Timoney loses out to Coombes which is fair enough on current form. Earls very lucky to be included given that Daly and Nash are keeping him out at Munster. Stockdale lucky too, Ulster being muck at the moment hasn't helped him find form. Murray is lucky that none of the other 9s are doing particularly well, he's in and out of the Munster 23 here days like. Henshaw is a loss but it's good to see Osborne stepping up, let's see if he can get some game time and test himself at this level. Mike Haley very unlucky to lose out but them's the breaks when you only play 15.
The out half situation is a bit weird. Crowley still hasn't wrestled the 10 jersey from Joey at Munster. Joey hasn't been great and is a bit of a liability in defence but jettisoning him now is a bold move. Ross B deserves to be there, no doubt on that.
I'm a little anxious that our squad depth doesn't match our WC ambitions
If Carbery has been dropped I'll be
Interesting times. Media are going to be all over this one.
POM is back-up no.7 I'd say
If Munster said that they’d be quickly told to get fucked.
Stockdale, Murray and Earls are all in the squad purely because of central contracts. Because as we all know, that's how they work. Andy Farrell is forced to pick these players. There's a literal clause in the contracts that they must be picked forever, because the suits dictate that it would be a waste of money otherwise. Makes perfect sense. Don't argue with my flawless logic.
POM
Carbery IMHO just isn't good enough. We've waited long enough for his form to return and it hasn't.
It’s a bizarre squad really. Farrell has earned pretty much all benefit of the doubt and I’m curious what he says about some selections.
dropping Carbery now when he’s playing well is odd timing after all the squads he’s made. And keeping earls and stockdale in there makes no sense to me. Earls is firmly outside the first choice Munster XV by now. He’s played so little he hasn’t managed to have quite so many poor performances as Stockdale.
Its an odd mix of seemingly looking to the future and old heads picked on past glory.
Better still, ROG vs Byrne debates
I guess we'll find out about Carbery tomorrow when Munster name their team.
Its weird if Carbery isnt injured. & because Stockdale is included.
Other than that I think it's a relatively fair enough selection. Earls is there to win his 100th cap.
Earls is firmly outside the first choice Munster XV by now. He’s played so little he hasn’t managed to have quite so many poor performances as Stockdale.
To be fair, he's played so little because he's been injured. He only returned in the middle of December. It's only last weekend really that he found himself behind others.
Didn't Carbery go off early enough against Northampton at the weekend?
Yea, have the people saying Carbery is out of form been watching their games? He’s been better than he has been in a long time. He was picked for squad after squad based on way worse form .
Just checked, 57 mins so earlier than you'd expect. It was right after a mistake, he was back re-claiming a kick into the 5m line (probably he should've taken the ball into touch) but he did seem to take a knock as well.
I think the camera went to him at one point as well and he looked strapped up.
But he wasn't mentioned in any injury updates.
Wasn't listed as injured in Tuesdays squad update.
Is there a press conference later?
If so - the first question will be about Carbery.
If he's been dropped I can only presume it's down to his defensive issues, It's a real problem for him. His go forward play for Munster this season has improved under Rowntree.
Who would you have instead? Shane daly? Porch? Haley? Is balacoune injured?
Joey Carbery could get injured in the time it took you to type that message.
I'm sure there will be a press conference later and we'll know for sure at 12pm tomorrow
Definitely injured so
Is he not now in/out of the Ulster 15 ?
Porch isn't IQ (yet).
But you're right, with Conway and Baloucoune injured, Stockdale and Earls aren't really depriving anyone of a spot.
Porch cannot play for Ireland at all
He can go the 7s route AFAIK.
Edit: but he wouldn't be in the frame anyway
I have and IMHO hes just not good enough.
So why was he subbed in the game v Northampton at a crucial stage? It wasn’t injury.
yea, so what’s changed?
Crowley is playing more?
Ross Byrne is playing really well?
Given how much time has been invested in him, I find this completely mad tbh. Has he seriously been dropped from a 40 man squad a few months before the RWC?
I mean it’s relative. He hasn’t been amazing, but he’s the best I’ve seen in a few years. He has been consistently picked for Ireland on worse form than this. Alot worse.
Also, Murray and Earls didnt even play in those games.
With 7 outside backs in the squad I feel that Earls and Stockdale are there purely to take part in training and to see if they can perform in a way they aren't for their provinces.
If they do they might be an option. If they don't there's 5 outside backs and thats sufficient.
I'm a little surprised that there's no out and out fullback included.
JOB is probably the fullback cover in the squad.
I'm a little surprised that McCarthy made it into the squad as the 4th lock.
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