Ireland Team v Scotland Announced

IRELAND Team & Replacements (v Scotland, 2012 RBS 6 Nations Championship, Aviva Stadium, Saturday, March 10, kick-off 5pm):

15 - Rob Kearney (UCD/Leinster)
14 - Tommy Bowe (Ospreys)
13 - Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster)
12 - Gordon D'Arcy (Lansdowne/Leinster)
11 - Andrew Trimble (Ballymena/Ulster)
10 - Jonathan Sexton (St. Mary's College/Leinster)
9 - Eoin Reddan (Lansdowne/Leinster)
1 - Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster)
2 - Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster) (capt)
3 - Mike Ross (Clontarf/Leinster)
4 - Donncha O'Callaghan (Cork Constitution/Munster)
5 - Donnacha Ryan (Shannon/Munster)
6 - Stephen Ferris (Dungannon/Ulster)
7 - Sean O'Brien (Clontarf/Leinster)
8 - Jamie Heaslip (Naas/Leinster)

Replacements:
16 - Sean Cronin (St. Mary's College/Leinster)
17 - Tom Court (Malone/Ulster)
18 - Mike McCarthy (Buccaneers/Connacht)
19 - Peter O'Mahony (Cork Constitution/Munster)
20 - Tomas O'Leary (Dolphin/Munster)
21 - Ronan O'Gara (Cork Constitution/Munster)
22 - Fergus McFadden (Old Belvedere/Leinster)

Shocker!

Two changes ...way to go Declan

What do you mean its only down to injuries

The lack of debate says it all really.

No surprises really, decent outfit, could probably afford to be expansive agaisnt Scotland. We tried it for ten minutes against Fracne and gave up 11 points, Scotland hopefully won't be as clinical.

Whaaaaaaaaat?! No way!!!

Etc etc.

Indeed Rory, noone would have thunk this at all!

Seriously though, the only one I'd argue with, as in the reasoning behind it, is D'Arcy. Brass facts here, his two best games in the last two years in the Int game have been against the Italian midfield. Nuff said.

This isn't an anti-Leinster thing, I'd replace him with McFadden or, indeed, as he was showing/hopefully will continue to do so, form post RWC ommission, Fitzgerald. Yes is wasn't playing much at 12, but both guys are classy players and both have enough experience at this level to not become a lamb for slaughtering.

The others, even TOL on the bench, I can go along with, as with the possible exception of Best ironically, noone had a bad game against France. Well, I suppose Trimble did make a number of errors too.

Not an anti Ulster thiing either, and as much as I like Cronin, without BOD, POC and not starting ROG, to voluntarily give up Best would be to leave a very callow team out there in terms of leadership, because the more Heaslip plays the less he looks like a future Captain.

In fact, going with that teamsheet and swapping Cronin, I'd be inclined to make either Redden or DOC captain.

Or Start ROG (c) and have Sexton at 12 from the off.

Kidney after announcing his team:

Spoiler:

I can't even be bothered to be disappointed with the team selection!

Is this the quietest the board as ever been after a team selection?

is that the 1st time a Connacht player gets in the irish team ?

No, John Muldoon got in on the last tour to NZ. McCarthy and Gavin Duffy(I think) played last summer too.

Maybe no changes (except forced changes) but its still a reasonably decent side.

I didnt expect anything less to be honest and still feel confident that Ireland can beat Scotland

whocares, no, not at all. Gavin Duffy has been capped while at Connacht and Cronin played against New Zealand in the summer of 2010 while at Connacht. Not to mention all pre pro era caps. And doubtless the real nerds will add others i have forgotten. Indeed, I think Keatley in 2009 was at Connacht when he was first capped on the North American Tour?!

As expected. only other change could have been expected is to rotate the backrow a bit, but not advisable if Best is still an injury doubt.

Still think Earls' best position is wing. Why not give McFadden a go in the centres, Ireland can't win the Slam or Triple Crown, what is there to lose?

