I wouldn't agree that Ross Byrne is reluctant to attack the line. I think he was when he first broke through but its to his credit that he has clearly worked on it and is trying to do it more. He's just unfortunately pretty rubbish at it though because of the first problem.
Premier sports 2
Well I sure as hell don't have a high regard for Billy's performance tonight. Was it 2 interceptions. 2 other lads kicked instead of him and 3 whole metres made running and steamrolled in defence.. ulster going nowhere fast with that lad 10..
Jack Crowley just got a kick. Get him in the Ireland squad now!!!
But that gutless coward Andy Farrell will never do it.
If he was French he'd have 100 caps by now
This is why we fail at World Cups
We're heading into the Autumn tests now and things aren't that great as a whole. The form pack going into the AIs is again going to be comprised predominantly of Leinster players.
It's probably not healthy for Irish rugby in the long term, but that's where we are currently. Don't know what's going on at the other provinces, but their packs have all had major wobbles over recent fixtures.Can see an all Leinster front row, Ryan at lock and all all Leinster backrow being selected.
We're in bother at 9 as all the option, Murray included, don't inspire confidence. I think Ringrose has played his back back into the 13 jersey with some good performances, but 12 is open right now with Henshaw and Aki not being fit. Keenan is locked in at 15 and I'm not sure who gets the wing spots tbh.
He'll be 38 at the world cup, why does anyone even need to ask this? Move on, he's done.
Except he’s not done yet and none of the other options come close to him. But let’s make ourselves worse now for no reason. Makes total sense.
Because something about France playing a young 10 a few years ago and something like if you put a URC level 10 in a test jersey they'll become a test level player.
Well they gain XP with every game which will allow them to level up to Test level.
Who are you talking about here? DuPont? Ntamack?
They’re infinaty more talented than anyone Ireland has after Sexton.
People need to stop speaking as if finding a top class 10 is easy. It’s not. We don’t have one, other than Sexton.
yes I know he’s 36, but taking him out of the team makes us worse as things stand because he’s performing on a completely different level at the moment.
I know, I was being sarcastic.
But there are people who do think we should drop Sexton
When Ntamack was picked for France he wasn’t even starting for Toulouse, he’s a better player for the extra experience he got with France.
Just because finding a top 10 isn’t easy doesn’t mean you just do nothing and continue to play only 1 10 in every hard game. It’s the only position that we play no one else in and it’s the only position that we seem to have little to no depth in, we also seem to be the only tier 1 nation that is so reliant on one 10 being fit…join the dots and you can see why we are in this situation. A country with balls that has aspirations of doing well at a RWC would be actually going out to fix the problems whereas we seem happy to go in blindfolded into a RWC with a big problem and just take our QF or GS exit knowing we have all our excuses lined up and ready to use, just as spineless as the last RWC’s.
Maybe the issue is the overall game plan so, all I know is any team that is reliant on a 36 year old to be fit in order to function has problems far deeper than just the one position he covers in general.
By default he’s performing at a different level because he’s the only 10 that ever gets to play for Ireland.
Only Ntamack was barely even a URC level of 10 when he was backed for France, wasn’t even able to get ahead of Zack Holmes at Toulouse yet was France’s starting 10. Would we have the balls to take such a risk on a player? Not a chance.
Well it's a very sad indictment of the other provincial 10s that they are absolutely nowhere near the level of a player who is "done" according to your standards.
Maybe we shouldn't start with a 10 at all and see how that goes
No one said drop Sexton, you’re making things up now to suit you’re agenda. What was ACTUALLY said was there needs to be a plan to get the other options at 10 more game time, as in give them starts versus Argentina and Japan and during the 6N 10-15 mins off the bench and maybe a start versus Italy. This nonsense of giving 10s 2-3 mins a game is exactly why we struggle so much when Sexton is out as would any team if they did the same thing.
So much outright lies in this post
Our method of only playing a 36 year old at 10 is clearly better though.
What exactly in this post is a lie.
Would a thread to discuss the situation at 10 be a good idea. That way this one wouldn't be brought back to the same discussion every few pages.
Honestly, even mentioning the out half issue is how you summon UAEguy
Playing your best players is better though!!!
Hence why we've won trophies in the last decade and France haven't
Why am I even replying ffs
It's become a bit embarrassing for some posters on both sides of the argument now
Just trying to bring abit of rationality to the discussion, I’m seeing a lot of excuses so feel if there should be solutions mentioned.
Playing a 36 year old, building you’re whole game plan around him and not bothering to give anyone else game time is exactly how you leave yourself open to impending disasters. Surely I’m not the only one who see’s how crazy this is? You’d think from consistent failures at RWC’s that we would learn about planning for these tournaments better but here we are in 2021 planning to go to a RWC with a 36 year old 10 without a plan in the case of him potentially getting injured.
France took a risk at 10 and as a result got Ntamack & Jalibert who look like top class 10s at 22 & 23 years old, that in itself is a win in that particular goal. If we did the same thing and got the same result we would be almost set for the RWC bar sorting our depth at loose head and Hooker. Frances problems have been far deeper than who’s at 10 and if anything having someone like Ntamack at 10 has helped paper over the cracks, I doubt if Lopez was there 10 that we would be talking of France as serious contenders in 2023 even with home advantage (contenders yes but I doubt they would be even talked about as front runners).
ive said repeatedly but I’ll say it one more time so you hopefully get the message, I’ve NEVER said drop Sexton, I said while continuing to play Sexton we need to plan for the RWC by giving other potential options game time and if the situation allows it a start or two. If we do that and Sexton goes down we might not be royally screwed long term.
we need to plan for the RWC by giving other potential options game time and if the situation allows it a start or two.
This is exactly what we've been doing
Well it said 22 unread messages. So I read. Why?
Anyone have any idea when the modding functionality will be back? Just out of interest.
Lads, seriously, Nathan Doak and Jack Crowley should be brought into the Irish squad now as extra development players.
they are showing real talent we haven’t seen in a generation.
Carty making a bit of a mockery of being left out tbh.
He really isn’t. As people have been repeatedly saying here, he can be fantastic at times. The problem is he can be awful others. He hasn’t disproven that this season. Connacht as a whole haven’t either. But people will see what they want I suppose. It was only a couple of weeks ago when people were lamenting his performance against Dragons. And let’s not forget the Cardiff game. I’ve never seen a side refuse to win a game as much as Connacht did that day. And Carty was at the heart of that.
Ah shtop. Whatever about Doak, Crowley has one pro start in his life.
We already have novice players at 9 and 10 in the national squad. Should we maybe give them a go first?
