You doubt Farrell will start who against NZ, Osborne?
For sure, he had a great career. I imagine he would have started a Lions test had there been a tour in 06 instead of 05 as that was really when he was at his best.
And yet, he went on 3 Lions tours; something the other 10’s he toured with didn’t manage. The reality is if Prendergast or indeed Crowley have half the career ROG had, they’ll be doing extremely well and we’ll be very lucky.
I think he's certain to start 15 which means we will only see TOB v Japan & prob Aus.
On reflection we all think he will make & i doubt farrell will start him v NZ fir example.
His starting wingers are not for moving, as much as I'd like to see Osbourne 12 it ain't happening in AI's v the bigger 2 teams i feel.
Osbournes downfall in one way is his versatility
He's going to play 15 in Nov you have to assume with Keenan out. I really do think the sooner he beds into 12 permanently the better though.
Very "impactful" 13 minutes though!
We often see posters talk about intentionally trying to injure someone by the way the entered a ruck or making a high tackle but somehow we can't discuss the intentions of a player lazily running back to not make a tackle.
Again. You're not actually answering or proving anything. Just lying to try and further a point that you really don't have to. We know Prendergast is a bad defender.
you don't have to be a psychic to see someone walking for a departing bus and conclude they don't really want to catch it.
On to actual Ireland discussion. Jamie Osborne had a great game yesterday evening. He's a big enough talent that you could put him at 12, 13 or 15 and he'll give you a good performance.
He was at fullback tonight. Covered the backfield well, was solid under the high ball, scored a try and showed great hands to set up Deegans try. He'll be Ireland's starting fullback this November.
His best position is at 12 though. He's a big fella and has the speed and power over 5m to get beyond the gain line, and the handling ability to offload in the tackle to keep attacks going. That's exactly what you want from your inside centre.
My only concern surrounding Osborne is that he doesn't have a fixed position yet. Now is when he should be playing one position to further his development. Out of Ireland's new generation of backs I think he's the most talented and has the most potential. Moreso than Prendergast, Crowley, Gavin etc. Can't afford to mess up with him.
This isn't a disagreement. There's actual video evidence that disproved your claims.
The whole situation is incredibly tiring. Just yesterday we had someone on here claiming to be a psychic and knowing Prendergast didn't want to make a tackle. That's utterly crazy.
There are enough legitimate criticisms to make about his game. Nobody needs to lie and invent fictional scenarios in their own heads to make him seem worse.
No, Stephen Jones started all 3.
ROG 13 minutes from the bench over the 3 games
Didn't Rog start for the Lions in a test in 2009!?
Again this ROG was brave narrative is fabricated nonsense. If someone is ran over repeatedly throughout their career because they’re being targeted, they’re not brave.
Does anyone call Mike Catt brave for getting run over by Lomu in 1995? Has anyone ever heard anyone from any other country call ROG brave? He’s hardly up there with the likes of Wayne Shelford, Martin Johnson, BOD and Richie McCaw for putting his body on the line for the team.
SP needs to sort his tackling out and not be getting praised with this ‘he couldn’t tackle but sure wasn’t he brave’ rubbish in 20 years time. If he keeps going like he is, he will which would be a shame as he’s got huge talent.
'called out'… the state of you. You disagree, move on.
not shirking the tackle attempt shows a bit of bravery though to be fair
i agree that SP gets a fairly unfair amount of flak regarding his defensive abilities (or lack thereof) and it generally verges into hyperbole, but its definitely not an outrageous opinion to think he didnt want to tackle senatla in that video - maybe he thought he had better cover on his inside and pushing hard to the outside would force the attacker back into them, but it also doesnt look out of the question that didnt want the contact.
The ‘ROG wasn’t a great defender but he was brave’ is one of the great myths of Irish rugby. A player picking out a weak defender and going straight at him doesn’t make that defender brave.
ROG had many talents on the pitch but physical bravery wasn’t one. Going in for a poach when you’re going to get cleared out of it is a better example of bravery than being a speed bump.
While O'Gara might have been a poor tackler he always made an attempt to make the hit and stood his ground. I can remember Heaslip running over the top of him in an interpro for that very reason. He wasn't strong or physical but he was brave.
I think everyone knows he’s a poor tackler and it’s something that he needs to hugely improve. Luckily he has time. He’s got to get on with it himself. It won’t change overnight so anyone who was expecting a sudden change in the last 3 months is deluded or using it as a stick to beat him with. It’s a crucial part of the game and a reason why someone like ROG will never be seen as an elite fly half by people outside of this country and why he never got selected as a starting 10 for the Lions. Luckily he had no competition for Ireland in that time. Prendergast doesn’t have that luxury.
You can also look at the rubbish you posted last week about Prendergast running away from Willie Le Roux when he tried to make a try saving tackle. You were called out on it and had no response.
There's accepting that Prendergast needs to improve his tackling/defence and there's whatever the jaysus is happening in multiple threads now. The level of fantasy posting about Prendergast's defensive frailties really needs to stop. He's a bad tackler. You don't need to invent scenarios to further your agenda.
Sorry, but no. You posted about being able to read a players mind and are now running away from what you've started.
It's not being "cross" or whatever you want to think. You're being asked to show how you know he's purposefully avoiding contact.
You can look at the Glasgow game from last year's CC and see him do the same thing 3-4 times. He's well experienced enough to know how to position himself in defence yet he repeatedly runs out past the ball carrier making no attempt to put his body in the way.
Sure I can. I'm not going to do the pages and pages of absolute guff that's come before this.
There's no need to be cross that someone thinks something different from you. You could, just accept it. Or argue about it on your own, I don't mind.
Feel free to have the last word and we'll end it there.
There's differing opinions on things and there's alleging a player purposefully missed a tackle because he didn't want to take contact. You can't say same and expect to not generate a debate on that.
Yeah, i also said poor defending like that won't show up in missed tackle stats. I'm not doing pages and pages arguing about it.
We just have different opinions on the clip
You're point is SP intentionally avoids making a tackle, which unless you are a clairvoyant is ludicrous.
What is certain is he missed the tackle, we can all agree on that.
You're accepting half of my point. I'll take that
you're gonna love all the new November data
Fwiw, I actually pulled the Scottish data together that was being requested (Townsend is indeed one of Farrell's peers). To try add some context, and not just straight totals for every game, due to very different fixture lists, I've filtered out the following games:
So new caps since the RWC, excluding the above games, have gotten the following:
Team
New Caps
Total Caps
Minutes
Games
% of Mins available
Ireland
7
29
1203
16
6%
Scotland
11
44
1554
15
9%
So Scotland have given more minutes in fewer games. Everything so far has just reinforced what my initial perception was.
It's a fair bit of work, but if there's any interest, I'll try pull the full data set together for everyone and exclude all those lower ranked teams.
Of course he's not in a position to make a tackle. It's because he over runs it. That's bad defence. What it isn't is some great machination in the mind of Prendergast to avoid contact.
