Frawley won't be playing at 10 in any of them though.
I dunno, as recently as the tour to NZ, Harry Byrne was ahead of both Frawley and Crowley. All three are of a similar age, and Byrne was capped way earlier and in squads way earlier.
Injuries have scuttled his opportunities, but he's played a lot of games in 2023 for Leinster and generally looked pretty good doing so.
I wouldn't say he's totally out of the equation.
@RidleyJones
Yeah, if he performs well in camp he makes his case. For terrible performances I was thinking about Fiji, he had some moments there but overall we squeezed by them and he was part of the problem.
Terrible might be unfair but he was a poor manager of the Fiji game and Lowe, Hansen and Ringrose stepped up as playmakers in his absence. It’s also true that everyone else was shite that day.
He's just not that good. The fact he seems to have crumbled in the last few weeks isn't a great look either.
His biggest problem is he is not a 10, he isn't big enough to be a 10 even if he wants to be. Look at the likes of Sexton, R Byrne, Predergast(pictures of him seemingly standing beside Leo and same height), Crowley etc....they are big lads. Even H Byrne was out training with the kids along with Rhys and he was as tall as him etc
Prendergast is 6'4. He's unusually large for a 10
Has he crumbled tho? He’s not been picked. Crumbled suggests he’s been terrible. He hasn’t.
He is also only 60kgs so is not that big either despite his height.
Would it not indicate he has crumbled if he is not being picked? To go from clear first choice to third choice in a matter of weeks suggests he may have.
Both of those decisions were surprises tho.
And his performances, generally, haven’t been a million miles from where they’ve been over the last few years.
Fwiw, they’re decisions I agree with.
60kg?!
Nah. He's at least 90kg.
My bad, I looked at his Wikipedia which says 65kg IRFU site says 91kgs which at 6’4” would hopefully be correct.
Are you not thinking of awec?
Soaking wet
Yeah, I haven't seen his performances drop off a cliff this season but who knows what's been happening at training. And at Munster Crowley is having a breakout season so if Joey's morale is off then that will count for a lot. Still though, Carbery is a known quantity for Ireland. I thought his performance coming on in the last NZ test was very solid, he gave up a try elsewhere but his intercept and some other contributions suggested that he knew when to take a risk when the stakes were enormous.
Jack Conan was outstanding yesterday. More than a few people wanted him dropped from the squad earlier this season, he'll be forcing his way into the starting 15 before he drops out of the 23.
Is it safe to come in here and gloat about being right about how Gibson-Park should have been given gametime over Murray and Ross Byrne should have been given time over Sexton?
Two narratives that should be finished from yesterday-
Ross Byrne can’t do it on a big stage. They don’t get much bigger than yesterday and he was pretty much flawless yesterday. Perfect off the tee, steered the attack brilliantly. The only other Irish 10 who has shown he can win games like that is Sexton.
The scrum is a problem. Leinster’s scrum was rock solid yesterday at multiple crucial pressure scrums in the Leinster 22 and all over the field. They won penalties off that Toulouse pack that was 65kg heavier, and only lost their first one after introducing Jenkins in the second half (unusually).
eh? JGP is clearly ahead of Murray and no, Byrne should not have been given game time ahead of Sexton.
Not ahead of Sexton but starting Crowley over him in the Autumn is completely bizarre looking in hindsight.
He was unwell and underperforming earlier in the season. He's back to his rampaging best now. There's no gotcha here.
Yeah, bit of a head scratcher. I think there was a logic to it in terms of just casting the net as wide as possible for options and just seeing what happens.
I still think RB will be leapfrogged relatively easily by a more athletic player.
Think we lost one prior to Jenkins coming on. Though the Toulouse loosehead folded in and we got penalized for not driving straight. Not sure how that works but scrums can be a lottery at times.
Hear hear. A beast performance from the Wicklow Wizard!
No! It's bmnever safe!
Why? Why bring up anything positive? What's wrong with you? Next you'll be saying that that Ross Molony could get a call up! Like there's not enough to argue about.
But he did have a dip in form; he went from starting 8 to the bench from the NZ tests onward.
It seemed to coincide with his health issues and since sorting them out he’s really improved again. Good for him.
None of that means the calls for him to be dropped were unfounded / unreasonable.
I’d like to see the scrum stats tbh, but there was definitely one other at least.
While we have had scrum issues, they haven’t really cost us, but I’m not convinced we can quite say “problem solved” just yet.
The scrum caused Leinster absolutely no problems yesterday, and at the crucial times in the game the Leinster scrum held up well or actually won penalties.
That’s against a gargantuan pack and three French internationals in the front row.
It’s not problem solved, and it may never be, but a narrative that it’s a huge problem is clearly not the case.
We had problems against an illegal scrum. We have figured out how to combat that
Ireland will never have "the cattle" to have a massive scrum against the top teams. We just need to hold our own
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