Presume the likes of Healy, O’Connell, O’Brien, Ferris & O’Driscoll will be rapped in cotton wool and will sit out the Russia game. Give that it is a week away and a further week to Italy it would probably be in the best interest of Bowe and Kearney to play to get some more gametime under their belts.
Team of
Kearney
Bowe
McFadden
Wallace
Trimble
O’Gara
Murray
Heaslip
Jennings
Leamy
Cullen
O’Callaghan
Ross
Best
Court
With the likes of Murphy, Buckley and Cronin getting a run in the second half
Larry, ITV’s coverage wasn’t bad but as usual with terrestrial TV coverage of sport from the UK it was bland enough all the same and lads far too interested in agreeing with each other. Alan Quinlan and Girvan Dempsey are both very good from an Irish point of view and give good perspective as well having been involved not too long ago
Wouldnt be surprised to see Wallace getting a start at 10 with ROG on the bench in case the wheels come off, that would give him a chance to give McFadden a game at 12 because it looks like that position may be up for grabs now if Darcy is out for a spell. Other than that Donnacha Ryan will probably get a start, so will Buckley and youd have to think so will Cronin who needs game time now that he is no 2. They may also bring someone out for Darcy.
That doesn’t look like a team Kidney would pick all the same Dan unless there are injuries aside from D’arcy between this and then. He will play either Earls or McFadden at 13 not Bowe and I can’t see him starting Wallace at 10 either or Murphy on the wing.
AUCKLAND: It doesn’t get any more embarrassing than this for Australian rugby. The Wallabies were yet again shown to be second-rate by one of the also-rans of world rugby.
It is indeed and it is building too with this victory. There was a nice feature on RTE news with pictures of fans watching the match in Dungannon Rugby Club. Will be repeated at nine I imagine.
Clip on the news alright from interview where he was even more emotional than earlier talking bout wife and kids and said there was only another few weeks with this team for him
Yeah that’s all I saw. Stupid UPC stopped recording the RTE version early so missed a load of the interviews so wasn’t sure if it had been shown earlier.
I’ll be accused of anti-Munster bias here but it’s nothing of the sort. It’s hugely encouraging to see Healy and Ross completely dominating an opposition front row from a leading nation. It was rare that with Horan and Hayes we were ever able to show the same sort of dominance on opponents scrums and it was more about survival but the current situation is a completely new thing for us. Horan and Hayes were both fine players in their own right and gave fantastic service to their country but Healy and Ross have really stepped it up to the next level.
They showed glimpses of what they’re capable of at times in the Heineken Cup last season but today was even better. It’s massively encouraging as there was a time for a while when we worried who would step forward when Hayes and Horan retired. Healy only turns 24 in a couple of weeks so there’s a good 10 years left in him and hopefully he can continue to improve and become one of the worlds best props.
As a former prop myself I think talking about them in isolation is a bit like talking about the Presidency Of Ireland without talking about the great Labhras O’Murchu. It just shouldn’t be done.
Without wanting to be a wet blanket this Australian scrum isn’t world class at all. They were nearly driven over their own line by Italy last weekend, who are good scrummagers themselves obviously.
It’s certainly an improvement and it’s a long time since Ireland could even enjoy parity against anyone in the scrums and there’s presumably far more to come from Healy. But the opposition do provide some context and Ireland won’t be as dominant against any other contender for the World Cup.
If you read back through my post Rocko you’ll notice I never mentioned they were world class.
I remember a 6 man Australian scrum shoving us around in Croke Park a couple of Novembers ago - can’t remember who our front row was then. Healy may have been involved.
