I thought he was poor v leinster, must have missed 4 or 5 tackles.
Was OK v Munster and was poor v the stormers.. didnt see his other games.
Yep I agree he played better as the game went on but started very poorly..
With the rain coming sideways not the nicest evening out West for a lad who grew up in the beaches of Oz..
yep, was about to say similar.. it was a very odd start, but he brightened up eventually...
He was terrible in the lead up to the first try conceded by connacht.. a poor kick followed up by a lazy chase and flapped at a tackle. Looked uninterested and lethargic..
Your better off not asking
Why
What exactly did you contribute to the Blackrock side Clegg?
Unless you meant complimentary? :)
I really hope Hansen doesn't start for ireland v South africa..
Wouldn't be surprised to see the management team give blade every opportunity to over take Murray in the next year. The fact blade was picked over Doak for the A squad shows they’re keen to see him up close again. He’s probably the closest thing to JGP style wise
Murray has been pretty bad for munster this year, imo. Maybe he isnt watching the munster games.
Listening to the42 podcast that went out yesterday, one of their pundits (not sure his name, sounds like a Nordie) seems to be pining back for the days of Murray starting for Ireland. Very strange.
I honestly couldn’t believe that. Byrne really wasn’t good.
...
You sir are worse than hitler.
Maybe Byrne being pretty meh against Connacht so maybe that will give Frawley an opportunity.
Frawley was on the bench in that game when Leinster could’ve done with a change and only brought him in with 9 mins to go tho.
It’ll be interesting to see how it plays out anyways.
It's because I was complementary towards the Blackrock SCT side that won the competition.
Hasn't gotten that out of his head since.
The only real evidence i have is that crowley looks way way better than Healy in this system, night and day better. Healy suited how they played last year way more.
On the other hand, Frawley hasn’t really leapt off the screen for leinster and Byrne has ran this system for years. Its a much harder ask for frawley to overtake Byrne. Maybe Byrne being pretty meh against Connacht so maybe that will give Frawley an opportunity.
I agree that you may as well just wait and see.
One wrinkle might be Munster deciding to play Crowley at 15. He looked really good there and Carberry really shone with Crowley on the field as a second playmaker.
Frawley got the start vs Bennetton off the back of 27 mins off the bench in the previous game, tho. Crowley hasn't been available for Munster for consecutive games yet this season even off the bench, so there's a slight difference there too (however small a difference that might make to continuity; Crowley was to miss 3 games, Frawley only 2).
We'll see over the coming weeks, but at the moment, I don't think there's enough evidence to suggest Crowley is, or indeed isn't, definitively 3rd choice, so I'd agree entirely with this:
I don't think there's sufficient evidence to claim that one is higher up the pecking order at their respective province.
That's fair enough. I forgot that the EI guys didn't play the 2nd week of the season, that's my bad. But Healy still started ahead of Crowley for the Cardiff game. Now, maybe the fact that Crowley was going to miss the next few games was a factor there. But that didn't stop Leinster starting Frawley v Bennetton. So maybe it did, maybe it didn't.
Frawley, like all the guys who toured NZ in the summer, wasn't available to start the first game of the season v Zebre. So Frawley and Crowley have essentially been available for the same number of games this season, with Frawley starting one game at 10 to Crowley's none. Now you could say Crowley may have started more if it weren't for the EI tour, but you could say the same thing about Frawley had he not hurt his shoulder v Bennetton.
So based on this season, I don't think there's sufficient evidence to claim that one is higher up the pecking order at their respective province. But of course that could change over the coming weeks, and I suspect it will at Munster. And I actually think Crowley could seriously push Carbery.
Ya, good shout, I'd forgotten that, presumably because they were already in SA. The larger point being tho, it was a game Frawley started that wasn't available to Crowley.
With regards to the last point, I think that was the week that Connacht were on their 2 week tour of SA and all the EI players were available, and in the match squad for their game that weekend.
Frawley and Crowley both have great potential. Hopefully one of them or both get a decent run and show some consistency. Not panic stations just yet but we still have no one near the required level if Sexton is out come qf stage.
The scrum is our other main worry. Porter is clearly out in front at 1 but against France and SA I'm not sure his scrummaging will hold up(Furlongs either) . He's good but the way he binds with a low elbow will cost him penalties(even when he's not at fault).
