Lol. Grow up.
Interesting. How many other World Rugby Players of the Year haven’t really done it at the elite level?
I warmly welcome the delegate from the "only games that matter are in a tournament younger than Lady Gaga" preservation society, and sincerely look forward to a spirited, informed debate, during their time here.
Very random to use Lady Gaga as your reference point here.
Is Naughtyboy another alt account of Rape of Lucretia? The latter outed himself yesterday in the General Rugby thread.
But magnificent all the same
A lot of the backup props got taken to the cleaners this weekend, Furlong, Porter and Loughman all advanced their Irish spots by not playing.
Harry Byrne did not step up tonight
he did the opposite imo
He might be a good 10 in the future, but not now
Conan was pretty rubbish until the opposition were spent.
he gave away loads of penalties and made lots of poor decisions.
The reported depth from Leinster was not that impressive against a poor welsh team
You've been on a roll this weekend. Fair play
Ospreys had 28 scrum penalties won before this contest. How many do the provinces have? They'd have murdered all of the provinces scrum.
Harry Byrne was very poor. Healy was very poor and Osborne had a shocker. Leinster were poor overall. But, still managed to win.
Loughman is the biggest winner from tonites match.
Conan was poor in stages! But, he pulled his jocks up and delivered.
Wrong thread. Leinster thread is here.
https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058167373/leinster-team-talk-gossip-rumours-thread-xii-the-byrne-supremacy#latest
Leinster were poor. Akrasia is right! But still, they won.
Conan was sublime in the last quarter. He's got speed and power. Which was very evident. He put to Ospreys and made hay.
As I stated earlier, Ospreys are leading the league in scrum penalties. Fat load of good it does for them! They are probably going to be on the bubble. For a side that provides a large amount of international players, they are shockingly disappointing. They had Leinster on the ropes and couldn't finish the job. Leinster have a good 10 minutes or so and win.
That scrum would demolish any province scrum. Ireland are not getting it right as far as scrummaging goes. I'd guess that Scott Wilson at Ulster is our best bet at tight head at the moment. Munster have produced none, Leinster also and Connacht are using Illo, who went right into the pro set up. In Leinster defense, Aungier left, as did Salanoa and Illo took a guaranteed contract.
The union should be looking to get better scrumm coaches. It's disappointing to watch our sides struggle against the top teams.
Still though, going in at half time level after the half Ospreys had, I knew they were going to get hammered. Leinster are a bit like the all blacks used to be in the urc. No matter how bad they play in stretches you know their purple patch can be worth 20 points in ten minutes. RB and Keenan was sublime. Papering over cracks elsewhere but when they click it’s fun to watch.
I see Leo Cullen is in on the dastardly plot also
I don't care who Leinster pick for their own games. I am interested in how players are selected for the Irish team
If AF is picking a team based on form and performance ceiling. Jack Conan should not be ahead of Coombes.
Coombes has shown himself to be a better player in both the 2nd row and the back row
I'd also have Alex Kendellen ahead of him in the back row. Anyone who's been following him through the Schools and the Under 20s knows how special he is, and he's already had over 30 caps for Munster buy the age of 21.
Never seen a run of posts quite like this.
Remarkable.
Conan made over 100 meters yesterday, not too shabby. Coombes got smashed back a lot against a Lions 2nd team.
Conan was one of the Lions best players and started 3 tests but in fairness that doesn't stand up to Kendellen been good in school...
Yet when Coombes came up to international level, he stunk the place out so badly, they had to fumigate the RDS after.
The sheer cheek of me
Sure he did
The fundamental error that so many posters make is thinking that URC performances are reflective of test level ability. They 100% are not.
Then when people can't fathom why their pets aren't picked for Ireland, they invent outandish theories to explain it away, and then turn against Ireland and IRFU on that basis.
It's a bit mad, but TLDR someone like Coombes who has underperformed for Ireland isn't going to be picked again on the basis of displays against the Emirates Lions second string. He needs to get into the wider 6N squad, do the business in training and probably hope for an injury or two.
Conan has been nowhere near his Lions standard for the last 2 seasons, maybe yesterday was the catalyst to get back there, as it is he's not the form player.
Here’s the thing tho… Coombes has also done it a number of times at European level against the likes of Toulouse, Clermont etc. as well.
There’s plenty of reason to believe he has something to offer Ireland.
Agreed, but he has had chances with Ireland since those games and (apparently) not taken them.
So he's back to square one to some extent. I would expect him to be named in the 6N squad but he'll only get ahead of Conan and whoever else based on what he does in camp.
My point is that talking about "form" is a bit pointless when most of the games the provinces play are light years from test level.
He clearly has plenty to offer Ireland but so does Conan. At this point in time Conan has proven that he can do it at the very top levels. People might want to imagine he’s been off form but I would say it’s more that he’s being compared to and competing with Doris. Who is in another level than anyone else at present.
Coombes offers something that the others don’t but we still don’t know if he can translate that to International. His showings so far suggest he struggles to do so.
Maybe good form has less relevance. But bad form, at a lower level, would seem entirely relevant.
Coombes isn't athletic enough. He's strong and powerful but lacks the pace of Conan. Coombes is a good player but, it's Doris who's the title holder.
Kendellen is a fantastic player for the future. He'll amass a lot of caps, imo. But remember, there's a mass of others who will be challenging him. Lads like Culhane, McNabney and Quinn. Lots of potential on the way.
As far as I can see, Farrell selects quicker more athletic players. I'm not sure if Coombes fits the bill.
Funny how you haven't been coming into the Ireland thread to lay into Ulster players after their poor performances of late, or Munster players after their losses this season (of which there have many).
Yet when Leinster have an off day but still win, you go to town on a young guy who is realistically nowhere near the Ireland squad.
I was quite a nifty player myself in school. Had trials for Leinster u18 when I was 15 (wasn't selected). They should call me up for the 6N.
Had high hopes for Coombes ahead of the Autumn, but he massively disappointed. Deegan was levels above him coming off the bench. I'd be very surprised if Coombes comes back into a 23 this side of the WC. Far too many other backrows in form competing with him.
Coombes also had a very good performance in his first senior cap and was one of the best players to feature in the Maori games on the NZ tour. However all that is conveniently forgotten in order that some posters can dismiss him due to a poor performance two months ago (where everyone stunk up the place), despite the fact that he's been one of the best performing back rowers since.
This place really is a midden. It's no wonder it doesn't get anywhere near the same amount of traffic it used to. Blind provincialism masquerading as informed opinion.
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