606v2 picks the best Irish RWC 22: STARTING SCRUMHALF

First topic message reminder :


Edit, all, I'm going to be leaving this poll here for a day or so before moving it back into the RWC selection subsection



First of all wanted to say thanks to everyone who has contributed over the past few days the debates have been pretty good for the most part. We have had nearly 1000 votes and nearly 600 comments and a lot of people have contributed to what has been a really good couple of days debating. It's been great to hear so many opinions (even ones I have disagreed with) and to get a feel for what everyone thinks of certain players. There were a number of very tight calls between Hayes and Buckley, O'Leary and Murray and McFadden and Fitzgerald so it's been interesting to see people's opinions being tested against those of others.

In this series gets the same great reaction and that we hear some more great debates that were started or were not touched on in the previous series. Calls like; should Jennings be on the bench, the backrow selections, the fullback selection, should Stringer be selected on the bench are all going to be very interesting and am looking forward to hearing everyones opinions.


The idea of this series is to establish the first choice front row, second row, backrow, halfbacks, centres, back3, forwards subs and backs subs. These debates I may leave a little longer than the previous series as more can be said about them. The idea is to chose the best 22 that we have be it on form, experience, partnerships, balance, fitness whatever.

Perhaps think of this as the team you want to line out against Australia

IN THE SERIES PLEASE LOOK AT THE PLAYERS WHO HAVE BEEN/YOU THINK WILL BE PICKED LATER IN THE SERIES, AS TO CREATE BALANCE IN THE TEAM
eg: Playing Flannery would mean needing a work horse somewhere else in the pack as Best does a lot of the donkey work.

IF A PLAYER IS IN OUR SQUAD PLEASE TAKE FOR GRANTED THAT THEY CAME THROUGH THE WARM UPS AND THUS HAVE SOME FORM (IF NOT A LOT) AND ARE SOMEWHAT FIT. THIS IS OBVIOUSLY A HYPOTHETICAL SITUATION.

We are going to use the squad that we (the 606v2 community) have chosen.

Healy, Ross, Buckley, Court
Best, Cronin, Flannery
O'Connell, O'Callaghan, Cullen, Ryan
Ferris, O'Brien, Wallace, Jennings, Heaslip
Reddan, Stringer, O'Leary*
Sexton, O'Gara
O'Driscoll, Darcy, Wallace
Bowe, Earls, Trimble, Kearney, Jones, McFadden

*O'Leary just beat Murray yesterday evening in the poll by one vote.

So far the team is
Healy-Best-Ross
O'Connell-O'Callaghan
Ferris-Heaslip-Wallace

This is going to be a toughie a lot of good options here lads! Keep it clean!

Scrumhalves:

REDDAN: Showed good form since December and seems to be one of the best rounded scrumhalves we have in our 30 man squad. His passing is quick enough and he doesn't hang around the ruck for too long. Can be poor if his pack are going backwards but can also lead from the front and be instrumental in creating quick attacking ball by taking the initative. Average box kick, average defender, big game experience. Good relationship with Heaslip, SOB and Sexton.
STRINGER: Vastly experienced player. Has one of the best passes off the deck in the world regarding pace and accuracy. He also gets the ball our of the ruck very quickly and is great at marshalling his pack. Is very unbalanced as he rarely makes a break, has poor defence and his box kicking is average. Can be an excellent impact sub. Great relationship with O'Gara.
O'LEARY: Exceptionally physical scrumhalf with good defence and is also quick. Versatile in that he can at a push play wing and centre. He is a poor passer for an international scrumhalf. His passing is slow and sometimes very inaccurate. He can take a long time getting the ball away from the ruck also. His decision making can be poor also be it how long it takes him to make a decision and he takes the wrong option more than other international scrumhalves. Average-poor box kicker.

Remember...

a) think of balance of the whole team
b) assume if they are in the squad they have some form and some fitness (not necessarily full fitness or good form)
c) play nice and no provincial stuff, attack the arguement not the person making it
d) to place your votes
e) back up your points with examples, clips etc if possible

Cheers
Pete

D24tress wrote:stag if i wore my leinster jersey to a munster match i would expect a bit of ribbing.

Yes but I was in a hotel in Dublin watching a Munster match on TV. I took it off goign to stadium.

D24tress wrote:

Sin é you are so anti leinster that it stirs alot of leinster people up.

I asked you what your ireland team would be yesterday full expecting you to have no leinster players in it, now thankfully you are not that bad cause you do have some knowledge but some of the things you come out with are just outright wums

So, even though I select a team that has Leinster players in it, I am still anti-Leinster.

Maybe you should deal with your own prejudices first. Saying that you were surprised with my selection says more about your prejudices than mine.

D24tress wrote:stag if i wore my leinster jersey to a munster match i would expect a bit of ribbing.
I also find that many leinster fans had to put up with years of slagging and abuse at the hands of munster fans when they were winning but when the tables turned it was seen as too much. Were you at the lansdown 1/4 final cause the abuse of leinster fans after that is why alot of them will give munster fans stick


Sin é you are so anti leinster that it stirs alot of leinster people up.

