Our attack hasn't been good, so I understand the pile on.
Just a reminder: Goodman is in charge of attacking set plays, and Andy Farrell is in charge of our general attacking play.
Goodman's getting a lot of stick for problems that aren't his remit.
Good to have Hansen back but was he not supposed to be out for the duration? I do want to see him at FB some time, just maybe not against South Africa.
Harry is only 8 months older than Crowley. He has always been a bit soft and injury prone. I think that stint in the Prem toughened him up, 3 MOMs in a row, he deserves a start with Leinsters first team. Will see how he goes from there, if he cuts out the silly errors, he is kind of a hybrid of both Sam/Crowley. Better kicker than crowley, better defender and taking it to the line than Sam.
it's so funny. Hansen was so poor at fullback for Connacht while being a fantastic winger and yet folks call for Hansen to be fullback for Ireland. It boggles the brain
Fair point, maybe you lose more by sacrificing one of our own guys to go after him.
Either way there should be some element of a plan to try to limit his influence. It's a bang average Aus team and he has the ability to ruin the breakdown for us.
Edit: It hasn't worked well for us so far but playing a kicking dominated plan would help nullify his influence. Trying to take it through many phases and rucks only invites him on for turnovers.
There are specialist/experienced fullbacks in the form of Michael Lowry/Mike Haley/Shane Daly who could step in but Farrell seems to like his utility backs at 15 when Keenan is away.
Thats true if he picks Hansen, but Jimmy O’Brien is a full back if that’s the route they go.
The reason why New Zealand XV play Uruguay in France is their sponsorship agreement with Altrad obliging NZRU to field a side every year in Montpellier… but Montpellier stadium wasn't up to standards this year and it was moved to Béziers:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/sport/576692/rugby-tour-game-moved-after-major-all-blacks-sponsor-stoush
They already played Georgia last season (also sponsored by Altrad).
Skelton is ruled out for the Aussies having played for LAR at the weekend.
Interesting comments from O'Gara that Skelton always wants to play the "big" matches, and LAR v Toulon was apparently a big match, regardless of the international test that Australia were playing (and losing) the same day… but he wanted to link up with Australia for the Ireland and France games?
I get that this is the reality of pro sport sometimes but it can't be great for the squad when certain players can pick and choose they games they're arsed with and opt out of the others.
I'm glad we're not facing him either way.
Money talks.
Its obviously cant be great….but….what can they do about it.
Its a really big loss for the Aussies.
Probably depends on what sponsorship arrangement the Italy match was under. It gets complicated when there are official November Autumn International window games and unofficial ones.
If the Italy game was an unofficial AI game then the French clubs might not be obliged to release him to the international team.
Since the game was in the 'release' window, Australia could have insisted he be made available, but I presume there is an arrangement with Skelton, aka preferential treatment, which is never good for a squad.
build up thread open
Ah I get you. Good knowledge
Skelton is out due to injury but O'Connor has joined the squad.
Presumably not as a direct replacement though.
Joe Mccarty has confirmed himself out of the remaining 2 irish games and hopes to be back for Leinster v Quinns.
Interesting to see if JOC starts this weekend.
Skelton limped off in the late stages vs Toulon, where LaR got hosed anyway.
It's not soccer, you can't really man mark an opposition player at rucktime tbh, the game is just too dynamic to be able to do anything like that.
What you can do is resource the ruck with more bodies when that player is contesting the breakdown , and Ireland & other opposition teams probably try to do exactly that, with a very effective jackler like that. Other teams also do this with Ireland when they see Tadhg Beirne lurking at a breakdown. However, this isn't foolproof either, and with these brilliant jacklers you just have to try to be a efficient at ruck time as possible, and be clinical at clearing out jacklers, & yet still probably have to accept that they'll manage to poach a few from you over the course of a game nonetheless.
I suppose what I meant by man mark was to assign one member of the back row to not be a designated carrier in open play and instead to be given the task of securing ruck ball. Perhaps even one of the 2nd rows too. Give those players a mandate to be 1st arrivals at rucks and distribute the carrying duties to others.
Edit: posted to match thread.
Wouldn't work. Designated player secures the ruck and what happens to next ball carrier when they get tackled? The designated player is still getting up from the previous ruck so no one secures the ball and theres a turnover.
when thinking about Joe Schmidt and Andy Farrell and how Farrell seemed to reinvigorate Irish rugby I believe that schmidts in distance on selecting Conor Murray was his undoing.
Farrell selected Gibson Park and suddenly Ireland had a half back partnership that fired and the team really started to sing.
But Sexton is gone and now we are back to where we were at the end of the Schmidt tenure. This time it's a 10 issue and it doesn't look like it's going to be sorted anytime soon
Was it?
I think JGP didn't become IQ until the 2019 RWC and even after Farrell took over he didn't play JGP until the Autumn games in 2020. Remember too, JGP was firmly the second choice scrumhalf at Leinster so it didn't look like JGP was being hard done by.
Rumours that Joey is set to leave Bordeaux at the end of the season. One of the Irish provinces should try and sign him, Connacht are probably in the biggest need but I'd take him back at Munster.
I would of thought Ulster need an experienced 10!
Would be good to see him at Ulster or Connacht. And Harry Byrne at the other province then. Would mean we have 4 Irish guys at their clubs vying for the green jersey.
Ulster would be a great shout for him. Connacht too. Can’t imagine he’d be too keen to head back to Munster.
