The one player we do not want to lose?

gavmcg92

Name just one player on the Irish world cup squad whose loss through injury, you think, would be detrimental to Ireland's world cup success.

I'm going to start the ball rolling by naming Sean O'Brien as that one player.

Blair

You said it

cgpg5

Brian O'Driscoll

Tefral

I'm gonna be different and say Mike Ross

Fight_Night

SOB, Ross, Healy probably BOD and POC. If we lose any of our starting 15 we would be weakened but these are probably the most valuable.

GiftofGab

Def Mike Ross - the rock in our scrum - the thought of Tony Buckley running out in a world cup final (I know Tom court would take his place but both props don't finish 80 mins)

davegrohl48

Cian Healy
- Our scrum would give up penalties and not win penalties, maybe a 3/4 penalty swing in games
- We don't have another prop who can cover the pitch and make runs and tackles like him
- The drop in coverage elsewhere is not as big as for him.
- Our defensive cover would be weakened from it's current water tight state

My next pick would be Sean O'Brien. Mike Ross important but not as devastating around the pitch.

coylerwhaa

GiftofGab wrote: »

Def Mike Ross - the rock in our scrum - the thought of Tony Buckley running out in a world cup final (I know Tom court would take his place but both props don't finish 80 mins)

Strongly agree,no ross=end of world cup challenge

decisions

Healy/ Ross/ SOB/ ROG

CIARAN_BOYLE

davegrohl48 wrote: »

Cian Healy
- Our scrum would give up penalties and not win penalties, maybe a 3/4 penalty swing in games
- We don't have another prop who can cover the pitch and make runs and tackles like him
- The drop in coverage elsewhere is not as big as for him.
- Our defensive cover would be weakened from it's current water tight state

My next pick would be Sean O'Brien. Mike Ross important but not as devastating around the pitch.

I'd go for Ross because Court is a lot better LH than TH so I'd rather have him in there.

durkadurka

Ross. No quesion.
He ain't sexy but we'd be screwed without him.

Risteard

Ross would be the biggest loss. The drop in quality from Healy to Court at LH is no where near the drop from Ross to anybody at TH.

.ak

Healy.

Then BOD.

Then SOB.

totallegend

Ross. We are fncked if anything happens to him.

wonton

without ross we would be fecked in the scrum, and unless we had a match that just happened to be low on scums he would be the biggest loss.

Thing is ross isnt one of the best in his position in the world,he gives ireland a very solid scrum and thats about it, where as SOB is currently one of the best in the world in either of the back row positions.

hard question to answer really

Micky Dolenz

O Driscoll. We have always missed his presence when not available for selection.

CatFromHue

Donnacha Ryan.

Without him and his angry faces the team won't be able to get psyched up for games properly.

flynninio

buckely wud be missed as water carrier. if only that was his job/

ross for sure but it depends who we playing. we wouldnt necessarily lose if he was out but it would set us back to standard of 2 yrs ago depending on magic of bod etc

MLC61

Unfortunately the list is long. I would include the entire front row- with Flannery gone we certainly can't afford to lose Best. O'Connell - nobody else brings the ferocity.

O'Brien.

Darcy and O'Driscoll - we don't hAve international standard cover for either individual and the value of the whole far exceeds the sum of the parts.

Sexton - we won't beat Wales without him.

If to pick one only - Healy. His all round ability, ferocity and of course his scrummaging.

GerM

Ross. We can lose anyone else and the replacement can come in and play a blinder. Other people can step up to the plate and take on more than their normal share. It's true of any player whether it's POC, BOD or SOB. Lose Ross and our scrum is screwed. We'll lose field position, concede points and remove any potential quality scrum ball for our moves. Lose SOB and Jennings can come in, play to his best and Heaslip and Ferris can step up. Lose POC and Cullen can come in and run a solid line out with other players stepping up in terms of physicality. Lose BOD and Earls can come in and is capable of doing well offensively and being covered in defence.

Lose Ross and Buckley will come in.

Buckley. Will. Come. In.

ambid

durkadurka wrote: »

Ross. No quesion.
He ain't sexy but we'd be screwed without him.

