Could be wrong but hasn't he been wearing that brace for a while now. I thought he was wearing it for first 2 games too!?
Heres another example. There was 14 in the 23 on Sat that was in Joe Schmidt's side.
There was 11.
No brace and was running around fine at the end of the Scotland game.
Looks like POM, vdF, Doris 20. Conan v France
or maybe POM will bench. He played the full 80 v Wales. That was impressive.
I apologise I was going from memory and recall of names I have seen Ireland / Ireland A most recently , together with Leinster (Academy youth) who I support and are more current on
Two of whom have just announced their retirement.
This is Farsterby's sixth 6N tournament, I don't think that's a bad rate of turnover tbh.
A few great pictures to sum up one of the greats of Irish rugby.
https://www.irishrugby.ie/gallery/peter-omahony-ireland-career-lookback/#nanogallery/undefined/0
Murray could play for another 5 years
Yep he was
So ringrose gets a 3 match ban reduced to 2 with tackle school. He'll be back for the Italy game
If he was a player in another country they'd be uproar here that's he using a league game count against his ban. And in fairness, other countries seem to release players back to clubs much more than Ireland would but it was always going to happen that we'd use it too.
How come Ringrose can use the Leinster game (that he had 0% chance of being involved in) to use up one of his games but Ntamack couldn't use a Toulouse game for one of his?
I don't know - I'm finding it all very confusing. I can probably accept that in the interest of player safety that it was a red card but you cannot convince me that it was even in the same league as Ntamack's red vs Wales and here we are with the same discipline handed down.
Anyway, it is what it is now. We are just lucky that we are so well stocked at centre.
Most likely because France included ntamack in their list of 'premium players' whom they publicly stated they wouldn't be releasing back to the clubs during the championship
https://www.planetrugby.com/news/frances-premium-player-policy-backfires-as-romain-ntamack-ruled-out-of-italy-clash
I heard some people say that because France have a restricted list of players that are not released he would have been on that list and they only removed him from the list due to the ban. But Ireland have no such restriction. Or something to that effect.
I did see this and understand the logic, but weirdly the FFR-LNR agreement announced in October 2024 (so several months after that article) makes absolutely no mention of a set panel of players
https://www.ffr.fr/actualites/federation/convention-ffr-lnr-mise-a-disposition-des-joueurs-internationaux
It's all quite confusing.
I'd nearly argue there's no obvious replacement for POM too! The man has started the last 2 games and is likely to do so again France given that Doris and Conan are still having their injuries monitored.
Lots of suitors for the 6 shirt but nobody has grabbed hold of it yet!
VdF will tour but I think Jac Morgan and Tom Curry are currently ahead of him for a starting flanker shirt. He would be in trouble of being left our of the matchday 23 too unless a 6/2 split is used because he only plays 7. But that's all hypothetical, a lot of rugby to be played before the tour.
No they aren't, VDF had too much credit in the bank and will start. Curry is not a 7 at test level, he a quality 6 and that's where he'll play for the Lions like he does for England. Jac Morgan will be on the bench most likely.
Would VdF start in an all time Irish backrow? Was thinking about this earlier, with respect to the Lions. Doris would be a cert for me at 8, think he's simply the best we have ever had at that position. 6 and 7 though, there's just so many brilliant players. Who do you pick out of SOB, VdF, Wallace, Ferris, Conan, POM even?
In their prime with no injures
SOB 7
Ferris 6
Doris 8
That's an incredible backrow
Agree fully, Wallace then in the 20 shirt. The guy could play 6, 7 & 8 and was a two time Lion.
If you pick off current form it would be Curry at 6 and Morgan at 7. Morgan outplayed VdF last week. VdF has been decent but not at his WPotY level in this season. He was outplayed by Fraser McReight in the Autumn international game too. But a lot of rugby still to be played and injuries will play a part.
BTW I'm not for a second claiming that VdF isn't a top class backrow or Irelands best 7. He is most certainly both. But the other backrow options for the Lions are currently playing better IMO.
I honestly don't know how anybody picks Jac Morgan at 7 ahead of Van Der Flier 'on form'. Van der Flier was world player of the year only 2 years ago, and is playing at exactly that level at the moment.
VDF is rated as one of the best players in the world everywhere but in Ireland. It's genuinely baffling how much Irish rugby fans criminally under-rate him.
For those of us who go further back, Slattery must be thereabouts.
I think you'd have to draw a line between the pro and amateur era. Just too big of a gulf imo
Maybe but class is class. I reckon the Welsh would still pick Gareth Edwards as their greatest scrum half.
Heaslip always seems to be left out of the conversation when it comes to great Irish no.8's
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNdJx4uc9/
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DGi1cBBtzcV/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
But the kid never brings the ball to the line...
A lot of supporters had a huge downer on Heaslip for the latter part of his career where he'd lost some pace. He spent years as a hybrid back row who did a lot of the dirty work that made our pack function while our two flankers had more of the big carries or turnovers. Doris will get similar criticism if the balance of our back row doesn't let him run with the ball.
He's also an incredibly dull and irritating pundit for someone who was such a well rounded player. That probably doesn't help his case.
carrying the ball into contact one-handed like that isnt great though to be honest
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