W/Cup squad preparation

phog

I post this over in the match thread but felt it was getting lost there because of the discussion on the match.

Sean Fitzpatrick, ex All Black captain and current Sky Analyst was interviewed today on Newstalk and he said the All Blacks squad get together for 25 weeks over the year.

Now I doubt any other country would get their players for anything like that but maybe as the IRFU are the paymasters for so many of your players they should try it for the 2015 WC.

I think while it might be hard on the provinces it might be worth taking the hit on the H/C for one or two years to give us a chance at really competing in the WC.

Imagine heading to the W/C with a real chance of winning it

sock puppet

From next season on the SH season will be a bit closer to ours in terms of structure as the Super 15 will be broken up by the Summer tests. I think one if the best things about their season currently is that they go into the Tri Nations with a better idea of what they're best team is. It sometimes takes teams a couple of games to get their combinations right in the Six Nations.

B556

How many warm up games are we playing next year before the world cup?

phog

B556 wrote: »

How many warm up games are we playing next year before the world cup?

I don't know, why?

I'm not talkimng about next year, I talking about 4 years later, letting the squad get together for 25 weeks each year to develop and have a reasonable chance at being successful in the W/C.

Guy:Incognito

Just make all the players likely to be in the squad play for 1 province

phog

Stekelly wrote: »

Just make all the players likely to be in the squad play for 1 province

But would that province be happy to lose their key players for about 12 - 16 weeks during Internationals, another few weeks rest and then the possibility of injuries?

irishbucsfan

1) There is no need to put THAT much focus on international rugby or the world cup. We have some of the best club sides in world rugby, no need to take away from that to marginally improve our chances.

2) If we're going to copy anyone, let's copy someone with a better world cup record than the Kiwis

Ian_K

We should probably just forget about trying to win this years six nations and give the likes of Carr, Ross, Cronin, Toner, SOB, Earls etc. a run instead

To be honest we dont have a hope of winning it this year anyway, we'll have a very tough time beating the French and the English at home the way theyre playing and also the away trips to improving Scootish and Welsh sides will be far from easy

Also a poor six nations is exactly the kind of kick in the arse we need before the WC, the last thing we want is people actually thinking we're going to do well, look what happened last time!

SARZY

irishbucsfan wrote: »

1) There is no need to put THAT much focus on international rugby or the world cup. We have some of the best club sides in world rugby, no need to take away from that to marginally improve our chances.

2) If we're going to copy anyone, let's copy someone with a better world cup record than the Kiwis

Spot on there. You hit the target, slotted the toucline conversion and Nailed Sonny Bill there.

twinytwo

B556 wrote: »

How many warm up games are we playing next year before the world cup?

not 100% sure but i think we are playing england,wales, scotland and france again before the wc....

Team for the wc

1 Healy
2 Flannery
3 Buckley/Court
4 DOC
5 POC
6 Ferris
7 SOB
8Heaslip
9TOL
10 Sexton
11Earls/Fitz
12 Darcy
13Drico
14Bowe
15 Kearney/fitz

i am willing to bet my house on this

irishbucsfan

twinytwo wrote: »

not 100% sure but i think we are playing england,wales, scotland and france again before the wc....

Team for the wc

1 Healy
2 Flannery
3 Buckley/Court
4 DOC
5 POC
6 Ferris
7 SOB
8Heaslip
9TOL
10 Sexton
11Earls/Fitz
12 Darcy
13Drico
14Bowe
15 Kearney/fitz

i am willing to bet my house on this

Do you really think Flannery will be fit? :pac:

twinytwo

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Do you really think Flannery will be fit? :pac:

I get on my knees at night and pray that he is... we need a hooker that can actually throw:(

conf101

twinytwo wrote: »

not 100% sure but i think we are playing england,wales, scotland and france again before the wc....

Team for the wc

1 Healy
2 Flannery
3 Buckley/Court
4 DOC
5 POC
6 Ferris
7 SOB
8Heaslip
9TOL
10 Sexton
11Earls/Fitz
12 Darcy
13Drico
14Bowe
15 Kearney/fitz

i am willing to bet my house on this

Playing France twice and then England and Scotland once each afaik!

I'd be happy with that team tbh!

phog

irishbucsfan wrote: »

1) There is no need to put THAT much focus on international rugby or the world cup. We have some of the best club sides in world rugby, no need to take away from that to marginally improve our chances.

2) If we're going to copy anyone, let's copy someone with a better world cup record than the Kiwis

:eek:

They are still the best team in the world. I'd love to be able to say that Ireland have reached the standard that the ABs are at.

irishbucsfan

phog wrote: »

:eek:

They are still the best team in the world. I'd love to be able to say that Ireland have reached the standard that the ABs are at.

Thats fair enough, I was saying that tongue in cheek. My first point stands though.

Teferi

irishbucsfan wrote: »

2) If we're going to copy anyone, let's copy someone with a better world cup record than the Kiwis

I disagree with this. Regardless of their WC record the AB's have been consistently the best in the world.

Agus

Teferi wrote: »

I disagree with this. Regardless of their WC record the AB's have been consistently the best in the world.

All the more reason NOT to copy their RWC preparation surely if they've been consistently best in the world but despite that still haven't been winning RWCs....

B0X

Not sure if this has been posted yet, but we're playing England at home as a warm up match. I wonder when other fixtures will be announced.

Crash

They've been announced actually - in fact, that England game was announced ages back from the Irish side, I thought?

According to irfu.ie, we're playing scotland in murrayfield 6th Aug, France away 13th aug, France home 20th aug, England home 27th aug.

padser

Stekelly wrote: »

Just make all the players likely to be in the squad play for 1 province

Essentially we already have this to be honest.

Of Ireland's first choice backline, 15, 11, 12, 13, 10 all play for Leinster

Of Ireland's first choice pack (inc scrum half) 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 and 9 all play for Munster.


Familiarity between our players (especially once you consider our lack of any kind of squad rotation without injury!!) is not one of our problems.

danthefan

B0X wrote: »

Not sure if this has been posted yet, but we're playing England at home as a warm up match. I wonder when other fixtures will be announced.

We're playing France twice I think too.

padser

Crash wrote: »

France away 13th aug, France home 20th aug,

France home and away back to back. Really really great WC preparation! The way England are playing too that's three really high quality test matches, no fear of us lacking proper match practice!

phog

From the Examiner.

Meanwhile, it was confirmed last night that Ireland will play England at Aviva Stadium next August as part of their World Cup warm-up programme. Ireland have four friendly fixtures planned for August in the build-up to the September tournament.

Ireland will face Scotland at Murrayfield on August 6, France twice, on August 13 and August 20, then England at the Aviva Stadium on August 27.

Ireland’s first pool match is against Eddie O’Sullivan’s US Eagles at Yarrow Stadium in New Zealand on Sunday, September 11, 2011.