I wouldn't have a single Leinster outside back over their Ulster counterpart this season. Might put Kenny at 11, but he's very different to Ward.
I can’t think beyond the front five at the moment. If they perform in the scrum like they did against Italy then no back line will save us. What a worry. Sheehan has been ordinary so far, way below his best. Nobody could object to Kelleher starting. I noticed a lineout overthrow from Kelleher too when he came on against Italy. I hope Furlong somehow improves this week. He didn’t look fit. One or two nice passes and that was it.
Bohan started the A game against England earlier this month.
I'm saying I'm not sure he's ready and needs more time.
Scott Wilson from Ulster also started that game with Gus McCarthy at hooker.
As regards Crowley and Prendergast. Same has been awful.in both games. People were saying good things about Jack after Saturday's game but he made stupid decisions in that game too. I'm not saying he played badly but those poor decisions can cost a team. That didn't happen on Saturday.
I really think Harry is better than both of them and I'm not calling him great or anything close to it by saying that.
One of the major factors in the decline of Ireland's performance is the Nienaber system operating at Leinster.
Not only does that system not suit Leinster's players, it means that they must play completely different systems between club and country. A greater variation between the highest contributing province and the national team than has ever been seen in the thirty year professional era.
That jarring variance is best demonstrated in the showing of some superb players like Joe McCarthy, Caelan Doris and Garry Ringrose, who are all operating far below their talent levels, because they are tired, frustrated and mentally drained.
A strategic decision will have to be made at Union level how to address this.
Rud O'Connor this morning suggests that although Nienaber runs the Leinster defence, he is also de facto in charge of the entire rugby programme in Leinster.
He further suggests that Nienaber be paid off, and that Joe Schmidt come in as senior coach under Leo Cullen and that between himself, Andy Farrell and David Humphreys, and indeed with the 3 other provincial team coaches, they institute an ethos of excellence in skills and open attacking rugby that suits our traditions and our physical attributes as a playing pool.
It doesn't sound like the worst idea to me.
For me the crowd reactions on Saturday were pathetic. Andy Farrell is 100% correct.
For the sake of accuracy, here is what Farrell said about the crowd reaction:
Farrell is entitled to spin that for the wellbeing of his players in whatever way he sees fit.
But he isn't correct.
I was there, it was a cheer of irony and relief that Prendergast was being taken off.
And everyone must deal with the reality of that in their own way.
this is just comedic.
Lancaster, gone
Nienaber, get rid
Smidt, get in.
and keep Leo Cullen in charge of it all during all this, but don’t apportion any blame to him.
Are people completely unable to see that Leinster with the squad they have and the manager they have are complete underachiever with Cullen at the helm? Can people not actually see how much it has benefited Ulster getting rid of McFarland and Richie Murphy coming in?
It wasn’t Nienabers system that had furlong flying over a scrum the last day, or joe McCarthy giving away penalties, or the 10’s missing simple kicks.
I think the criticism of Neinabar is a bit off. Saying his defensive structure doesnt suit Leinster isnt right, These are pro players. A lot of countries have many players involved that play very different systems in their national team compared to their club/region/province. this isnt anything new/strange or different.
Joe Schmidt isnt going to come back and its crazy to think he would or should. Why is Cullen absolved of much blame anyway?
Ringrose out for Saturday according to O’Connor on the Indo Podcast.
Nienaber and Cullen have a job to do, Farrell and his team have a job to do, but blaming one for the struggles of another is a bit much tbh.
Shame Hume is not in the camp.
Perfect partner for Stu.
Pity, I thought he played well on Saturday, although not everyone thinks so.
I'd expect Farrell to come in, although is there an argument for Postlethwaite, yes it would be his debut, but it would be Farrell's second game so not much difference in that respect, plus McCloskey and Postlethwaite have a familiarity. As someone else just said Hume would probably make sense than anyone, but he isn't in the squad.
Disappointing for Ringrose (if confirmed), but I suppose an opportunity for someone else, and that seems to be the narrative for this Championship now.
Edit - we could also move Osborne to 13 and play Stockdale at 15. Stockdale's aerial game in Paris might put the mockers on that idea though.
https://www.the42.ie/ireland-england-update-6958595-Feb2026/
Not according to this…
I think stockdale can do a job at 13
Strange. His words were “There’s confirmation coming later, Ringrose is probably out for the weekend”. So maybe he (or I) jumped the gun and he will be fine.
