I literally answered the question i was responding to what are you talking about
Youve watched a tighthead lock a handful of times and been unimpressed case closed so clo clos decided hes unimpressive
Exactly, why are some people so devastated that we lost a South African project player and are playing Irish lads instead? Purely down to provincialism.
POC obviously doesn't rate him like some here do. Is he not the best judge on the matter?
Why do people have to be devastated to disagree with you? If irish lads are the priority should we drop our current project players?
You keep saying this; it’s literally not true.
POC has input. But he doesn’t pick the forwards.
it’s unlikely to the point of fantasy that POC would be pushing for a second row to be selected in a training squad and Andy Farrell would veto it.
Leinster are 4/7 with PP and Munster 9/2 to win outright.
No more a fantasy than people suggesting poc hands farrell the teamsheet
Paulie went to Farrell way back to suggest bringing in Kleyn, Farrell declined, Paulie tried again for the next camp and Farrell called Paulie out for hating him & despising Ireland.
The rest is history.
You claimed he is better than the other second rows in Ireland, when he has gone up against them he hasn't been able to play better than them.
So you can side step the question all you want.
In terms of his selection, as I pointed out before, Paulie would have a major input and didn't select him. He is now a Bok so it's a totally pointless conversation.
No you think he hasn't played better than them thats all. You also think baird and ahern are better locks than him laughably enough
It was Paul who made the statement on Kleyn
I know this doesn't fit the "biased" narrative we hear but in reality Paulie has a huge influence on the players picked and he didn't pick him
https://www.rte.ie/sport/rugby/2023/0801/1397678-kleyn-was-very-close-to-ireland-recall-oconnell/#:~:text=Paul%20O'Connell%20says%20Munster's,to%20play%20for%20South%20Africa.
Im not sure what that has to do with what iv said and im not sure who your quoting i didnt use the word biased
I never mentioned either Baird or Ahearn
I mentioned the 4 locks we had in WC squad and I said all of them are better, Ryan, Big Joe, Beirne and Hendo.
You have decided to go down the route of lying, best of luck with that.
He isn't available for Ireland, not sure why you keep rehashing the same thing over and over again.
Your right someone else said that apologies
It was asked who else we could have picked. Hes am obvious example because anyone else youll just say is not good enough
As per link above Paulie said he was close, so you would have to guess that if injuries happened he would have been called in.
They didn't so it's if, buts and maybes. He is a SA player now, not available to Ireland and nothing is going to change that moving forward
I dont think being close meshes with not making a single extend squad over 4 years irrespective of what poc says
Did you invest in Jean Kleyn IRFU pyjamas and duvet cover or something?
MOD: Okay, Kleyn has not been an Irish eligible player for the guts of a year at this point and everything that can possibly be said about that has been said. Can we please move on.
Sure stop asking whos been left out so i
I felt Baloucoune was rather hard done by in that instance. He was generally very good in that match, certainly defensively. It wasn't a game that any back stood out, bar the JGP's break for the try.
I like the style that Farrell wants his wingers to play, it's the modern way imo, but there's also an element of trying to maximize the abilities of the players you have. We didn't look to put Baloucoune in space in that match iirc, in fact any moves went through the opposite wing.
I wonder if he also suffers because of the way Ulster have him play. Any time I've watched him playing against Leinster, he's been the most dangerous back on the field. Certainly more threatening than Stockdale.
We didn't look to put Baloucoune in space in that match iirc, in fact any moves went through the opposite wing.
This may be true but that was the absolute last thing that Baloucoune wanted people to be saying. He simply couldn’t afford to have the game pass him by and that’s exactly what happened. He was told to get more involved. He can’t have too many complaints tbh.
Maybe we could have given him another shot against the Wallabies but then we’d have been denying Jimmy O’Brien his chance and would that be fair? He’s been a great addition.
And that’s where a lot of the criticism of Farrell misses the mark. He gives plenty of chances to plenty of new faces but it’s often a zero sum game. Lads saying we should have called up Healy before he decided to leave are overlooking the fact that his call up would have come at the expense of Crowley and surely no one would argue that would have been a good call. The idea that we’re overly loyal, too conservative etc is a load of nonsense. Baloucoune isn’t being kept out by some decrepit stalwart, he’s behind three guys who won their first caps after he did. If they could break into the team and he couldn’t, then the coach’s conservatism isn’t the reason.
Healy wasn't first choice for Munster, after early season issue he was behind Carbery who was picked, Crowley got in for the Aus game because Frawley was injured in the NZ game and Carbery got injured in the Fiji? game
Crowley was in because of the EI tour as discussed and Healy was in no mans land after a couple of bad performance by the Munster team at start of season.
As you say, Farrell has given plenty of chances to players, some haven't grabbed them, others have like Crowley and Hansen
I'd go with the league leaders and champions over a team on a run of 1 win in 6.
Who captains Ireland in South Africa? Personally, I would say Tadhg Beirne is the best fit.
Unless there is a highly unusual completely change of tack it will be Doris.
Has that been announced or something? Maybe I wasn't paying attention; did he take over the captaincy when O'Mahony got subbed in the 6N?
He both took over the captaincy when POM got subbed and was announced as captain for the game POM didn't start.
Beirne should not be on tour, we know what he delivers and he could do with the summer off
Doris has been stand in captain for POM so it's safe to assume he'll get that role in SA
They are going to win test matches, if Beirne needs time off he'll have to make do with it at the start of next season.
Slightly surprised he's not been considered for captain actually and I still wouldn't completely rule it out. But they've set their stall out on Doris pretty clearly.
It's unusual to see this sort of attitude in Ireland. It's more common from English fans with their adversarial club v union system.
When have Ireland ever left at home nailed on starters for Summer games against NZ, SA or Australia? Like I said a while ago if he needed to play two fewer games this season they would come out of Munster games, not Ireland games.
Maybe he shouldn't feature against Ulster. Ahern and Snyman, with Wycherley benching, is good quality. Actually, it'd be win-win. Beirne would be fractionally fresher for Ireland, and Ahern gets some extra gametime ahead of likely making the Ireland touring party himself in place of Henderson.
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