Ireland Team Talk/Gossip/Rumour Thread VIII - MOD NOTE POST #4781

irishfan9 · 17-11-2017 02:28PM

Madelynn Glamorous Range wrote: »

All well and good but bit of a reach to go from there to saying he loves big centres. BOD, D'Arcy, Payne, Ringrose, Marshall, Earls, none of these guys are big really (relatively). McCloskey for example hasn't been able to get a look in at all.

he can only choose from what's available.. he tried very hard to get a big inside centre at leinster, this is a fact.

He has had with Henshaw with Ireland.

Obviously at leinster the big centres available to him weren't upto scratch and Henshaw is rated ahead of McCloskey with Ireland.

irishbucsfan · 17-11-2017 02:29PM

He has always seemed a big fan of big centers to me. All the examples above are good. Another was Andrew Goodman.

Former Former · 17-11-2017 02:30PM

Madelynn Glamorous Range wrote: »

There's basically no evidence to back this up is there? Henshaw has been the biggest regular selection at centre under Schmidt and he's not even that big by international standards these days.

Nah, not really. D'Arcy was obviously his go-to guy all the way along at Leinster, but he played Fitzgerald there a fair bit too IIRC, and of course he played Madigan there too on occasion.

Eamonn Sheridan gets trotted out but he got a grand total of 2 starts under Joe, while Eoin O'Malley was very much a favourite.

Going back to last November, when Henshaw got injured, rather than bring Beefy Luke Marshall in (who played 12 two weeks previously), he threw Little Garry Ringrose in for his first ever game at 12, against Australia.

I think he just likes good players in the centre.

irishfan9 · 17-11-2017 02:33PM

Former Former wrote: »

Nah, not really. D'Arcy was obviously his go-to guy all the way along at Leinster, but he played Fitzgerald there a fair bit too IIRC, and of course he played Madigan there too on occasion.

Eamonn Sheridan gets trotted out but he got a grand total of 2 starts under Joe, while Eoin O'Malley was very much a favourite.

Going back to last November, when Henshaw got injured, rather than bring Beefy Luke Marshall in (who played 12 two weeks previously), he threw Little Garry Ringrose in for his first ever game at 12, against Australia.

I think he just likes good players in the centre.

No one has claimed he prefers bad big centres.

irishbucsfan · 17-11-2017 02:38PM

Former Former wrote: »

Nah, not really. D'Arcy was obviously his go-to guy all the way along at Leinster, but he played Fitzgerald there a fair bit too IIRC, and of course he played Madigan there too on occasion.

Eamonn Sheridan gets trotted out but he got a grand total of 2 starts under Joe, while Eoin O'Malley was very much a favourite.

Going back to last November, when Henshaw got injured, rather than bring Beefy Luke Marshall in (who played 12 two weeks previously), he threw Little Garry Ringrose in for his first ever game at 12, against Australia.

I think he just likes good players in the centre.

Sheridan got senior two starts under Joe because he was constantly injured, he name-checked him before that first really bad injury.

He moved back rows to midfield. He signed big dudes. It's not really a doubt in my mind, he likes larger midfielders but not to the extent where he'd ignore smaller guys if they're good enough. Even spoke in the press conference yesterday about the size of BOD/D'Arcy and how its unbelievable they were able to do so well.

Former Former · 17-11-2017 03:03PM

So Joe doesn't object to big centres.

I concur.

irishbucsfan · 17-11-2017 03:05PM

Former Former wrote: »

So Joe doesn't object to big centres.

I concur.

No, I'm saying he actively seeks them out

prawnsambo · 17-11-2017 03:14PM

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Sheridan got senior two starts under Joe because he was constantly injured, he name-checked him before that first really bad injury.

He moved back rows to midfield. He signed big dudes. It's not really a doubt in my mind, he likes larger midfielders but not to the extent where he'd ignore smaller guys if they're good enough. Even spoke in the press conference yesterday about the size of BOD/D'Arcy and how its unbelievable they were able to do so well.

Connachta has stolen IBF's log in. :eek:

17-11-2017 03:16PM

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Sheridan got senior two starts under Joe because he was constantly injured, he name-checked him before that first really bad injury.

He moved back rows to midfield. He signed big dudes. It's not really a doubt in my mind, he likes larger midfielders but not to the extent where he'd ignore smaller guys if they're good enough. Even spoke in the press conference yesterday about the size of BOD/D'Arcy and how its unbelievable they were able to do so well.

He moved a backrow to centre.

Sheridan was in the Leinster set-up a couple of years before Schmidt was.

What big dudes did he sign?

irishfan9 · 17-11-2017 03:20PM

Madelynn Glamorous Range wrote: »

He moved a backrow to centre.

Sheridan was in the Leinster set-up a couple of years before Schmidt was.

What big dudes did he sign?

two.. coghlan and brewer.

Andrew Goodman - 6'2 102kg was hardly small

it's not an insult to say joe likes big centres...

Former Former · 17-11-2017 03:20PM

Madelynn Glamorous Range wrote: »

He moved a backrow to centre.

