Your Lions XV for first test against New Zealand 2017

Glass Prison 1214

Klunk_NZ wrote: »

Gatland to coach.

Schmidt to coach.

irishbucsfan

Klunk_NZ wrote: »

Gatland to coach.

Fine with me. Just no Howley.

I think Gatland and O'Shea would work great together

irishbucsfan

Glass Prison 1214 wrote: »

Schmidt to coach.

Yeah, New Zealand!

jacothelad

Rhodri Jones, young Scarlets prop looks ready to be a super star.. I've seen a bit of this guy and he is a wrecking machine in the making. I'd say that by 2017, if he develops as he could, he'll be there. Sometimes you see a player and you know he has that certain something that is recognisable as top quality straight away. Jones has it. Olding has it. Henderson also. Zebo, marshall and Gilroy fall into that bracket in varying degrees.

desertcircus

I don't think I know enough about still-developing players to make any particularly confident calls about who will or won't make it, but Irish players I'd think are a likely bet for four years are Healy, Strauss, Henderson, O'Brien, Murray, Madigan, Sexton and Zebo. Possibles would be Kilcoyne, Cronin, Ryan (both Donnacha and Dippy), Jackson, Bowe and Heaslip - age being the big question for the last two, and potentially for Donnacha Ryan as well. In terms of wild punts, I suspect you could do worse than throw a couple of quid on Harrison Brewer getting into the squad.

twinytwo

bilston wrote: »

Impossible to pick a team but from an Irish perspective I'd hope players the following will be there or thereabouts.

Healy
Strauss
Henderson
O'Brien
O'Mahony
Ferris
Heaslip (think another tour is do-able)
Leavy
Murray
Sexton
Madigan
Jackson
Marshall
Olding
Henshaw
Zebo
Fitzgerald
Earls
Gilroy
Kearney
Bowe (maybe do-able but he'll be 33 which is old for a winger but Ieuan Evans was about that age in '97)

There are probably others, and hopefully there is some 16 or 17 year old out there that we haven't heard of yet who will come into contention.

Id love to see it, i doubt he will make another 4 months not to mind 4 years... that ankle just wont last.

Thekidneybean

Would be great to see Fitzgerald but injuries getting the better of him hope he's back soon!!!!!

jm08

Glass Prison 1214 wrote: »

Schmidt to coach.

I'd say Vern Cotter and Schmidt might be a favoured coaching ticket by the Scottish & Irish fans at least. I can't see Gatland getting the Scottish RU vote the next time (and I'd imagine BODgate hasn't gone down well in Lansdowne Rd either).

corny

jm08 wrote: »

I can't see Gatland getting the Scottish RU vote the next time (and I'd imagine BODgate hasn't gone down well in Lansdowne Rd either).

One Englishman in the final test 15 and completely ignored the England captain; hardly endeared himself to the RFU either.

andrewdcs

matthew8 wrote: »

It's this stupid idea that a box kick is only ever an up and under and it's never used to clear the ball downfield. It's absurd, especially considering the most obvious advantage of box-kicking is that you're essentially getting an extra 10 metres of territory. Conor Murray has one hell of a boot on the box kick and can clear it miles downfield, just like Pienaar and Genia. It's a great asset, being able to kick the ball from your own 22 to the other off a ruck.

I'm a massive hater of box kicking generally, you see it way too often in the past couple of seasons as backines are pushed right up and flat when they have the ball deep in their 22. Unless the kick is perfectly weighted for the chase, or flies over the full backs head (which would be a huge positional mistake for whoevers at fullback) they invariably concede possession and territory.


Murrays though, the latter part of the season, I can remember only one that wasnt inch perfect. Thats hard.

andrewdcs

There will probably be about 10 who toured this year, so anyone 27 or under is putting themselves in the frame.

Likes of Hogg, Farrell could be starters.

As the man said: Where all the hookers at?
Really didnt have much certainty in the lineout to anywhere past 4.... which limits attack quite a bit. How can the home nations not produce ONE total pro hooker for their main technical skill.

irishbucsfan

andrewdcs wrote: »

I'm a massive hater of box kicking generally, you see it way too often in the past couple of seasons as backines are pushed right up and flat when they have the ball deep in their 22. Unless the kick is perfectly weighted for the chase, or flies over the full backs head (which would be a huge positional mistake for whoevers at fullback) they invariably concede possession and territory.


