Username37

Bogsnorkler wrote: »

Thought ROG was better than BOD the last day. Made a few headwrecking errors but i was happy enough with him. He's made the call between himself and Sexton closer, although i cannot understand why String Sexton combo haven't been tried yet........

Made a lot of errors actually. Whatever about O'Driscoll being quiet at least he wasn't making mistakes and dropping balls on the Ireland try line! Personally I felt O'Gara's performances widened the gap in favour of Sexton after he'd narrowed it in his cameo against South Africa. He made so many mistakes against Samoa. Considering the abuse Sexton got for a restart error and a missed conversion you'd wonder why O'Gara didn't get the same amount of abuse considering he made so many errors yesterday. Off the top of my head he had two kicks blocked down, missed touch consistently (including from a penalty), couldn't execute a simple pass that would have been a try for Ireland, dropped a pass straight at his chest on the Irish try line and more. Those mistakes would have killed us against New Zealand. Also he couldn't get the backline going at all. His loop was very poorly executed. Sexton couldn't use the backs because of the conditions but O'Gara wouldn't use the backs because he plays an outdated game. We kick against New Zealand and we will be slaugtered.

amiable

Was this thread started cos people think Kidney is doing a bad job?

Judgement Day

amiable wrote: »

Was this thread started cos people think Kidney is doing a bad job?

Nah, it was started to provide a new thread to slag off ROG.

wixfjord

Username37 wrote: »

Made a lot of errors actually. Whatever about O'Driscoll being quiet at least he wasn't making mistakes and dropping balls on the Ireland try line! Personally I felt O'Gara's performances widened the gap in favour of Sexton after he'd narrowed it in his cameo against South Africa. He made so many mistakes against Samoa. Considering the abuse Sexton got for a restart error and a missed conversion you'd wonder why O'Gara didn't get the same amount of abuse considering he made so many errors yesterday. Off the top of my head he had two kicks blocked down, missed touch consistently (including from a penalty), couldn't execute a simple pass that would have been a try for Ireland, dropped a pass straight at his chest on the Irish try line and more. Those mistakes would have killed us against New Zealand. Also he couldn't get the backline going at all. His loop was very poorly executed. Sexton couldn't use the backs because of the conditions but O'Gara wouldn't use the backs because he plays an outdated game. We kick against New Zealand and we will be slaugtered.

**** me you havent half got an agenda have you?!

Username37

wixfjord wrote: »

**** me you havent half got an agenda have you?!

You've got me, I do.

I want the best players picked and I want to win. One poster said O'Gara played well and I stated that he didn't because he made lots of mistakes. I then pointed out the mistakes and stated that against New Zealand we can't play O'Gara's game.

Don't be so precious.

Username37

Judgement Day wrote: »

Nah, it was started to provide a new thread to slag off ROG.

Pointing out mistakes O'Gara made is now slagging off ROG?
Why is it that you can point out mistakes Hayes or Brian O'Driscoll made but the very mention that O'Gara made a couple of errors himself then suddenly you have an agenda and are slagging ROG. Quess what, O'Gara made more mistakes yesterday than any other player. He kicked well and took a nice try but he was poor and I don't think I should feel almost intimidated to point that out on this forum(people stating I have an agenda and am slagging ROG in the hope that a mod will ban me or tell me to refrain from posting on this thread)

For me personally the 10 issue is going to be THE biggest factor in how the game will go. It is the most important selection so why should it be ignored to appease people who can't rationally discuss rugby without trying to silence an opinion they disagree with?

amiable

Username37 wrote: »

Pointing out mistakes O'Gara made is now slagging off ROG?
Why is it that you can point out mistakes Hayes or Brian O'Driscoll made but the very mention that O'Gara made a couple of errors himself then suddenly you have an agenda and are slagging ROG. Quess what, O'Gara made more mistakes yesterday than any other player. He kicked well and took a nice try but he was poor and I don't think I should feel almost intimidated to point that out on this forum(people stating I have an agenda and am slagging ROG in the hope that a mod will ban me or tell me to refrain from posting on this thread)

For me personally the 10 issue is going to be THE biggest factor in how the game will go. It is the most important selection so why should it be ignored to appease people who can't rationally discuss rugby without trying to silence an opinion they disagree with?

So is Sexton the solution in your opinion?

Judgement Day

The use of the usually denotes a throwaway remark or a bit of fun. Some people here need to lighten up and be thankful that it won't be them facing down the Haka next Saturday.

PS - I think you would find it hard to find a post by me slagging off either BOD or John Hayes on Boards.

subfreq

court
cronin
ross
cullen (if he wasn't injured it would have been Buckley)
toner
Ferris
wallace
heaslip

stringer
sexton

BOD
bowe

Kearney
Earls
15 - Fitz