I asked you what your ireland team would be yesterday full expecting you to have no leinster players in it, now thankfully you are not that bad cause you do have some knowledge but some of the things you come out with are just outright wums

There is nothing wrong with a bit of ribbing but abuse is totally out of order. If you go to a rugby match you should expect there to be a bit of slagging between fans and there is no problem when its in good spirits but sometimes slagging can be over the top and turn in to abuse.

Stag sorry i'd expect some banter but anything over that ishould not be tolerated

Another point to this is that a bit of gargle can make people do stupid things and come across a bit aggresive, i've been to games with some munster friends and we have both been well on and made fools of ourselves

sin e i was surprised at your picks because you are so anti leinster in your posts but still but some in, so your like darth vader your all about the dark side but there is some good in you

valjester wrote:

red_stag wrote:Rodders, disagreement and banter is fine but I hate all the provincial nonsense. I was booed in Dublin while trying to watch Munster v Ospreys in my Munster jersey. The Leinster fans I was with were mortified. I then pulled off my Munster shirt after game and was more than happy to go cheer on Leinster v Clermont. Notch had the same thing when he went to Ulster v Leinster this year. Some fella tried to start something with him and I've heard things from Munster fans at inter-pro games that just makes me dispair.

Theres a line with banter and some people take it too far. Its grand with opposition but when its your own fans its hard get behind team.

Why did you bother taking off your jersey to watch a leinster match?

My aunt (in her 60s), walking down Grafton Street wearing a Munster jacket on her way to meet us going to a Leinster v Munster game got a load of abuse from a group of teenage Leinster jersey wearing supporters. She won't be wearing her Munster jacket again in Dublin.

I've been going to Leinster games for years (have a friend who played for Leinster about 10 years ago) and the atmosphere at the Leinster v Munster games has become horrible and nasty (even when Munster win!). I think the turning point was the game that Leinster v Munster game after the semi in 2006. I was at the semi and I must say any of the Leinster supporters that I met were very gracious. I've heard it said that Leinster supporters took a load of abuse that day from Munster supporters, but in all honesty the number of people who are now giving out all this stick couldn't have been at the semi since Lansdowne Road was filled with Munster supporters.

I wish the Leinster and Munster fans hated Ulster the way they hate each other. At least that way they'd acknowledge we exist and we'd feel part of things.....

That goodness for Neil Francis, at least he gives us the publicity we deserve....

SinE wrote: I think the turning point was the game that Leinster v Munster game after the semi in 2006.

Agree

well sin e at least you have a good reason to hate us

Yeah 06 was the turning point It had never been as tribal untill then, i have a few munster jerseys(got them for free off my uncles in cork) that i like to wear training and i get a bit of abuse from the team, although half the team are from munster so its not to bad.

Guys we all hate provincial nonesense so how about we just cool it a bit at times before we post something. There are a lot of us here who are too biased or too proud at times.

D24tress wrote:well sin e at least you have a good reason to hate us

Yeah 06 was the turning point It had never been as tribal untill then, i have a few munster jerseys(got them for free off my uncles in cork) that i like to wear training and i get a bit of abuse from the team, although half the team are from munster so its not to bad.

I don't hate Leinster (in fact, due to a number of reasons), I'm very fond of a lot of them. Its some Leinster supporters I'm less than fond of. I go to more Leinster games than I go to Munster ones as I live in Dublin. Please stop accusing me of hating Leinster players/team.

It is claimed that Munster don't enjoy the games now because they are losing, but my experience of Leinster v Munster games is that Leinster nearly always were the winners when played in Dublin. Leinster were hot favourites to win the semi in 2006 (and for any Munster supporter living in Dublin, that was a rough week and hardly surprising that it blew up in Leinster fans faces).

I'm giving my vote to Reddan although I'm not one bit happy about it.

As Stag indicated earlier his display against the Boks last Autumn was so bad that it still burns in my memory.

Unfortunetly he is our best option at present.

If we were all sitting around the table in a real pub I doubt people would have the stones to say half the things they do on here.

Mickado wrote:If we were all sitting around the table in a real pub I doubt people would have the stones to say half the things they do on here.

Agreed. Everyones the hard man on the internet. Except Micky T who threatens to castrate burglars with a set of shears

Mickado wrote:If we were all sitting around the table in a real pub I doubt people would have the stones to say half the things they do on here.

I think it would depend whether the pub was in Limerick, Ballymena or Blackrock.......

Mickado wrote:If we were all sitting around the table in a real pub I doubt people would have the stones to say half the things they do on here.

Someone has grown intolerant of some of the shoite posted on here. Totally agree though. It's why I'm staying away from these discussions as much as possible.

red_stag wrote:

Mickado wrote:If we were all sitting around the table in a real pub I doubt people would have the stones to say half the things they do on here.

Agreed. Everyones the hard man on the internet. Except Micky T who threatens to castrate burglars with a set of shears

The Tallaght Barber, yeah get out of his way!

At the end of the day we all want the same thing, we just can't agree on how it should happen, but nothing we say will have any bearing on what happens either way, so keep the bleedin cool lads and lets not let banter slip into annoying sniping.

