IRELAND: Who would YOU leave out of the 30 man RWC squad

roddersm wrote:Sin scoring two tries against Wales two seasons ago does not make earls an international centre.

Munster have not had a decent centre combo since Tipoki left and Earls looked pretty uncomfortable there in my opinion. I think he is a back 3 player and does not have the skill set to be a centre.

He may well get the nod at 13 should BOD get injured but it is certainly not his best position and to me he is no more experienced or qualified to play there than any of the other options available.

roddersm wrote:Sin scoring two tries against Wales two seasons ago does not make earls an international centre.

Munster have not had a decent centre combo since Tipoki left and Earls looked pretty uncomfortable there in my opinion. I think he is a back 3 player and does not have the skill set to be a centre.

He may well get the nod at 13 should BOD get injured but it is certainly not his best position and to me he is no more experienced or qualified to play there than any of the other options available.

roddersm wrote:Sin you old cad you!

That clip only proves two things, both of which we already know:

1) Earls is a fantastic broken field runner, hence he's better in the back 3

2) Munster cheat a lot at the breakdown and should have been penalised twice in that clip (in fact Buckley should have had a yellow)!!

Sin é wrote:

The Great Aukster wrote:Pete - There're aren't necessarily 4 back three players in every match. There have been occasions where a FH or SH has dropped back, especially in a 5/2 bench split. No team would ever be without a backrow on the bench though.

My point is that the backrow players are far more likely to get fatigued and injured than the back three players, because they are at the coal face in the contact area. They generally make and receive far more tackles, as well as rucking/counterrucking, maul and set piece work.

However there are two wingers and a fullback who need to be increasingly interchangeable in the modern game so I agree that makes three players. As far as I'm concerned Jones is a complete unknown playing wing at any level so can't be considered as cover there. Either he is picked as a first/second choice fullback alongside Earls or not at all. (Same goes for Kearney.)

In the last RWC Brian Carney made the plane and Jamie Heaslip didn't because Eddie went 16/14 rather than 17/13. If Heaslip had been there he surely would have been tactically used with Leamy so off-colour, whereas Carney was pure injury cover for one position.

Alan Quinlan didn't get a game either, so I doubt if Heislip of 4 years ago would have been of much use. Anyway, I don't think Leamy is the only one who had a poor world cup so the chances are that Heaslip would have been as equally poor. EOS got the prep wrong. Bear in mind that the Ireland pack in the world cup went onto win the Heineken Cup with Leamy. (Which by the way, SOB is not an 8 - Parisse ate him alive in the 6ns and we have Italy in our group).

Bearing in mind that BOD loves his rucking and getting stuck into things and might need a rest - do you not think Keith Earls might be a wee bit stretched as the only experienced centre, playing wing and having to cover fullback as well as centre?