Really can't argue with any part of this post

durkadurka

ambid wrote: »

Really can't argue with any part of this post

Apart from my spelling!

Aidric

ROG, clearly.

justsomebloke

If anyone else states ROG or sexton I will take it as purposely trolling and ban them

tolosenc

Ross. Then Healy, then O'Brien.

Fireball07

David Wallace...


No...Ross is probably the right answer at the moment. Sean O'Brien is a wonderful player, as is Paul O'Connell, Brian O'Driscoll, etc. but if Ross was to miss out and Court was to come in there, the drop in quality is a lot lot more than it would be if Jennings/Cullen/McFadden (or Trimble) were to come in.

Still can't afford to lose any of them- or Healy, or Best.

freyners

i think were lucky in the backs where we have a quailty player to cover every position and a loss in the back will only weaken the team slightly (even one to BOD is covered by mcfadden/earls/bowe/trimble..not the same but close)


sames with our back 3 with jennings a great replacement to have for any three (ok it weakens our ball carrying ability but probably offers more 'balance' in the back three)

A loss to POC/DOC is well covered by Cullen

Front row...please god may nothing happen to our front row...a loss to ross is huge...as is one to healy (altho court is a capable scrummager he offers nothing like what healy does outfield)

Best is our number 2 easily but i believe his loss is not as devastating as one to ross/healy. Cronin is improving at the bread and butter stuff (still not at the level it needs to be) and his work in the loose is without question. Great impact player to have

astonaidan

I understand they Ross thing and Id agree, But ye all seem to have left out Best, We have Cronin and Varley in reserve and I for one wouldnt be confident with eiter of those playing

Timothy Bryce

Dennis Leamy

siltirocker

I genuinely can't remember the last time we performed when Brian O'Driscoll wasn't on the pitch. So in my eyes he has shown why he is so vital to the team.

Can someone remind me of the last time we performed against a top team without him and did well? I genuinely have no memory.

durkadurka

True but we could be murdered In the scrum without Ross and that would jeopardise everything.

LEIN

Ross, Healy, or SOB

Fireball07

siltirocker wrote: »

I genuinely can't remember the last time we performed when Brian O'Driscoll wasn't on the pitch. So in my eyes he has shown why he is so vital to the team.

Can someone remind me of the last time we performed against a top team without him and did well? I genuinely have no memory.

Well...when was the last time we played a top team without him?

I can't remember him not starting a big game (though there's probably some obvious one). He's never been dropped, can't remember a long spell of injuries...He's an excellent player but he's not as good as he once was. Still invaluable but I think Ross is a bigger loss than him now.

durkadurka

Last big march without bod that I can remember is France in the 6n 07. We lost in the last minute.

Fireball07

durkadurka wrote: »

Last big march without bod that I can remember is France in the 6n 07. We lost in the last minute.

That had genuinely gone out of my mind...I mean I still can't remember him not playing. But that was a pretty good performance, we were desperately unlucky.

jdooley28

Ross, Best nd Healy

Paparazzo

gavmcg92 is an Italian spy, shhhhh

Cpt_Blackbeard

We lose Ross, we lose our Scrum. We lose Best, we lose our lineout.

gavmcg92

Paparazzo wrote: »

gavmcg92 is an Italian spy, shhhhh

Coming from the chap whose name is Paparazzo :P

bamboozle

Ross
BOD

i think we can survive with anyone else being out, Kidney seems to think Earls can fill in at 13 but i'd have McFadden or Bowe starting there ahead of him should BOD be injured.
without Ross we're fooked/with mushy on pitch we're fooked.

TheHighRoad

Ross, Healy, SOB, O'Driscoll.

We lose any one of them and there is no chance of us making the final.

Quint2010

Thomas O'Leary. Oh no wait..

onlyrocknroll

Sorry to delibrately ignore the OP's question but I can't name just one player. IMO Ireland's biggest problem in this WC is that we have too many players upon whom we are completely reliant. An injury or two and we're screwed.

In descending order.