I'm just glad he has finally seen sense and has finally caved into pressure to give young Rob Kearney a go at 15. At least we're on the right track if that keeps up.

Forgot Muldoon Thomond!

No, John Muldoon got in on the last tour to NZ. McCarthy and Gavin Duffy(I think) played last summer too.

Debaters, I don't think I did!

If that side are given licence to play (and at home you should be) then they can knock Scotland's increasing confidence backwards and prove their ability

How is Darcy still starting for you?

ChequeredJersey wrote:How is Darcy still starting for you?

Same as usual. No new pattern this time. Wait for the ref's whistle and off he goes. The new formation start won't be ready until the England game.

ChequeredJersey wrote:How is Darcy still starting for you?

He is in there for his experience so i am told.

Speed, handling skills and passing are not required to be an Irish 12 as long as you have experience

Seriously though, he hasnt been too bad so far.

mc fadden is a poor 13. if anything i would have given him a go 12. he cannot possible offer less of a threat than darcy who has done very little for 18months yet managed to start almost every game - and i do not care if schmidt prefers darcy for big games. leave leinster out of this.

if we win we will be unchanged for england, if we lose narrowly we will be relatively unchanged for england (with exception for injury replacements), final chance of redemption etc

looks like we are going to have a physically battered team turn out in Twickenham which is a real worry.

another draw on saturday??

Thomond wrote:

No, John Muldoon got in on the last tour to NZ. McCarthy and Gavin Duffy(I think) played last summer too.

Debaters, I don't think I did!

No Thomond, that was a syntax error on my behalf. It should have read "Thomond, I forgot Muldoon!"

Sorry for the inadvertant accusation.

Dublin, I think we can all agree we'd drop D'Arcy. But other changes would you make to enusre this team isn't tired etc for England, any beyond.
I assume you'd take one of the backrow out, but who else?

Foxton249 wrote:Still think Earls' best position is wing. Why not give McFadden a go in the centres, Ireland can't win the Slam or Triple Crown, what is there to lose?

2nd tier seeds for the next world cup.

Mcfadden played at 13 against wales. Earls was definately an improvement (first time in a long time that ireland got anything in paris).

Thomond wrote:No, John Muldoon got in on the last tour to NZ. McCarthy and Gavin Duffy(I think) played last summer too.

Sean Cronin.

Has someone pointed out to Kidders yet that we can't mathematically win the title?

roddersm wrote:

Thomond wrote:No, John Muldoon got in on the last tour to NZ. McCarthy and Gavin Duffy(I think) played last summer too.

Sean Cronin.

Has someone pointed out to Kidders yet that we can't mathematically win the title?

why, did he claim we could?

Sin é wrote:
Mcfadden played at 13 against wales. Earls was definately an improvement (first time in a long time that ireland got anything in paris).

A draw is a long way from getting 'anything' judging by the grim face of O'Connell and others after the game. But I do get the point you're making. A win though is all that will suffice in Paris.

Ok, everyone calling for more drastic changes, would you agree to NOT criticise the management should a more altered team lose, lose playing well but lack experience in the key moments to close things out/get the winning score, lose playing awfully or win unconvincingly?!

I am seriously asking that question btw so please be honest.

earls was an improvement on mc fadden agreed sin e. thought he did fine with the exception of the brain fart in the lead up to fofana try.

mc fadden is a 12 or a winger for me. very useful player to have around and a decent goal kicker. earls,cave,omalley,griffin,spence should all be considered at 13 instead of him.

Sin é wrote:

Foxton249 wrote:Still think Earls' best position is wing. Why not give McFadden a go in the centres, Ireland can't win the Slam or Triple Crown, what is there to lose?

2nd tier seeds for the next world cup.

Mcfadden played at 13 against wales. Earls was definately an improvement (first time in a long time that ireland got anything in paris).

