Can you point to me where I said the premiership is, as you said, crap? Its not a bad standard at all, just well short of international standard just like most club level games. The only standard that I would consider close to test standard is the Champions Cup.
I'm jumping. Hes amazing. USA USA!
The opposition he faces in the premiership isnt a massive step down from what he will face at test level.
what someone does in the premiership is a massive step down from test level
So which is it?
Gatland showed that by not selecting Simmonds in any test match.
Simmonds played in the 3rd test bro
I'm confused you've just posted this.
'The opposition he faces in the premiership isnt a massive step down from what he will face at test level'
Which is it?
He's realised that the audience he gets from this stance is more appealing to him than the audience he got prior to his "telling it like it is" stance.
He likes the notoriety.
Edit: sorry, posted before warning
Most of them are a million miles off test level, this is shown in the Champions Cup when they get smashed by Pro14 and Top14 sides regularly. Maybe Leicester being so good is an indictment of how bad the other sides are? We'll see in the CC where Leicester really stand.
A lot of the team in the Premiership are not in a million miles of test level. Saracens spent the last season in the second league and are currently second in the table behind a Leicester team which couldn't string together two results last year. The likes of Worcester, Bath, Wasps, London Irish, Newcastle, Glouceser etc are all poor teams. None of which would expect to get anywhere in Europe
Never said it was crap, Simply said what someone does in the premiership is a massive step down from test level, Gatland showed that by not selecting Simmonds in any test match.
Outside of three or four good sides, the standard of the Aviva Premiership isn't that high. Even Exeter aren't the force of a few seasons ago.
Hang on. In the summer, weren't you saying the premiership was crap when Sam Simmonds got picked for the Lions?
5 years ago maybe. The opposition he faces in the premiership isnt a massive step down from what he will face at test level. Impossible to say where he's at until he's tested at CC level at least.
He also was the Connacht outhalf when they won the Pro 14. I reckon he would be our backup outhalf as well.
For Me, I'd guess he'll start all the subs from last week and rest the starters as much as he can, while also giving minutes to as many of the Squad as he can.
Hopefully he has confidence in the full squad, and not just the first 23
I'd absolutely be starting Casey in this game. I think he's definitley good enough and he's well suited to playing a high tempo game
I'd keep the midfield as settled as possible given we'll be changing both halfbacks and a settled, experienced centre pairing will take pressure of Joey.
I'd be inclined to let Porter bench as he played 76 minutes last week, but there's also the argument that he needs as many minutes at LH as possible. Either way I'm not fussed.
It could be beneficial to look at other options in the back 3. Zebo and Baloucoune on the wings would sure be exciting.
Perhaps Conan could be given a rest as he did start all 3 Lions tests and it would give us a chance to see Beirne in the backrow or Coombes?
he'd be backup 10 and pushing Sexton.
I think Ryan was quoted in his press conference saying that Henderson will be calling the lineout so it's pretty set to be both of them starting 2nd row.
He’s been great against Newcastle & Worcester. Let’s see how he gets on in Europe before we jump to any conclusions.
Sunday match so I assume tomorrow. No team predictions from the media anyway that I've seen, they might start popping up tonight.
Just for the hell of it I reckon...
15 Simon Zebo
14 Robert Baloucoune
13 Robbie Henshaw
12 Bundee Aki
11 James Lowe
10 Joey Carbery
9 Conor Murray
1 Andrew Porter
2 Dan Sheahen
3 Tadgh Furlong
4 Iain Henderson
5 James Ryan (CAPT)
6 Caelen Doris
7 Peter O'Mahony
8 Jack Conan
16 Rob Herring, 17 Dave Kilcoyne, 18 Tom O'Toole, 19 Ryan Baird, 20 Gavin Coombes, 21 Craig Casey, 22 Harry Byrne, 23 Jordan Larmour
So still a pretty experienced starting XV apart from Sheahen and Baloucoune, but a lot of inexperience on the bench.
Still good enough to get the win. Although I doubt in reality that the bench will be that raw. There may even be an argument to start Casey and keep Murray in reserve, likewise Baird and Henderson (could easily be Beirne obviously) could swap just to offer more protection from the replacements.