Sheridan was in the Leinster set-up a couple of years before Schmidt was.

What big dudes did he sign?

And we don't really know if he moved Coughlan to centre because he likes big dudes in the centre, or if he reckoned Coughlan wouldn't hack it in the backrow and wanted to try something else. Since Jordan subsequently faded off the scene, the latter is very plausible.

He signed Goodman, who was biggish but not a crash-ball type. After that, I'm stumped.

And I doubt Big Stu is feeling the love for big centres, having waited 18 months to earn his second cap.

aloooof · 17-11-2017 03:21PM

Lote Tuqiri?

irishfan9 · 17-11-2017 03:22PM

Former Former wrote: »

And we don't really know if he moved Coughlan to centre because he likes big dudes in the centre, or if he reckoned Coughlan wouldn't hack it in the backrow and wanted to try something else. Since Jordan subsequently faded off the scene, the latter is very plausible.

He signed Goodman, who was biggish but not a crash-ball type. After that, I'm stumped.

Coghlan is a professional rugby player playing in the backrow.. despite wasting several years trying to play 12

Former Former · 17-11-2017 03:22PM

aloooof wrote: »

Lote Tuqiri?

That was Matt O'Connor.

irishbucsfan · 17-11-2017 03:23PM

Jaysus, didn't realise it was such an insult to like big midfielders!

Listening to him speak, its clearly a trait he values in midfield. Kept bringing the PC back to it the other day. And he's hardly alone in that these days.

prawnsambo · 17-11-2017 03:23PM

irishfan9 wrote: »

two.. coghlan and brewer.

Andrew Goodman - 6'2 102kg was hardly small

it's not an insult to say joe likes big centres...

Coghlan and Brewer were standouts in school. It didn't transfer to the pro game though. But they were marked for the acadmey early and it would have been a hige surprise if they hadn't come through.

irishbucsfan · 17-11-2017 03:24PM

Former Former wrote: »

He signed Goodman, who was biggish but not a crash-ball type. After that, I'm stumped.

Nothing to do with crash-ball types. That's irrelevant.

Goodman was a very big guy who we brought up here and who got a fair bit of gametime.

irishbucsfan · 17-11-2017 03:24PM

prawnsambo wrote: »

Coghlan and Brewer were standouts in school. It didn't transfer to the pro game though. But they were marked for the acadmey early and it would have been a hige surprise if they hadn't come through.

They were standouts in the back row in school

irishfan9 · 17-11-2017 03:24PM

prawnsambo wrote: »

Coghlan and Brewer were standouts in school. It didn't transfer to the pro game though. But they were marked for the acadmey early and it would have been a hige surprise if they hadn't come through.

he encouraged both to move centre from backrow due to their size.

prawnsambo · 17-11-2017 03:26PM

irishfan9 wrote: »

he encouraged both to move centre from backrow due to their size.

In what way? Too small for the backrow or because he wanted bigger centres? Or because there were already too many backrows in Leinster?

aloooof · 17-11-2017 03:29PM

On an entirely different note, I'm really looking forward to Sweetnam getting a start tomorrow.

Former Former · 17-11-2017 03:34PM

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Nothing to do with crash-ball types. That's irrelevant.

Goodman was a very big guy who we brought up here and who got a fair bit of gametime.

He would appear to be only one man however.

FrannoFan · 17-11-2017 03:39PM

irishfan9 wrote: »

two.. coghlan and brewer.

Andrew Goodman - 6'2 102kg was hardly small

it's not an insult to say joe likes big centres...

he didn't sign Brewer and Brewer moved from backrow to center while still in school.
we thinking IRFU have a hand in schools selections as well?

irishfan9 · 17-11-2017 03:40PM

FrannoFan wrote: »

he didn't sign Brewer and Brewer moved from backrow to center while still in school.
we thinking IRFU have a hand in schools selections as well?

brewer gave an interview saying while in school, schmidt encouraged him to move to centre from backrow

irishfan9 · 17-11-2017 03:41PM

prawnsambo wrote: »

In what way? Too small for the backrow or because he wanted bigger centres? Or because there were already too many backrows in Leinster?

neither are too small for backrow.

he wanted a big inside centre, he has always desired a good big inside centre.

note - this is not an insult.

FrannoFan · 17-11-2017 03:42PM

irishfan9 wrote: »

brewer gave an interview saying while in school, schmidt encouraged him to move to centre from backrow

even if he did i doubt his SCT coach would have gone for it if he didn't think it was the best thing for the team. That was a Terenure side that had won back to back JCT's and would have had high hopes of winning a cup

irishfan9 · 17-11-2017 03:43PM

FrannoFan wrote: »

even if he did i doubt his SCT coach would have gone for it if he didn't think it was the best thing for the team. That was a Terenure side that had won back to back JCT's and would have had high hopes of winning a cup

well everyone went along with it so i'm sure the SCT coach did too.

Sephiral · 17-11-2017 04:29PM

In fairness, regardless of size, it would have taken one hell of a player to shift the Darce/BOD partnership. And after that, there were few top class options in the centre until the last year or so.