He's played 13, with Frawley at 12. They complimented each other well
I'll respond to you when you acknowledge you were chatting absolute nonsense by saying Osborne was 'very poor' against France despite the mountain of evidence presented to you which suggested otherwise - which you conveniently ignored.
You've been proven to argue in bad faith so until you prove otherwise, you're not worthy of an adult conversation with me.
I'm starting to wonder if he should be a 13. He can play full back and on the wing, that would suggest he is made to play 13.
Why can't you just ask the question without referencing somebody else?
He was awful defensively yesterday. I think he gets another game because of his history.
Agree with you, but the problem is when the national team is so reliant on Leinster's success it bleeds through. It's very hard for Ireland to play differently to Leinster when they contribute 75% of the match day 23 for most games.
I still can't believe they didn't win the u20 6N.
So POC, Sexton and Easterby going on Lions tour as coaches so who will run the summer tour?
England's under 20s team this year are huge.
Bloody hell. Some pup.
Looking back at the Italy game, the amount of knock ins was mind boggling…a tell tale sign of a side that isn’t focused, which tells there’s issue with the coaching.
I think he played U20 in the earlier games.
But that’s a national team problem. Leinster are unbeaten all season, have scored the most points in URC while conceding the least so that game plan is obviously working for them. Nienabar shouldn’t not be kept on because the Irish coaching team can’t adapt/or get their ideas across.
And how many of those caps were
A. Consistent
B. He started or played at 6?
He or any other 6 need a proper run in the team, not 1 or 2 games before being cut for POM time and time again.
I like McNabney too and think he could be the man, but knowing us we’ll probably drop him after 1 game if he doesn’t put in a POTM performance, call POM out of retirement and then wonder why we are struggling at 6… It’s the Irish way!
Henry Pollock made his senior England debut on Saturday and scored twice. The commentary team seemed to think he was still eligible for U20s this year, although I don't know that that's true. I'm not sure any young Irish backrower can be usefully compared to him, unfortunately.
What’s the deal with Gleeson? He’s only gotten 230 minutes with Munster this year in 8 appearances. Has he been injured or is has his underage form/power not quite translated to senior rugby yet?
I’d be expecting Farrell to be suggesting him and Hugh Gavin get fast tracked considering they were standout players at U20 and look physically big enough to be starting regular URC games at least. I expect them to be capped in Summer depending on injuries but need to be getting more minutes in the URC.
Henry Pollock whose a year younger for comparison was played 977 mins across 18 games (although two of those have U20 and one an England A game) this season.
Crowley's biggest strength compared to Prendergast is that he can tackle and handle bringing the ball into contact.
His pass for the disallowed try to Keenan and the pass for the try to Conan at the end of French game are only possible if you're willing to risk getting tackled. Prendergast is a better technical passer of the ball but his effectiveness is hampered by him not wanting to risk being tackled.
Unfortunately for him if Henshaw and Jordi are fit it's likely he won't make the 23 in the business end of Europe
For me Osbourne has to be given a fair crack at 12 which is summer tour & all the November games to start with
Bar injuries I don't see him starting at 12 for leinster come 1/4 finals onwards
Let's be honest, the 10 debate is a distraction from the real issue. The team is poorly coached and trying to play a game plan that doesn't suit the team's strengths. I'd hope Leinster get rid of Neinabaer, we don't have the profile of players here to play that hugely physical off-ball type game. And unfortunately it's bleeding into the national team.
We could have had prime Sexton at 10 the last 2 games and I don't think the results would have been much different.
Bit of a left field suggestion from me here but would there be any merit in trying a Prendergast 10 and Crowley 12 combination over the summer? It would require a physical 13 to make gainline success but perhaps having 2 playmakers in midfield might give us some sort of cutting edge in attack? The current selection of centres were hopeless this year in that regard. Would Osborne make a good 13 in that selection?
Would agree with most of that, he should have ripped it up given the opposition and also lack of time at 10 in the previous weeks.
I don't know is it me or not but watching the match sat I felt alot more ball goes through the 10's hands when there is familiarity between the 9 &10.
Look back at the same game last year with casey & crowley
Baird has nearly 30 caps and has never really laid claim to a jersey in any of his performances. I think he'd be better off concentrating on becoming a loose head lock because as a 6 he doesn't work. To be honest I'd put Aherne in the same boat, just because he's pacy doesn't mean he's a back row. Should also play as a loose head lock. I haven't watched enough of Izuchukwu other than 1 underwhelming performance vs. Fiji to comment.
McNabney at Ulster is the one to look out for as a blindside.
Izzy was to be picked for the Wales game but got injured.
Ireland's attack is gone to the dogs, it's nothing to do with who plays outhalf, it's by design. We're kicking more, passing & carrying less but kicking more, and without checking I think we're scoring less too.
We're also seem to be held up over the line a bit more too.
For fans and opinionators like us I don’t think Crowley’s performance clarifies that he’s better at anything than SP. He had a big chance, it was Italy and they copped 2 cards, you really couldn’t ask for more yet he was no more than adequate and wouldn’t really be the focus of any positive match review. Goes down as a missed opportunity for him. Maybe the selectors know what they’re doing even if there are legitimate questions about coaching for attack and mental prep..
I wasn't considering that as open play, no. He's made a few of those passes in the tournament, credit to him there. There's nothing particularly exceptional to them tho, I'd hope any back, and most forwards, to be capable of it.
Crowley's biggest strength, according to his champions, is his running threat. Yet we didn't see much change from that on Sat, and ironically, it would be more of a weapon if he played the way Prendergast does. A run first OH is more easily marshalled than one who can distribute the way Prendergast does, but his weakness comes from not being enough of a running threat to worry the defense enough to fix them.
The two of them are currently half of what Sexton was, with Prendergast getting the more useful share of the skills imo.
Well he played a beautiful blind pass for Keenan's try, not sure if you're counting that as open play since it was a set piece move.
It's nip and tuck between the two, if SP improves his physicality ( as he should) he probably has the edge.
Close though.
I don't think Crowley showed much of anything in open play worth talking about. He made one good break down the left wing. Outside of that, I can't think of anything notable he did from open play.
Crowley didn't live up to the hype. What's Joey Carberry doing these days?
People seem to be forgetting that Prendergast was on the field yesterday as well!
He came on for what 20 minutes and clearly looked a step down from Crowley in terms of open play.
For all the talk about elite game management and passing from Prendergast, it's only really led to points in the England and Scotland games. You can at least see the attacking threat when Crowley is playing.
