Flexibility to cover positions that are already covered, 5 guys ahead of him at 6 (POM, Conan, Doris, Baird & Beirne), 3 guys ahead of him at 7 (JvdF, POM & Doris), and 2 ahead of him as an 8 (Doris, Conan....and Coombes is much better as an 8 than him). I can see why you'd bring Joe McC, serious potential as a tight head lock. Another back would be preferable really
I doubt it tbh. Ultimately Coombes was in the squad while Deegan was not.
Not that we will ever know, but I'm not convinced that Farrell would have been a big fan of Stander either.
Prendergast is a bench cover/emergency squad cover who can feasibly cover across the backrow. He is very much going to be 5th or 6th choice.
If Farrell had Antoine Dupont available for him to select in the morning, he would probably not play him,
If you've actually convinced yourself of this to help ease the pain of Coombes' omission, that's actually quite funny
I think that the idea that Antoine Dupont couldn't do what JGP does, if he was asked to, is again, funny.
We have known for some time that Prendergast was ahead of Coombes in the pecking order. But I reckon Prendergast is being played at 8 this weekend to give him an opportunity to really convince the coaches that he genuinely offers 3-tool backrow cover. This was never to compare him to Coombes, it's probably more with a view to deciding between him and either Baird or McCarthy.
Edit: And the more I think about it, the more I reckon it's Prendergast vs McCarthy....
If Faz had Dupont in the squad, he'd likely have a permanent erection.
Maybe Faz thinks Prendergast is the better player!
Impress Farrell
Prendergast deserves his chance on Saturday . Looking like a 19-14 split in the WC squad at this stage with Baird, prendergast, McCarthy travelling with the usual suspects.
hopefully a win but absolutely no injuries please.
Plot twist. It's Sam Prendergast starting at 8
I personally think Coombes won’t even be starting for Munster in 2 or 3 years time, Gleeson and Quinn will be coming through at 8 and 6 most likely with Hodnett and Kendellen fighting it out at 7. Coombes is world class 5 meters out but not much after that. Really looking forward to the potential battle between Gleeson and Doris, that could be spectacular.
Coombes is world class 5 meters out but not much after that.
This is often said as if it’s all he has to his game.
It couldn’t be further from the truth, imo.
Josh is 30. Conan is 31. In reality if Gleeson progress continues they will find space for both.
Won't be a battle and more of a combination.
long term would Doris end up replacing JVDF is something I don't think anyone would of thought of prior to the Italy game
The question I think is more would Stander of been picked at 8 if Heaslip was still available. They seemed to like him as the option at 7.
A back row of Heaslip/Leavy/Stander at the last WC with POM/JVDF/Conan as back up would have been some combinations
Well I greatly look forward to the back-to-back-to-back Heineken Cups that will be won by a Munster side that's so good Gavin Coombes can't get into it!
Yeah he’s probably above average in a lot of aspects, but he’s clearly not top international standard. I don’t even think he’s top level champions cup level. He’s a good player and would start for the majority of teams in URC ( Connacht included in that) and probably from the top 5 down in international rugby.
For what it’s worth I’m not sure if prendergast has that level I’m him either but he's definitely closer
Strong disagree, tbh. He's put in excellent performances in Europe for maybe 3 seasons now. This season in particular, he was exceptional, especially in the group stages vs Northampton and Toulouse. His stats were off the charts.
Jensen may surprise in the good way at 8. SHL there too. And McCormack. Connacht future at back-row doesn't need anybody. Neither for centre (Forde, Devine), wing (Jennings, Gavin), TH (Illo, Barrett) or lock (D.Murray, B.Walsh). LH prop and n°10 after 2024 has to be prepared though
Stats don’t tell a full picture, stockdales stats against Italy were pretty impressive if I remember correctly
Stats are fired out all the time, if you pulled out POM stats and said they are shite. The same poster will tell you stats are irrelvant :-)
Stockdale's metres gained stat was impressive, but I'm not certain the rest were. It was very much a mixed bag.
Whereas Coombes was putting in performances that delivered impressive stats across the board. I've posted this before, but this was his average from the group stages this year:
14.8 carries per game
51.3 metres
17 tackles
1.3 turnovers
And a try a game
They're huge numbers by anyone's standard. And plenty of his performance passed the eye-test as well as delivering impressive stats.
Yet the Ireland coach's, including Paulie who has a big pick in these players, haven't picked him for games.
I don' think anyone is saying that Coombes won't play for Ireland at some stage but it's a bit over the top at this stage the discussion. The old bias line which was fired out when Schmidt was coach has no relevance either with Farrell and Paulie in situ
Out of interest, what was Scott Penny stats last season?
But I didn't mention bias in my post. In any case...
Comparing like for like, in the Champions cup, Penny only played 94 minutes over 3 games. But normailising that to 80 mins for each peformance (which Coombes did, so again to compare like-with-like), he averaged the following:
10.2 carries per game, 29.8 metres, 6.8 tackles, 0 turnovers, and no tries.
Some of those are admittedly higher-variance stats than others, but he isn't ahead of Coombes in a single metric. From the stats I've used, on average, Coombes is averaging:
Per game.
The same poster will tell you stats are irrelvant :-)
Ya, see, you can claim that but you won't find a single post of mine saying that.
I accept stats can only tell you so much. Particularly the fairly rudimentary ones on the various stats sites. But they don't tell you nothing either.
In Coombes' case, he passes both the stat-test and the eye-test.
it was a joke
I would have just pulled his stats for season as Penny wasn’t playing the majority of games in Europe
Anyway
As I said the Irish management havent picked him for some reason so we have to go on that, I’m sure of ireland don’t win the WC this will be thrown up again
Coombes will play for ireland in the future would be my guess, ireland have rightly gone with the better options for this WC at the moment with Coombes I guess on standby
Feel free to do just that if you wish. But I'd add, because Penny hasn't played the majority of games in Europe, on average he has played against a lower calibre of opposition than Coombes.
For example, nearly 40% of Penny's total minutes came vs the bottom 5 teams in the league. Only 14% of Coombe's minutes were against those teams.
Was talking to someone close to Munster set up last year, don’t remember exactly what they said about Coombes, but something to the effect that the coaches found him frustrating.I didn’t necessarily get the impression he was a bad trainer but maybe an inconsistent one which sometimes annoyed the coaches. Can see how this wouldn’t translate well in the international setup.
Coombes is a level below The Leinster/Ireland backrow though because he hasn't come even remotely close to being picked ahead of the guys he would be competing against for gametime for a World Cup warm up game
Top class coaches with a highly successful track record in the last few years with the Ireland team with access to a million times more information then us plebs haven't given him a look in at all.
Doris, Conan, POM and Baird are all better players. So not sure where Coombes fits into the picture here barring injuries.
Or, alternatively, they all suit Farrell’s game plan more.