Schmidt returning to Ireland is not as far fetched as you might think. It's probably not going to happen but it wouldn't be that far beyond the bounds of possibilities.
Not sure about that. I know he has played there, but not for a very long time. Sounds like Ringrose is fit anyway.
That said I'd like to see a McCloskey/Osborne centre pairing at some stage. It think they could do some damage as a combo. Osborne's try on Saturday being a case in point.
No, that has been superceded by updates this afternoon, Ringrose is OK.
The key question is when was this recorded?
Then again, it wouldn’t be the first time the Irish injury report was good then that player ends up being ruled out.
You're convinced that Byrne is better than Crowley and Prendergast despite the statistics from their club games categorically showing otherwise.
Byrne had to leave Leinster for a period last year to be a medical joker for Bristol because he wasn't good enough to get in the Leinster team. He has returned improved, but still not better than Prendergast. They've played roughly an equal number of Leinster games this season. The reason Byrne is getting starts in away games is that he's more physically mature than Prendegast. Not because he's a more skilled player.
Ireland have a more physically mature player, who is a solid defender and demonstrably better than Byrne in the skills department. Why would we chose Byrne for Ireland over Crowley?
And before you mention Crowley's missed touch last week let me remind you of one of Byrne's last actions for Leinster before departing for Bristol:
A missed touch at the end of the game to deny Leinster a chance to win the game. I remember watching it. Can't find a clip it to see how egregious it was but I distinctly remember the error at the time. So his 'line kicking' as you call it, is also error prone.
Both things are true, but it's what you would expect your head coach to do. Defend a young player going through a spell of poor form. Good to see it from Farrell. Although things are not going well for him now, Ireland need both Sam and Jack in good form battling it out for the 10 jersey.
Thank you, I've been battling this angle that Neinaber is some sort of cancer in Irish rugby that needs to be cut out with the last while to no avail. Like you say, Cullen put him in his current position and yet is never mentioned.
As I said before, come look at our defence down in Munster. And if Leinster wants we'll do a swap of Leamy for Neinaber.
My fear with this is Farrell picks Osborne at 13 and plays Crowley at 15 with Sam at 10. But I think that's unlikely.
So it's going to be Tom Farrell or Poslethwaithe, does he go for experience or an Ulster team mate combo from 12 to 14? Interesting choice to be made.
When Keenan was away with the Olympics Haley should really have been in camp as he was probably the second best FB in the country at the time
Unfortunately that boat has sailed and it's too late now to be trying Haley there. That's one of the issues of not bringing guys into camp to get to know the system. Now it looks like with a few players injured or out of form the number of guys available that also know the system is a lot smaller and we're shoehorning guys into positions you really wouldn't normally start them in.
Now everyone agrees that Andy and company made a bad judgement call on promoting Jack too quick too soon, hopefully for Ireland's sake he will recover from this setback to challenge Jack going forward .Andy has made very few errors but this was a clanger.
Haley is not international standard
Maybe not now but he was definitely worth a call up when Keenan was off at the Olympics
I think I can very safely say I have not been absolving Cullen of blame. I think JN is definitely having a negative effect on Leinster, how much that bleeds into the Ireland team I don't know but I doubt it is zero. It has likely just been a very unfortunate confluence of a lot of things going wrong. Dan Sheehan looked to have a claim to one of the best players in the world, and now is a shadow of his self from 2 years ago. Leadership has left the team and absolutely no one has stepped up to fill the void. We have gone from one of the most accurate teams in the world in everything we tried to do to an absolute shambles at times.
All of this can not possibly be down to one root cause, it is a lot of things happening at the same time and it is going to be very difficult to course correct.
Why? The only games Keenan missed were the SA tour games and Osborne was excellent in them. He was a better selection then and is a better selection now so why should Haley have been called up?
I think the way England play, we need osbourne in at 15. I would be worried about Jude and Tom in the 13 channel. Both are 12's IMO. Of course you could move osbourne but he gives the team such solidity at 15, I wouldn't move him. I have no answer for ringrose's potential replacement if he doesn't make it threw the week.