We won't go down to 3rd seeds unless Tonga,Samoa or Scotland put together a very unlikely run of results but as we're playing Scotland it's probably best not to give them a sniff if at all possible.
McFadden isn't good enough to play 13 at international level imo,he should only start at 12 or on the wing,I'd like to have seen a change at 12 for this game.Earls has done okay since he's come back in but I think he'd benefit from having a 12 inside him who can offer a genuine threat with ball in hand,D'Arcy doesn't have the pace to do this anymore as even if he makes a break the cover defence will easily catch him.

debaters1 wrote:Ok, everyone calling for more drastic changes, would you agree to NOT criticise the management should a more altered team lose, lose playing well but lack experience in the key moments to close things out/get the winning score, lose playing awfully or win unconvincingly?!

I am seriously asking that question btw so please be honest.

I'm not a calling for drastic changes but why are we flogging the best players in the country to death over 4 successive weekends when there's nothing to play for?

This is a dead rubber game, why not get something out of the tournament in terms of player/squad development rather than limp through competition to a 4th place finish and injure all our top players in the process?

TBH I would rather Kidney just gave Ulster back their players Honestly I am much more excited/passionate about the HC match coming up against Munster. I mean this 6 nations seems like a complete joke now from an Irish perspective. When Kidney announced that team, the reaction just said it all. No debate, no shock, nobody even seems to care really anymore. I'm not even excited about the irish games.

dublin_dave wrote:earls was an improvement on mc fadden agreed sin e. thought he did fine with the exception of the brain fart in the lead up to fofana try.

My only gripe with Earls is not what he does but what he doesn't do. His work rate is very poor. He has the skills but too often he just drifts out to the touchline rather than carrying ball, influencing games and working to put his team mates in space. He made a right hash of two attacking plays by drifting into touch rather than cutting back inside.. once of heaslip and once of Kearney.

Disappointing...again...
Would have thought Boss or Marshall was ahead of TOL.

agreed rodders. if we win there will be no changes for england game.

4 seriously bruising encounters in a row will surely put us at a disadvantage going to twickers.

i would have rested healy,obrien and dropped darcy. given court,omahony and mc fadden a start. appreciate our hand has been forced at scrum half and in 2nd row.

Rory_Gallagher wrote:TBH I would rather Kidney just gave Ulster back their players Honestly I am much more excited/passionate about the HC match coming up against Munster. I mean this 6 nations seems like a complete joke now from an Irish perspective. When Kidney announced that team, the reaction just said it all. No debate, no shock, nobody even seems to care really anymore. I'm not even excited about the irish games.

Ya better get used to getting broken players back from the irfu, now that you'll be the leading irish province
This season already, wally, felix, POC & murray all got injured while on Ireland duty (2 of them for most of the season).

Calling off the french game and poc now being injured have messed it up any chance of changing things around. Only thing to do is put the head down and man up.

And since Boss is back in New Zealand, you can't really give tomas o'leary too much stick for making the bench

rodders, twice earls was bundled into touch after back row fowards (once ferris and think heaslip the other time) shovelled the ball to him when he was double teamed and a yard from the touchline. it was a symptom of our decision making and lack of ideas in attack.

absolutely not earls fault. what is he meant to do with a drifting defense when a big lump gives him the ball with 3 french defenders coming at him. heaslip and ferris should have gone to ground and recyled.

not convinced he is the answer at 13 but is our best option in absence of cave. o malley needs a bit more HC action under his belt

Sin é wrote:
Ya better get used to getting broken players back from the irfu, now that you'll be the leading irish province
This season already, wally, felix, POC & murray all got injured while on Ireland duty (2 of them for most of the season).

Kinda adds weight to the belief that we rely much to heavily on high impact rugby in the Ireland camp.

we are a huge fan of taking contact. effectively meat head rugby without the meat. comes from mr smal. he is a huge fan of a static pod of forwards in the 10 position.

SecretFly wrote:

Sin é wrote:
Ya better get used to getting broken players back from the irfu, now that you'll be the leading irish province
This season already, wally, felix, POC & murray all got injured while on Ireland duty (2 of them for most of the season).

