Ireland Team announcment

[againstthehead]

lol blame J Brown above lol

[Shan]

I read in the Grand Slam book that Kidney doesn't justify his selection decisions to the players, so I don't know why he needs to use phrases like "picked on form" to the press. If he just said, "I'm the coach so I'll pick who I feckin' like" then it would be more accurate.

Probably just to humour the morons who can't help bleating about form this and form that.Form means f-ck all if a player isn't deemed good enough by DK to be selected.

Anyway I am pretty happy with this selection.I didn't see the McLaughlin one coming I must say but the guy has looked very good and DK does not select players on a whim.No real surprise to see the hookers named as they were.Our front row will be under enough pressure without exposing Cronin or Fogarty and hoping they survive.

Good to see Trimble back as well.He has had his bad times and come back strong this year, a little like Bowe a few years ago in a way.Hopefully he can go on now and be the player he looked liked he could be.

Hopefully ROG can continue his very good recent form.With his confidence restored and a smile back on his face he can, I think, still perform at the level we need him to.

The only minor quibble I'd really have would be Reddan.I'd have had Boss on the bench.I suspect DK has concerns about Boss which I have myself despite his form.That said I'd be prepared to give him a shot ahead of Reddan who I have similar concerns over.I also realise that O'Leary has not been setting the world alight recently and is not without his own weaknesses.

This year will be harder than last year but hopefully a good start can set us on our way to compete for another championship.This will really show us where we stand and another championship win, even without a Grand Slam, would be a great achievement.

[Shan]

Yeah picked on form, yet TOL and Reddan are ahead of Bossy...

I respect Kidney a lot, but he does spout some rubbish in his quiet little turnip accent.

Classy.

[Ithryn]

Whilst i am over the moon about rory making such a remarkable come back, the same with flannery, but perhaps rory should have one more A game under his belt before he returns to internationals. I know class is permanent and if he is fit he is fit, but Bradley did say he was feeling it after the first half last week. Maybe cronin or fogarty should have been put on the bench as match fit replacements.

Thought Court might have been in with a start against a decent Italian front row. The scrum is one of Italys few weapons and we have sort of played into their hands.

Granted they out scrummed the all blacks and saffas but still lost both matches.

[againstthehead]

wow, did italy outscrum AB and SA? Sounds impressive. I guess scrum time is a relatively small part of the game nowadays - particuarly when the ref's seem incapable of controlling this aspect of the game. I would have been tempted to play court for the first 40.

I can't see how rory can be out for so long and be expected to come in at 6N level. Seems crazy to me. I'd have played him for 50-60 mins in the A game.

[cables]

Maybe cronin or fogarty should have been put on the bench as match fit replacements.

Perhaps. Any bench player MAY require to come on very early in the game as a replacement. If the player does not have full match fitness the contribution may be less than a match fit player would offer.

I would have liked to have seen 80 minutes at A level for Rory before any senior selection.

[Jackie Brown]

Yeah picked on form, yet TOL and Reddan are ahead of Bossy...

I respect Kidney a lot, but he does spout some rubbish in his quiet little turnip accent.

Classy.

I can't hear a word he says half the time, but he's doing something right

[Rooster]

I would worry more about Flannery returning than Rory, Flannery is back from an injury which may or may not be fully healed but Rory is back from getting his head stuck back onto his shoulders and there is no way the medics would allow it if he was not 100% fit for it, therefore it is really down to if he is up to speed that is in question and not whether his head is liable to fall off in the middle of a scrum.
Great to see Trimble back on form after spending a couple of years suffering from various injuries

[chunky]

Scrum small part of the game these days? I beg to differ- see Leicester Tigers v South Africa to see what a dominant scrum can do to the opposition. I imagine Italys dominant scrum against ABs and SA were one of the main reasons in them maintaining a high degree of respectability in both games.

Back on topic will be very interested to see how Healy goes against Castro (or Perugini) in what will be as tough an examination, if not tougher than the one BJ gave him in the Autumn. Expecting Hayes to struggle in all 6N games, but won't criticise the bigman as i have nothing but respect for him still plugging away and we have no-one to replace him with.

[bogboy]

If you count the number of times a ref actually calls for a scrum it is a small part of the game but if you count the number of times a scrum has to be reset the number of scrums is much bigger.

There is a serious problem come scrum time any prop who considers he is or will be under pressure goes to the deck and/ or
considers he can't or won't be able to put his opposite number under pressure hits the deck. the number of times a srcum drops on the side opposite the put-in is uncanny.

having watched the repeats of the Lions tours of the early 70.s the thing that is most noticeable is the fact that props didn't drop the scrum.

why the f--k they do it now defeats me since 7/10 times the scrum half puts it in to his second row.

I suppose some fat useless props must justify their existance some how.

[againstthehead]

If you count the number of times a ref actually calls for a scrum it is a small part of the game but if you count the number of times a scrum has to be reset the number of scrums is much bigger.

There is a serious problem come scrum time any prop who considers he is or will be under pressure goes to the deck and/ or
considers he can't or won't be able to put his opposite number under pressure hits the deck. the number of times a srcum drops on the side opposite the put-in is uncanny.

having watched the repeats of the Lions tours of the early 70.s the thing that is most noticeable is the fact that props didn't drop the scrum.

why the f--k they do it now defeats me since 7/10 times the scrum half puts it in to his second row.

I suppose some fat useless props must justify their existance some how.

the problem is even if you do have a dominent scrum, it's quite often the attacking side that gets pinged!!!!

[the_unit]

Just saw a pic on the Irish Rugby site of the full squad training at the RDS on Monday and noticed Jamie Smith training with them. Anyone know why he is down there?

[Freddie Benson]

Dizzy mentioned last night that he was down as well.

Think just to get a look in and bit of recognition from the management, encouragement to keep working away and 'your time will come'.

[DHK]

Just saw a pic on the Irish Rugby site of the full squad training at the RDS on Monday and noticed Jamie Smith training with them. Anyone know why he is down there?

There's a lot of pictures of the squad training on http://www.inpho.ie and in them I saw David Kearney and Eoin O'Malley as well, perhaps its something that some of the the academy players get a chance to do, train with the Ireland squad to give them an incentive maybe or to let them know that DK is looking at the talent coming through?

[BR]

not whether his head is liable to fall off in the middle of a scrum.

Just in case, can someone check Law 20 - if it happens can he pick it up, or must he hook it back for the 8 or 9 to recover?