1. Ross
2. SOB
3. Healy (Court wouldn't be a disaster at LH)
4. Ferris
5. BOD
6. POC

I can't see us doing too much without any one of these guys. Loss a prop and our scrum is in serious problems. We rely so heavily on our big ball carriers and I think that to loss one would mean that we're seriously weakened. Actually I think that we could paper over the cracks for a game if we lost BOD or POC; but in terms of seriously progressing I think we need their leadership and psychological presence.

Quint2010

Dont think anyone has mentioned Rory Best. The gap between him and Cronin/Varley is massive

irishbucsfan

Cpt_Blackbeard wrote: »

We lose Ross, we lose our Scrum. We lose Best, we lose our lineout.

If we lose Best we lose both our scrum and lineout, because Cronin would be starting and he can't do either at this level. In fact I'd say his lineout throwing is better than his scrummaging.

I'd rank our top 5 as:

1. Ross - Absolutely the most valuable player we have at the moment.
2. Best - Key to our set piece
3. O'Driscoll - We have noone else even close to being capable of defending the position, or producing the magical
4. Healy - Court is a decidedly dodgier scrummager than him, although not as bad as our TH options.
5. O'Brien - He's not vital in the same way as everyone else, because we have Jennings/Leamy. Neither are in the same class as him but both are good players and could at least cope better than the replacements for those above.

God I hope we don't lose one of our front row. That is absolutely vital to our chances.

CiaranMT

Quint2010 wrote: »

Dont think anyone has mentioned Rory Best. The gap between him and Cronin/Varley is massive

You haven't read the thread so :P

simonmln

Quint2010 wrote: »

Thomas O'Leary. Oh no wait..

No need for that. He's not even in the squad. Even though he wasnt playing well, he still gave everything for the jersey, and deserves some respect. Just uncalled for!

Quint2010

simonmln wrote: »

No need for that. He's not even in the squad. Even though he wasnt playing well, he still gave everything for the jersey, and deserves some respect. Just uncalled for!

apologies Mrs O'Leary..

MrDerp

Gotta go with some here and say that one front row injury will toast us. Sure we'd take a hit offensively/defensively in most positions, but losing one of our props would make sh1t of our scrum, and we could kiss bye bye to the line-out without Best (I never thought I'd make that latter comment). I like Cronin a lot, but he's not ready for the "cauldron".

For the last few years I've dismayed at our misfortune (though injury, loss of form, incompetence at 6N level - depending on the player) from 1-5 when we've so much to offer from 6-15 (from 6N competence up to those that can compete with 3N).

The front 5 unit we have is clicking but I think the entire unit would be under too much pressure if we lost one of the front row, giving opposition a massive bullseye of a target in either the scrum or the line-out to beat us up with. We'd soon start to suffer in the breakdown from dropped heads if hard work kept getting undone by a poor set piece. As it stands, we've enough to have ebbs and flows with any of the top teams

I'm a big believer that front row forwards have to go through years of being beaten before they reach their potential (I think being beaten by more experienced opposition forwards is more prevalent than genuinely poor 'performance' for front row forwards). Healy is really blossoming early from an international perspective and has a ways to go yet - he's my favourite Irish player of the tournament so far.

MrDerp

irishbucsfan wrote: »

God I hope we don't lose one of our front row. That is absolutely vital to our chances.

That's it in a nutshell. It hands a game plan that is sure to work, if not right away then as the game progresses, to any top-6 opposition.

We have good (and better in some cases? ) cover at 4,5,9,10, chop and change ability in the back-row, and everywhere else just offers 1-1 mismatches than can hopefully be addressed by Les Kiss

SSK

Pretty much all of our pack tbh, I think we'd survive if we lost anyone from 10 out. The gulf in class between our starting pack and the replacements is frightening. In order it'd probably be something like this...

Ross
Healy
Best
POC
SOB/Ferris/Heaslip
DOC

The front row replacements are pretty dire and/or unproven

POC is miles ahead of any of our other 2nd rows

All of our back row are vital but we'd just about survive with 2 of the 3

Ryan could probably do DOC's role to a slightly inferior standard.