I thought that Baird would have made this week's team. Conan is fine though.
Sorry Mrs Conan,. no I don't.
Where this year, against decent opposition, has he performed? I would have Deegan over him.
Baird is wearing the 20 shirt
MOTM against Munster?
I don't think the snipe is necessary.
You gave no justification for your argument so I think it was fair to get some clarity.
And I could do a lot worse than have Conan as a husband. He's a very attractive man.
The Max Deegan ship has sailed on International caps until he cements himself in a first choice 23 for a provincial team. Something I sincerely hope he does.
But at this point in time. No, no he is not a better option than Conan
We won't have a decent team out until after the 6 nations.
good try though.
Is he as attractive as handsome Rob?
He's certainly not as attractive as Mr. Deegan, the swoonsome Hollywood hunk.
If you play frawley at 22 and aki at 13 then who plays 12. Unless your complaint is henshaw should be 12 and aki 13?
Or frawley at 12 and aki at 13? But that one would be crazy, playing 2 players out of position against France for the sake of changing things up
He said decent opposition....
Ouch.
Baird got the nod for my supersub....just hope he gets enough minutes to rack up the points!
Conan was the obvious selection once we went 6-2. We need an option to bring another natural running distributing player onto the pitch if we're chasing it in the second half. We've a long queue of players who all the other elements of back row play. Plus, he'll be straight on if Doris has to leave the field at any point.
Clearly Farrell rates him above Timoney as the sixth forward. I do too as an eight.
as I replied... good try though.
I can see the lineout struggling until Ryan comes on - god helps us if Sheehan gets a knock & Kelleher (who couldn't hit the backside of a barndoor @ the moment) has to come on early
I do hope that JGP resists the urge to take over too much of the kicking from Crowley.
A very significant exaggeration.
Henshaw at 12. But, I would like to see Frawley there.
This should be a very exciting 6N. Both Italy and England should be a lot better this year and Ireland struggled against both last year while Italy give France a fright. I can’t see a grand slam but if anyone pulls it off it will be some achievement. I like the look of the Ireland team, the only question mark is the lineout and what happens if Henshaw goes down, Aki obvs to 13 which France will savour. Some bench to be unloading in the second half. France will want a tidy lead at 50.
Why Aki at 13 instead of Henshaw? At least the latter has shown he can play that position to pretty high standard.
Henshaw looks like he's coming back into form at just the right time and no better man to stop Danty at source.
He’ll come on for POM after 60 minutes worst case.
I think the bookies have this as a 4 point spread in France's favour, and I'd struggle to argue with that. There obviously isn't a whole lot between the teams, and I think home advantage (and Karl Dickson who we've previously struggled under on a few occasions, particularly at scrum time) tips it in their favour.
I think they look a little more settled than us, and think their best players are showing a bit more form domestically at this stage.
Obviously they've never looked good sans Dupont, but Maxime Lucu has been sublime for Bordeaux this year so far, and I think he'll announce himself in a massive way in this tournament.
I'd absolutely love obviously to win here and go on and defend our GS, but would really urge a bit of perspective and composure from people if we lose on Friday night.
We have to give guys like Jack Crowley and Joe McCarthy a bit of time to adapt to test match rugby. They're both absolutely liable to make mistakes given their youth and inexperience, but they're both absolutely there on merit because they've earned the shirt too.
I'm in two minds on this game. Talk is that France are going to go back to a running style and stop kicking for territory so much. If they start running from their own 22 against us I think we will eat them up.
Be interesting to see how the backline goes post Sexton which is my main worry. I hope Crowley demands the ball from JGP and plays on the gainline.
To be honest I worry for this game (and the rest of this year at least).
The post world cup hangover is most definitely there as seen by the performances of the provinces. I can't see how the motivate themselves after another cycle of failure considering all the effort put in. Grand slam aside form last yar you have the bulk of this team being Leinster who put a huge effort into attempting to win a European Cup and a World Cup and after the 3/4 year cycle came up with nothing in either pursuit.
I really hope I'm wrong but I think this could be a tough year for us.
Don't see us losing by more than 5 and think we can win. Come on!
On the cover of Saturday's L'Equipe, I want an image of Joe McCarthy carrying with three French defenders hanging off him, and the headline to read "Joe Le Taxi".
Otherwise I give up.
I really don't like either of them at 13.
Brought to mind Bill McLaren's commentary on 'Ginger' McLoughlin's score where he reached the try line despite England' best efforts
"Festooned wi Sassenachs"
I hope I'm wrong but I think the World Cup hangover is going to be worse than expected and this game may end up being not so enjoyable for us.
All Blacks twitter account announced fixture against Ireland on November 9th.
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