I can't remember a better Irish front row but SA and France just have monsters come scrum time.
However we have the skill set across the team to keep our error count low to keep the amount of scrums low.
Its would have been crazy to say it in the past but I really hope we end up with NZ in the qf.
I also really hope Andy Farrell doesn't settle on a team. This was Joe's downfall, had his team who had previous success and overlooked players in form. Farrell needs to be ruthless and keep the team evolving even when we're on top
If his kicking has improved, that's great.....There's a certain baseline required, that he was falling short of imo.
His accuracy is much improved, imo. He's unlikely to ever get the distance or hang-time Murray gets. He had a lovely dink on penalty advantage the last day that nearly put Liam Coombes away.
Taking two SHs from Munster when they play the furthest from the style of Ireland is odd at best.
I'd disagree with this; the style Munster have been trying to implement is pretty close to how Ireland play in terms of injecting tempo and speed into the play. (I think that's a reason we've seen so many errors from Munster, tbh; they're playing at a faster tempo they haven't previously been used to).
I think Crowley is solidly number 2 but i think its fine to wait and see a few weeks to see.
There'll have been an element of that to it too; accounting for players leaving for the EI tour at the start of the season, and integrating them back in now.
But ultimately TRC is pointing to 2 games where Crowley wasn't in the 23 as evidence that he's 3rd choice, but overlooking that he wasn't even available for those games.
There's as much evidence of Crowley being 3rd choice at Munster as there is Frawley being 3rd choice at Leinster.
But Munster have an entirely new coaching ticket. That's the difference. I think it's more certain Frawley is 3rd choice than Crowley.
Because before that, he was very much behind Carbery and Healy in Rowntree's mind.
I'm not sure how you can know this with any certainty at all tbh, because...
He was on the bench for the Cardiff game, and not in the 23 for the Dragons and Zebre games.
For the Zebre and Dragons game, he was away with the EI squad. He wasn't available for those games. He's only been available for 2 games, the Cardiff and Bulls games; he was on the bench both times.
Frawley has actually started a game at 10 this season, which Crowley hasn't.
Ya, and that was the week the EI squad met up; Frawley was the only player out of 30 odd from the EI squad that played that weekend; no other player did, as far as I remember. (The Friday night kick-off probably helped, but it seems like Leinster got some lee-way with Frawley at 10 for that game that no other Province did with their EI players).
If his kicking has improved, that's great. I was going from what I'd seen of him last year. Box kicking isn't the be all it was under Joe, but it was noticable how limited his kicks were. There's a certain baseline required, that he was falling short of imo.
I suppose my view of him is coloured by 2 things. The fact he leap frogged guys starting (and playing well) for their provinces such as Blade and Cooney. I don't have an issue with Farrell doing that, but why not take Doak in that case? Someone who also has a lot of talent, perhaps more, and who isn't physically limited in the way Casey is with his size.
All that is probably compounded by Murray's selection. Taking two SHs from Munster when they play the furthest from the style of Ireland is odd at best.
Maybe GR could well have looked at who was going on the EI tours and decided on getting his other OHs up to match fitness at the start of the new season.
There's as much evidence of Crowley being 3rd choice at Munster as there is Frawley being 3rd choice at Leinster. Only a few weeks ago Crowley was still behind Ben Healy. If he has leapfrogged him, it's a very recent thing that's only happened post (and dare I say, because of) the Emerging Ireland tour. Because before that, he was very much behind Carbery and Healy in Rowntree's mind. He was on the bench for the Cardiff game, and not in the 23 for the Dragons and Zebre games. So even if the EI tour didn't happen, it's very unlikely Crowley would have been starting any games for Munster in that time.
Frawley has actually started a game at 10 this season, which Crowley hasn't. And Ross Byrne was fit as well, so it wasn't injury enforced. He went off injured in that game and he didn't feature until he came off the bench v Connacht. Harry Byrne was named to play for Lansdowne last week, so I think we can definitively say Frawley is ahead of him.
What about Joey? One half decent match and it's like he's the second coming!
Ah, I think that's overstating it, tbh. He's performance against the Bulls was encouraging (probably his best for Munster this calendar year) but he needs to start stringing a few performances together now. Hopefully he can, and that working with Mike Prendergast will benefit him too. If he can, that can only be a good thing for Ireland.
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