Snipe Watson wrote:Bart S wrote:If beagle and Ruan are away then it's a great opportunity for Heaney to show what he can do.
That’s making the assumption that he can do the job and I’m not convinced.
I think there is a big difference between improvement and excellence. beagle is showing the former, but not yet the latter. As BR said on another post, his speed and energy do make up for some of his short comings, but I don’t think he is international class yet.
Having said that, class IQ 9s are scarce as hens teeth.............
Fair point Snipe, but if you've said only a few months ago that an Ulster starting XV including McComish, Henderson, beagle and PJ would have been gutted not to get a 4 try BP in the Heiny against a french team I think most of us would not have believed it.
What I'm saying is that the ingredients are there for Heaney to give it a go - ie a reasonable pack to play behind and a team with some confidence. Don't forget we'll be playing against weaker sides as well. This is his chance to provide he's worth a further look at - I'm certainly not saying he's Heiny material yet, but worth a go against understrength Rabo teams if beagle and Ruan are away. He won't be surrounded by a bunch of novices with no hope of winning, as may have been the case last season.
As foe beagle, I agree he's not a world beater at 9, but like you say, the quality of Irish 9's is pretty poor at the minute and IMHO he's shown himself to be as worthy of a go as the rest of them.