Kinda adds weight to the belief that we rely much to heavily on high impact rugby in the Ireland camp.

wally - tackled by a tank (tullagi) and wally twisting his knee
felix - landing badly on his ankle
POC - don't know
murray - landing awkwardly.

dublin_dave wrote:rodders, twice earls was bundled into touch after back row fowards (once ferris and think heaslip the other time) shovelled the ball to him when he was double teamed and a yard from the touchline. it was a symptom of our decision making and lack of ideas in attack.

absolutely not earls fault. what is he meant to do with a drifting defense when a big lump gives him the ball with 3 french defenders coming at him. heaslip and ferris should have gone to ground and recyled.

not convinced he is the answer at 13 but is our best option in absence of cave. o malley needs a bit more HC action under his belt

Yes Dave two points. Earls is the centre so he should be the one giving and not waiting to recieve the pass. Why are Heaslip and ferris doing the centres work? If that is the attacking strategy then Earls should have had the intelligence to cut back inside. Ferris certainly was looking for the switch as was Kearney on another occaision.

The fact remains that barring the odd flash of brilliance Earls influence on games is very low and he spends too much time on the wing.

dublin_dave wrote:rodders, twice earls was bundled into touch after back row fowards (once ferris and think heaslip the other time) shovelled the ball to him when he was double teamed and a yard from the touchline. it was a symptom of our decision making and lack of ideas in attack.

absolutely not earls fault. what is he meant to do with a drifting defense when a big lump gives him the ball with 3 french defenders coming at him. heaslip and ferris should have gone to ground and recyled.

not convinced he is the answer at 13 but is our best option in absence of cave. o malley needs a bit more HC action under his belt

He should have done what all intelligent centres, wings and fullbacks would have done, looked for the switch inside. heaslip had the ball for a while and Earls offered him nothing except the 1m blind side.

Sin é wrote:

SecretFly wrote:

Sin é wrote:
Ya better get used to getting broken players back from the irfu, now that you'll be the leading irish province
This season already, wally, felix, POC & murray all got injured while on Ireland duty (2 of them for most of the season).

Kinda adds weight to the belief that we rely much to heavily on high impact rugby in the Ireland camp.

wally - tackled by a tank (tullagi) and wally twisting his knee
felix - landing badly on his ankle
POC - don't know
murray - landing awkwardly.

I knew that would come back to me parceled thus. Good man, Sin é. My point sticks though. We assert authority by using contact...other teams might choose to do it by putting early tries on the board. It's just different styles of course but it's as clear as daylight that we don't give our forwards easy games. We make them work, work, work... energy into grunt so that energy for attacking support can often wilt.

I remember Leamy being interviewed...and the saliva almost dripping from his mouth when he talked of his love of contact. That it was his reason for being...making those hits. Well, yes, I thought......by all means hit the walls. But if there is a door, and you should see it, maybe it'd be best to use it, so that you could reserve your energy for the next wall without a door. It's the philosophy of not even looking for doors that is giving us tougher games than we need to be playing - in my opinion of course. Others can disagree

SecretFly wrote:

Sin é wrote:

SecretFly wrote:

Sin é wrote:
Ya better get used to getting broken players back from the irfu, now that you'll be the leading irish province
This season already, wally, felix, POC & murray all got injured while on Ireland duty (2 of them for most of the season).

Kinda adds weight to the belief that we rely much to heavily on high impact rugby in the Ireland camp.

wally - tackled by a tank (tullagi) and wally twisting his knee
felix - landing badly on his ankle
POC - don't know
murray - landing awkwardly.

I knew that would come back to me parceled thus. Good man, Sin é. My point sticks though. We assert authority by using contact...other teams might choose to do it by putting early tries on the board. It's just different styles of course but it's as clear as daylight that we don't give our forwards easy games. We make them work, work, work... energy into grunt so that energy for attacking support can often wilt.