Murrays though, the latter part of the season, I can remember only one that wasnt inch perfect. Thats hard.

If they concede possession AND territory then it must be an awful kick.

However the vast majority of them that I've seen in the past couple of seasons haven't been doing that!

andrewdcs

irishbucsfan wrote: »

If they concede possession AND territory then it must be an awful kick.

However the vast majority of them that I've seen in the past couple of seasons haven't been doing that!

maybe not first phase, but I'd rather my team had possession in their 22 than the opposition had it 15 meters away.

Against teams like NZ / Australia or anyone with strike runners, the box kick is less than a 50/50 my book. You don't have enough control to avoid it going into the fullbacks guts. Kicking from 10, you lose 10m+ / second of two on the chase but can position the ball (and your defensive line )to drop where you want it more often.
Almost frowned upon but against many teams, conceding a lineout around half way isn't as dangerous as giving their backs ball in the field with 5 yards space.

Anyway, I think come 2017 the rules will have changed even more so to make the game faster and to keep ball in play / speed up restarts.

bilston

desertcircus wrote: »

I suspect you could do worse than throw a couple of quid on Harrison Brewer getting into the squad.

I'm not having a go at you desertcircus as I like to hype young players too, it's just your post made me think of this but the way this kid gets hyped on here...no doubt not helped by Hook's ramblings last year...I'm now expecting him to be better than O'Driscoll!

.ak

Brewer really has struggled to step up. Out of the current crop it's more likely that Dardis will make the step up to international level. You just can't bet on these things.

Tox56

.ak wrote: »

Brewer really has struggled to step up. Out of the current crop it's more likely that Dardis will make the step up to international level. You just can't bet on these things.

I wouldn't say Brewer struggled at all, he was a standout for the Ireland U18s this year. I had previously doubted his move to 12 but he looked very promising there. You're right on Dardis though, Bernard Jackman watched the U18 tournament and although he had good things to say about a lot of the players he said Dardis was 'special'. Isn't Kearney under the high ball so he needs work on that, but he is an outstanding talent

.ak

I'm only really saw Brewer at schools level so I'm basing my judgement on that. Didn't catch any of the Ireland games.

Tox56

.ak wrote: »

I'm only really saw Brewer at schools level so I'm basing my judgement on that. Didn't catch any of the Ireland games.

Fair enough he didn't have much opportunity this year, but in one of the Terenure tries this year he gave a beautiful delayed pass to Dardis (who took a great angle himself) off the top of a lineout, that was a fairly classy try for a schools level match. You can see the potential those 2 have in that move alone.

JagerScout

Brewer also played the whole season with a hip injury which he had to get two surgeries to fix recently.

Webbs

Sam Davies could be in with shout for the No10 slot

enda1

Number ooone is Sean O'Brian
Number two oh oh is Sean O'Brian
Number threeee is Sean O'Brian
Number fo oh or is Sean O'Brian
We all dream of a team of Sean O'Brians
A team of Sean O'Brians
A team of Sean O'Brians

bilston

Webbs wrote: »

Sam Davies could be in with shout for the No10 slot

He could be, but then if Rhys Patchell had been available for the Wales at the JWC he wouldn't even have played. It seems to be a bit unfair that Wales appear to have found two outstanding out half talents in one go! Actually just in general there seems to be a fair bit of exciting young talent coming out of Wales at the minute.

Glass Prison 1214

bilston wrote: »

He could be, but then if Rhys Patchell had been available for the Wales at the JWC he wouldn't even have played. It seems to be a bit unfair that Wales appear to have found two outstanding out half talents in one go! Actually just in general there seems to be a fair bit of exciting young talent coming out of Wales at the minute.

Kinda like we did last season? (Jackson and Hanrahan)

bilston

Glass Prison 1214 wrote: »

Kinda like we did last season? (Jackson and Hanrahan)

Yeah I suppose.