If his size was an issue he wouldn’t have been in Ireland squads at all
This is not remotely true. You can be the second or third best option and still have limiting factors to your game. Hell, you can be the first choice and have limiting factors depending on what players are available.
They are not grooming a potential successor, he has been a pretty consistent third choice scrumhalf for Ireland for the last couple years because he is considered the third best scrum half available to Ireland. I'm not even sure he'll have pushed past Murray as the bench scrum half as it is a different skill.
There is no way in hell he was the third best scrum half in ireland when he was first called up. That’s nonsense. You call guys up and play them that early when they have significant upside.
Are there even any other examples of guys called up that early who were thought to be just potential squad players? Or had clear limitations that they are unsure about?
harry byrne?
Yea, that’s a good one. He has been done by injuries. Other than his injuries though he doesn’t have clear limitations.
Yea, I would say the job will be Casey's and deservedly so.
I wouldn't say there's much difference in size between Casey and Park. A couple of inches? I'm at work and concave time to look up the bios! They're similar players. Casey has a bright future, imo.
He’s 4 inches taller. JGP is the height of an average man whereas Casey is legitimately short.
Casey has one of the best passes i’ve seen, on time, accurate and very fast. He also can pass extremely accurately over long distances. That’s his standout skill to me.
I would like to see Doak and Blade mixed in if Murray leaves/retires in the summer. Blade to me is basically always underrated especially.
JGP is 5'9" and 83kg vs 5'5" and 75kg. Not night and day but one of them stands out as very small even in comparison to other outhalves.
I think Casey can still be a little headless in his play and his kicking continues to need work but he's a really good player. I don't think there's much doubt over who will be starting in the 6N but time is going to catch up with JGP in the next 1-2 seasons and maybe sooner. But his fitness is still superb. On the Larmour try last weekend, he clears the ball from the ruck on the far side of the field in his own half and three passes later, he's being taken down on the sideline on the opposite inside the 22. He's ahead of any other option in terms of how he reads the game and supports play.
Casey's kicking game has come along hugely from a few years ago but is still inconsistent also which is going to be a factor in test selection. I think if he made the 23 it would be a good step for him and then potentially get a start at home against Italy and/or Wales.
I'd agree with lots of that; I think his kicking has regressed this season, particularly box-kicks, which he seems to be getting too much on, which doesn't let the support compete. But in the previous 12-18 months, it was consistently excellent (and occasionally game-changing for Munster).
If he can get back to that level and consistency, the upsides of his game (imo, the best passer of the ball on the island) far outweigh the downsides for me (his size in particular).
Personally, would love to see him off then bench in a couple of games in the 6N's.
I think in at least one of those games they were purposely kicking them non contestable most of the time. Maybe didn’t want scrums.
Edit: based on them always being long by similar amounts.
I've honestly wondered about that this season, tbh, and had this exact conversation with a friend just last weekend. It's been happening so often, makes me think it might be by design.
I did see a stat a few weeks ago that we retained possession from Crowley's kicking a high % of the time, so maybe we're using his kicks (cross-field or otherwise) for contestables, and Casey's for exits?
Yeah Blade is unfortunate in that Casey is a similar player who came on the scene at the same time as Blade was really stepping up a few gears.
Imo it's only this year that Casey has actually become a the better player of the two. I'd have thought Blade was a few percent better, and had more experience. Casey had the benefit of being almost as good and looking like he has room to grow considering his age. Farrell was only going to have a few game to put mins into either of them before the WC so Blade loses out completely.
If Farrell had taken over a few years earlier I really think Marmion or Blade would be fairly well established in the Irish setup.
Blade is in a battle with Murray/JGP for his spot. Not for the Casey spot
Thats my opinion on it, Casey is the young up and coming 9, so Paddy Paterson, Doak etc are in the battle with him
The Ireland A match made a lot of people think about Casey height, clearly a joke but I think people get something into their head and go with that
I don't think Casey height is an issue to be honest.
That's fair And I agree to a point. Which is why i was saying Blade was probably be next best 9 available, but Casey had the benefit of fitting the "young, up and coming" role better.
I rate Blade highly but he kind of got stuck with Marmion and didn't get the game time he might have needed, that my opinion and could be wrong.
Now he is the starting player but is nearly 30, maybe if Murray drops out or heads to France he might jump into that slot as he is clearly the next best
Honeslty I think Doak is the future but he needs to get past Cooney and probably needs Ulster to start playing better.
Marmion probably deserved more game time than he got for Ireland too. I don't know that he ever played a bad game for Ireland but he just wasn't what Joe wanted from a 9. Then the two of them were duking it out in connacht for a while and might have actually suffered a bit. I remember reading/hearing more than once "__ won't make it into the irish team when they're not even first choice in Connacht". I can't remember where I saw that one but it was more than once.
Agreed, always felt Marmion was very unlucky not to make it into the RWC 2019 squad.
I know Doak hasn't been as good this season, but I think Farrell really missed a beat by not bringing him into camp. If they can bring in Casey despite him being green and inexperienced, because he's young and promising, they could do the same with Doak. He's the most obvious replacement for Murray, who should have been retired.
And Casey is the obvious replacement for JGP. Given the type of game we play, I think it makes sense to have Casey there ahead of Doak. He could have included Doak too, but there comes a point of diminishing returns with including players.
I would've gone for JGP, Casey and Blade, with Doak there in the same role as Prendergast.
Are people forgetting Casey's turnover on the ground last week? Stick him in as a 7 #groundhog
Yea just looked at the bios.
I like Doak. But really he's standing still. He's not improved much since breaking through.
Doensn't exactly pass the visual test either.....pair of them in the top right next to one another.
Yep
Blade and Marmion effectively shared number one status for three of the last four seasons. In their final season together Blade was clearly the starter. Overall he probably picked up more starts, minutes, and an equal share of Interpros and Champions Cup games over those seasons.
I don't think that Blade is playing quite as well as he did over the last two seasons. Two factors hurt his case:
- Connacht haven't had the mixture of possession and backline cohesion for him to fully use his skill. We're still a work in progress in defense, attack and at lineout time.
- He probably hasn't had the big match Interpro and Champions Cup performances the coaches look out for. We've seen pumped a few times in Europe and our Interpro wins were arguably against sides that underperformed.
People saying Casey is too small, Aaron Smith only has few centimetres and a few kgs on him and he had a pretty decent career.
Aaron who?
Don't you be dissing the greatest Highlander ever !!!
😛
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