AJ McGinty going to Bristol. He seems to be on fire this season. Obviously he became the player he is by the choices he made and that all fine and put to bed. But by his standard of play right now, do you reckon he'd be in the Ireland Squad? I'd say yes.
Is the team named today or tomorrow?
I just made reference to that from a view of his early career. Even in 2013 he was never "quick" at the ruck. Not when you compare him to some of the other 9s knocking around in the World. Even when he was the best 9 in the World his competition was always because they had quicker ball. Murray of course had loads of other attributes to his game. Please note I am not trying to criticise Murray, he is a class player. Just his game was never built around quick ball
Don't think RWC '11 is a good reference for Murray. He should never have been starting in that competition. He massively improved from 2013 onwards.
Murray was never "quick" at the ruck, even looking back at the WC in 2011 it was an issue he had that once he got to the ruck he seemed to like to have a little look around. When you compare him to Stringer etc it is slow.
That been said he is an incredible player and one of the best 9s Ireland ever had, if not the best. Time has moved on and at think at Murrays age now he is not going to be able to suddenly change an entire lifetime to suddenly start firing out quick ball. His experience etc should be in the squad but at this stage maybe he is the best option on bench to close out a game
its not just the box kicking with Murray but the recycle speed. I’m sure it was tactical asked if him, but on every ruck he does a pause nearly the length of a Sexton penalty.
Pause, look around, wait until defense is set, then pass. if he is selected and speeds up his delivery based on our Style 2.0 I’ll be very happy.
I’d genuinely like to see stats on this, tbh. I’d wager our kicking from 9 is way down; my feeling is that a lot more of our kicks are coming from wing and FB, as a function of the 50:22 rule. But in general, I’d say the trope that box-kicking is Munster’s game plan isn’t accurate, imo.
For the missed tackle he read the situation well and got back to defend from over on the wing but got badly stepped and missed the tackle by about 2 feet.. it was a missed tackle under our posts.
It was a great tackle by bedhlam.
And there we have it. Happy to have a cut off him for anything and everything no matter how fair that may be (butchering a try) but refusing to give credit where it’s due as well. I knew you had an agenda/bias. But it’s good to see it confirmed so clearly.
I read that mureay kinsella article on his "tackle" too.. It was a missed tackle for me..
and for me it was a good kick into space that bounced 15 yards in field and 10 yards from the 22 and got a very lucky bounce into the corner.
I’m sure you’re happy to credit JGP with a try saving defensive effort on Jordan that, while chalked down as a missed tackle, was enough to force Jordan to come back inside directly into another tackle?
As for the supposed try butchering, the offload was a clumsy one from Conan as he wasn’t able to free his hands properly. It wasn’t a simple take. It certainly wasn’t a butchering.
His box kicking isn’t superb, but he put in a few good ones vs NZ. And I’m sure you’ll agree that his 50:22 was very impressive?
Id be pretty confident that Murray's box kick would have been better based on the fact he has been consistantly better at box kicking...
the ball was about 3- 5 metres short for it to be contestable..Conway was stopped under the ball and turned and unable to contest properly..jordie Barrett was able to run onto it.
While JGP brought good speed to the breakdown and is now argueabally now out number 1 scrumhalf... he has been persistently poorer than alternatives at box kicking and contesting high balls which were aimed at him by nz. He also missed as many tackles as he made and butchered a try opportunity from Conans pass In the first half.
Ireland have dominated Japan and Nz up front and he had a great ball to work with And varied the attack well.. but I think it Will be interesting to see how he gets on away to France and England in 6 nations If we don't have the same dominance. I still think we have better options. And this week I'd like to see Murray try and play with more pace if that's our new game plan..
V France and Scotland in the spring Jgp kicked 15 times from hand and passed around 80 times. This autumn he has kicked less than 6 times per game and passed more. I hate the box kicking as much as the next guy it wasn't just Murray taking a solo run when kicking the ball away it's obviously a munster and has been an irish tactic to kick up to now..
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