Mickado wrote:

red_stag wrote:

Mickado wrote:If we were all sitting around the table in a real pub I doubt people would have the stones to say half the things they do on here.

Agreed. Everyones the hard man on the internet. Except Micky T who threatens to castrate burglars with a set of shears

The Tallaght Barber, yeah get out of his way!

At the end of the day we all want the same thing, we just can't agree on how it should happen, but nothing we say will have any bearing on what happens either way, so keep the bleedin cool lads and lets not let banter slip into annoying sniping.

+1

Mickado wrote:

red_stag wrote:

Mickado wrote:If we were all sitting around the table in a real pub I doubt people would have the stones to say half the things they do on here.

Agreed. Everyones the hard man on the internet. Except Micky T who threatens to castrate burglars with a set of shears

The Tallaght Barber, yeah get out of his way!

At the end of the day we all want the same thing, we just can't agree on how it should happen, but nothing we say will have any bearing on what happens either way, so keep the bleedin cool lads and lets not let banter slip into annoying sniping.

Agreed. I've been to see Leinster v Munster with you a few times both in Limerick and Dublin and we could all take the pizz without ruining things.

mick are you going to the leinster open training in tallaght on friday

I wonder what would happen if we all organised to meet up one evening in a pub somewhere......

pete (buachaill on eirne) wrote:I wonder what would happen if we all organised to meet up one evening in a pub somewhere......

followed by



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and finally back to mine for



and waking up with a

Would be nice to talk rugby face to face rather tha over a computer

Let's do it at the RDS next season lads. Ive met Stag, MGTGOG, Notch and loads of the other posters off here (30+ of us at the HC final!) and we always have fantastic Craic!

D24, won't make it, it's a bit early for me. My pal will probably go with his kid though, delighted to hear they're in tallaght, I was proud as punch when Ireland A played there.

Any of you lads have a season ticket in the south stand In the RDS? myself and MickyT can be found up the back getting lashed on every week

RDS sounds good. Don't have a season ticket but will definitely be at a game at some stage.

pete (buachaill on eirne) wrote:Would be nice to talk rugby face to face rather tha over a computer

That would suit you ok Pete. We wouldn't be able to refute your inaccurate claims with the actual facts (like your recent claim that Leamy has a poor disclipinary record for instance)

pete (buachaill on eirne) wrote:RDS sounds good. Don't have a season ticket but will definitely be at a game at some stage.

Of course the RDS sounds good to a Leinster supporter.

Why not Ravenhill, or Thomond or the Sportsground?

Sin é wrote:
Why not Ravenhill, or Thomond or the Sportsground?

Exactly sin, typical Leinster arrogance! Lets meet up at your house and then we'll see what people really think of Dennis Leamy!

Sin-
Yeah, imagine that, you will have to use your brain rather than the internet to come up with a point.

A game of rugby between us would be good, or at least a game of tip

I've met up with fans from 606 at ravenhill and thomond. Not nearly enough chinos on display for my liking!

I think a few of the pub regs are on about going to standulstermans(?) rugby bar place in belfast for the ireland v australia game. Don't quote me on that though....

what were they drinking mick

i hope to god it was some vitimin H

Mickado wrote:I've met up with fans from 606 at ravenhill and thomond. Not nearly enough chinos on display for my liking!

roddersm wrote:

Sin é wrote:
Why not Ravenhill, or Thomond or the Sportsground?

Exactly sin, typical Leinster arrogance! Lets meet up at your house and then we'll see what people really think of Dennis Leamy!

My house would be too easy for them as its in Dublin.

I'm glad you mentioned Denis Leamy - interesting interview where he says his last knee injury (picked up against USAP) nearly finished his career. But its all good now, said he has been pain free for the last month.

pete (buachaill on eirne) wrote:Sin-
Yeah, imagine that, you will have to use your brain rather than the internet to come up with a point.

A game of rugby between us would be good, or at least a game of tip

You asked for the stats, remember I supplied them. But you didn't like them and went into hiding.

No mention of Musgrave Park,I see, It's official that everyone is against Cork people. Don't take it personally just because we are vastly superior to the rest of you people.

Thomond wrote:No mention of Musgrave Park,I see, It's official that everyone is against Cork people. Don't take it personally just because we are vastly superior to the rest of you people.

Sad, but true. Even their own are turning against them and adopting Limerick stadium monikers on the t'inernet

Jeez lads are you all sloshed?! All this love is making me nauseous.

Warm ups are around the corner and I don't care if its D Leamy or P Wallace or Reddan whoever, if the performance is there Im 110% behind them.
Think sometimes we let other peoples "exuberance" in arguing the merits of one player over somebody we prefer to often cause us to dislike their player even more, and 99% of the time its along tribal lines (Me guilty with D Leamy - Im cured now though).

At the end of the day all these guys will leave their guts out there in the green jersey, we should have more respect for all of them as they are tonnes more talented than we will ever be.
We all play/ed the game and should be well aware of how the loss of confidence, injuries off field stuff can set us back for a bit.