I remember Leamy being interviewed...and the saliva almost dripping from his mouth when he talked of his love of contact. That it was his reason for being...making those hits. Well, yes, I thought......by all means hit the walls. But if there is a door, and you should see it, maybe it'd be best to use it, so that you could reserve your energy for the next wall without a door. It's the philosophy of not even looking for doors that is giving us tougher games than we need to be playing - in my opinion of course. Others can disagree

god, and you don't think gatland picks his giant backs so that they can try and run around people

Anyway, isn't stevie ferris the poster boy for making the big hits. Leamy has a good offload (was one of the top offloaders in the Heineken Cup last season).

No Wales backs are all brilliant and skillful footballers, particularly Davies and North. They look for space and not contact. When they need to take contact though they can take it on their terms.

Don't start on Leamy...he's rubbish. FACT.

SecretFly wrote:

Sin é wrote:

SecretFly wrote:

Sin é wrote:
Ya better get used to getting broken players back from the irfu, now that you'll be the leading irish province
This season already, wally, felix, POC & murray all got injured while on Ireland duty (2 of them for most of the season).

Kinda adds weight to the belief that we rely much to heavily on high impact rugby in the Ireland camp.

wally - tackled by a tank (tullagi) and wally twisting his knee
felix - landing badly on his ankle
POC - don't know
murray - landing awkwardly.

I knew that would come back to me parceled thus. Good man, Sin é. My point sticks though. We assert authority by using contact...other teams might choose to do it by putting early tries on the board. It's just different styles of course but it's as clear as daylight that we don't give our forwards easy games. We make them work, work, work... energy into grunt so that energy for attacking support can often wilt.

I remember Leamy being interviewed...and the saliva almost dripping from his mouth when he talked of his love of contact. That it was his reason for being...making those hits. Well, yes, I thought......by all means hit the walls. But if there is a door, and you should see it, maybe it'd be best to use it, so that you could reserve your energy for the next wall without a door. It's the philosophy of not even looking for doors that is giving us tougher games than we need to be playing - in my opinion of course. Others can disagree

+1

Sin é wrote:

SecretFly wrote:

Sin é wrote:

SecretFly wrote:

Sin é wrote:
Ya better get used to getting broken players back from the irfu, now that you'll be the leading irish province
This season already, wally, felix, POC & murray all got injured while on Ireland duty (2 of them for most of the season).

Kinda adds weight to the belief that we rely much to heavily on high impact rugby in the Ireland camp.

wally - tackled by a tank (tullagi) and wally twisting his knee
felix - landing badly on his ankle
POC - don't know
murray - landing awkwardly.

I knew that would come back to me parceled thus. Good man, Sin é. My point sticks though. We assert authority by using contact...other teams might choose to do it by putting early tries on the board. It's just different styles of course but it's as clear as daylight that we don't give our forwards easy games. We make them work, work, work... energy into grunt so that energy for attacking support can often wilt.

I remember Leamy being interviewed...and the saliva almost dripping from his mouth when he talked of his love of contact. That it was his reason for being...making those hits. Well, yes, I thought......by all means hit the walls. But if there is a door, and you should see it, maybe it'd be best to use it, so that you could reserve your energy for the next wall without a door. It's the philosophy of not even looking for doors that is giving us tougher games than we need to be playing - in my opinion of course. Others can disagree

god, and you don't think gatland picks his giant backs so that they can try and run around people

Anyway, isn't stevie ferris the poster boy for making the big hits. Leamy has a good offload (was one of the top offloaders in the Heineken Cup last season).

Oh them GIANT backs again. I'll tell you, the get bigger as the weeks fly by.

Meanwhile it isn't their size that makes them so effective it's what speed they are doing by the time they meet the 'midgets' that defend against them. Technique, not size. Speed + size rather than size alone. Now, maybe we could start off with Speed and work ourselves up to size when we get the breeding farms up and running

ha, so shane williams was able to run over people like George North did

A waste for him having a step.