Leinster have an international pack surrounding him at club level they shouldnt. Leo cullens yet to trust him in a knockout game we will see if that changes
Oh no 🤣
If you've watched McCarthy play this season and think he's 'not it', you may need to find a different hobby.
Good work collecting these.
As with the other two guys, I don't quite agree that the ruck effectiveness stats are of a "broadly comparable level", but would broadly agree that Coombes ball carrying has not been as good this year (Toulon game aside) and that the exclusion of European stats means the whole picture isn't being portrayed here. Hard to argue with your interpretation of the tackle dominance stats either.
As an aside, I find it somewhat interesting that their overall tackle completion is effectively the same (90.5% Vs 90.6%), given it was something Coombes has been criticised for in the past and something I picked upon in my review of McCarthy in the La Rochelle game (although I wasn't sure if that was a side effect of the high line speed defensive system being brought in by Nienbar).
I must bookmark that site for future use.
He fits a very specific role that wed habe to adjust the rest of the pack to cover for.
I didnt think that not thinking a 22 year old thats yet to start a provincial knockout game wasnt the messiah would be so controversial but it seems its effusive praise or i need to find a different hobbie
France have a 19 year old lock in their squad.
The answers simple. You bench POM.
Stick Beirne to 6 and Henderson to 19.
Job done.
But who then gets that extra 15% out of the players by staring at them like a disappointed parent?
If you're not within "clip around the ear" range, it doesn't have the same effect.
Who wont play
Dosent really change my point tho. I think he will be great hes just not there yet and ryan does more important work to balance our pack currently
Is almost 10% less effective in offensive ruck work actually marginal?
Honest question? I get these stats so rarely that i'm not sure what is significant and what isn't.
Thanks for link by the way, that site is awesome.
Its huge if we lost the ball every 10th ruck wed never win a game
the more i think about it, mccarthy's numbers say that he is an immense physical talent with some stuff to work on but also already with some game changing abilities? Right?
The offensive ruck stuff seems like something he can get better with over time.
Youd think so ya in time he should be immense
Id like to see to McCarthy start, he is the perfect type of player to pick against France. I think Farrell rates him highly too.
That is not what ruck effectiveness means either. Unfortunately I can not find a description on that website of how exactly they are quantifying it here, but it normally references the impact one has, not the outcome of the ruck.
Baird is the best 6 in the country.
You may not lose the ruck but either your dragging an extra body into the ruck, were losing ball or the balls dog slow. All of which are major no nos for how we like to play. I dont think people realise how important ryan is to this team
No our captains the best 6 in the country. Baird is next man up id say though
Doris and Prendergast are in the mix.
Doris is an 8 first and prendergast barely made the squad though hes young yet and i do think hes a monster
Nah, POM all day.
I'd agree with all of this tbh.
83.3% vs 91.9% effectiveness. Adjusting for minutes makes it 119 vs 160 offensive rucks hit total, which amounts to 99 vs 147 effective rucks hit over the same time on the pitch.
That doesn't seem all that marginal for either effectiveness or volume to me.
If McCarthy does start I doubt it will be ahead of Ryan.
For what it's worth, the reporting coming out seems to suggest Beirne to 6 and POM to 7 so Ryan and McCarthy start in the row. Will hold judgement if that's the case, but I can't say I'm overly enamoured by it.
The statistical yak shaving amuses me.
The Ireland coaching team will be focussing on performances in big Champions Cup and Interpro games for selection purposes and will be supplementing that with how they perform close up in training camps. If they want to dig into specific statistics for a very close call they'll be using their video analysts to clip specific games. The aggregated league statistics tell us very little about how a player builds form, particularly in the case of a young player like McCarthy who's just become a starter and is improving rapidly.
That's probably not true given hes not played in many big champions cup games prior to playing in a world cup quarter final
Makes more sense from a balance perspective though as vdf has more of a free role. Not sure vdf on the bench is the best use of him mind
They'll use the available games
Prior to that WRC QF they could look at had minutes in Champions Cup group stage, URC knockouts, and Summer Nations warmup games. After that they had the luxury of a long WRC camp and giving him 80 minutes against Romania.
This season they can now assess him as a starter in every big Leinster game.
No doubt whatever decision is made, the usual suspects will moan. Win or lose.
4 year cycle for the World Cup or win 6 nations. Give youth a chance or play the experienced. Small changes for me. Evolution and not revolution.
Most line outs won apart from Beirne and 1 10th of a line out more than Henderson but 0.0 line out steals. So long as he is picked I'd be happy. The stats are so close in the second row players that they are almost meaningless.
I think I've made it clear I'm a big fan of Joe McCarthy, and believe he's earned the right to be in the Irish 23 on Friday night, but I don't like the speculation I'm reading that to accommodate this we're going to shift Beirne to 6 and POM to 7.
If it were me - I'd start Joe on the bench with Beirne and Ryan in the second row, and POM - JVDF and Doris in the back row. I'd have Baird ahead of Conan on the bench, but I'm skeptical that will happen.
I think a flanker pairing of Beirne (at 6) and POM (at 7) is lacking too much dynamism at this point in their careers, in terms of carrying, hitting and linespeed generally.
I don't think we should be tailoring our selection to try and counter France's size, I think if we're playing that sort of game then we're going to lose.
My team would be:
(15-9, 1-8):
Keenan, Nash, Ringrose, Aki, Lowe, Crowley, JGP, Porter, Sheehan, Furlong, Beirne, Ryan, POM, JVDF, Doris.
Reps: Kelleher, Healy, Bealham, McCarthy, Baird, Casey, Frawley, Henshaw.
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