Fairly sweeping statement there, you sound like a reasonable man, do you have a newsletter I can subscribe to?
Oh Iām just following your lead MBB.
A follower.
Good man, repeat after meā¦
His name is Robert Paulson.
His name is Tyler Durden?
Ever see the Limerick Leprechauns play ?
[quote=āA2LUE42ā]Its not often that I would have issues with irish players being selected, but the selections here are questionable at best.
Earls - Great player and a rising talent. best fullback available? No
MOK - Past his prime
BOD - Always there or there abouts.
Luke F - Unproven at the highest levels, Like Earls he is a great player and a rising talent. Will be lucky to be in the centre for Leinster.
Time will tellā¦[/quote]
Agreed with all above, maybe there is a bit more life in MOK than you think though, hehas looked good both times I saw him.
Note though that this is a Lions team picked on best form from previous weeks games, not the likely Lions team. So on the basis that it is a team of the week its hard to argue with the inclusion of the only two hat trick scorers.
No fear of Keith, anywhere thereās a few bob to be madeā¦
Wood joins board at London Irish
Former Ireland and Lions hooker Keith Wood has become a director of Guinness Premiership club London Irish.
The former Ireland captain takes up his role with immediate effect and is joined by fellow newcomer Nigel Northridge, a 52-year-old businessman.
Exiles chairman Andrew Coppel said he was delighted āsuch high-calibre individuals are keen to devote their valuable time to our affairsā.
Wood won 58 Ireland caps and played in five Lions Tests.
Wonder will it give Eddie an in if Smith moves off full time?
i saw that on ceefax earlier and was a bit surprised considering that keith is just after moving back home from englandā¦
Directors a cushy enough job to be fair, you could do it from an armchair if you wanted. Considering Woodie never had many links with Irish I thought it was odd meself.
munsters team for the weekend:
D Hurley; D Howlett, L Mafi, R Tipoki, I Dowling; R OāGara, P Stringer; T Buckley, J Flannery, J Hayes; P OāConnell capt, M OāDriscoll; D Ryan, N Ronan, J Melck;
Replacements: D Fogarty, F Pucciariello, J OāSullivan, A Quinlan, M Prendergast, J Manning, B Murphy.
great to see hurley and ronan start while quinlan and hayes are back from injuryā¦
a bit of a mixed bag of a performance saturday evening by munsterā¦great start with ronan popping up for a try but we didnāt really get going til the second half once cardiff lost a man to the sin binā¦
positives:
lifeimi mafi was excellent and just does everything with a touch of classā¦hope he goes back to new zealand in a year or two(once he wins another heineken cup) and wins some caps for the all blacks as he has the abilityā¦
paul o connell had a good game in the loose and tipoki and howlett were solid as alwaysā¦melck got a try and went through plenty of work but whether he has the intelligence and footballing abilities needed remains to be seenā¦
negatives:
the lineout was poor yet again and needs to be sorted A.S.A.Pā¦barry murphy is not a wingerā¦too many stupid errors and hurley seems to have no confidence under a high ball ā¦
From Breakingnews.ie
Broken arm for Leinsterās Nacewa Print
Leinsterās Isa Nacewa will be out for at least two months with a broken arm, it has been announced.
āItās a shame for Isa but at least we have good options with the other boys,ā coach Michael Cheika said.
"Weād hope to have Isa back for that Magners game (against the Dragons) on the 29th if everything goes OK.
āHe did it late in the game and I asked him when he was walking off what was wrong and he said: āI think Iāve broken my arm!ā He had to make that last tackle like that so heās a pretty tough character.ā
Thats a pity for them, but it might give the irish lads more gametime.
Good news for Sexton, tough break for Nacewa though. One hardy boy, heās the real deal too from what Iāve seen so far.
With regards to Munster, Denis Hurley is in serious need of some high catch coaching. The boys still living the nightmare of Cardiff.
hard luck on Leinster, because he looks a class act, however, I reckon Johnny Sexton will have a wry smile on his face this morning.
Munster match was exciting, and they played well in patches, but as Puke said the lineout was very poor. Hurley was shakey but only after he shipped a heavy elbow to the head, and I reckon he was concussed, he had been playing well up to that point. Mafi was great in fairness, and Niall Ronan had a very good game. Melck looks decent but still when Leamy is fit and Williams get going he will be surplus to requirements and may not be needed post his 3 month contract.
[quote=āThe Pukeā]a bit of a mixed bag of a performance saturday evening by munsterā¦great start with ronan popping up for a try but we didnāt really get going til the second half once cardiff lost a man to the sin binā¦
positives:
lifeimi mafi was excellent and just does everything with a touch of classā¦hope he goes back to new zealand in a year or two(once he wins another heineken cup) and wins some caps for the all blacks as he has the abilityā¦
paul o connell had a good game in the loose and tipoki and howlett were solid as alwaysā¦melck got a try and went through plenty of work but whether he has the intelligence and footballing abilities needed remains to be seenā¦
negatives:
the lineout was poor yet again and needs to be sorted A.S.A.Pā¦barry murphy is not a wingerā¦too many stupid errors and hurley seems to have no confidence under a high ball ā¦[/quote]
Good win alright considering the average perfromance, Cardiff are a good side though to be fair.
Il come back to the match later but Mafi for the All Blacks? Cant agree with that Puke.
He has improved 100% since he got here but there would nearly need to be the same improvement again I think. Its a problem position for the AB in fairness but hes not phyiscal enough i dont think and his distribution is slightly above average and he cant kick to save his life and this will hold him back i think.
Dont get me wrong, id love to see it happening for him. He has brought something to Munster back play, serious ambition going forward and always looking for the offload but I dont think he is close to being All Black quality.
Enthusiasm and energy will take you so far but hes missing a few core skills IMHOā¦saying that if he imrpvoes as much this season and next season as he has up to now he might have a squeak alrightā¦but thats a big ask.
I met the bhoy at lunch to discuss Leinsterās early season form and the injury to Nacewa. We came to a consensus that heās not good enough to get into our best backsā unit if everyoneās available but heāll be a miss at the moment seeing as DāArcyās injured. If we have a full deck to choose from then I think we should be going for: 10. Contepomi, 11. Kearney, 12. DāArcy, 13. OāDriscoll, 14. Fitzgerald, 15. Dempsey. Still, we should be more than strong enough to dispose of Munster at home next Sunday even with our current problems and Iād expect to see Horgan in the centre.
Iād love to see Horgan in the centre for that game. Slow, up the middle, bump.
But seriously, Dāarcy is not going to be first choice unless he is involved in some sort of miracle this season. I cant see him getting back to what he was and even at that I would put a lot of the previous success he has was due to him being unknown and a lot of the focus being on OāDriscoll.
Youāre right about Horgan now that I think about it. Iād shunt him out to the wing and play Luke Fitzgerald in the centre. It should be an entertaining prospect having the two best young back prospects in Irish rugby on the one pitch in a big game and I expect both of them to deliver. And out of the two itās hard to tell at present whether Fitzgerald or Kearney will become the better player over the next 5 years. Great to have such an embarrassment of riches in our squad though.
Bandage, you are seriously misinformed if you believe DāArcy, Dempsey and Horgan(as a centre) are first line backs this season.
As Dan has said previously, and I concur, this is the first year i can say i would take munster 9-15 & 20-22 over the leinster equivalent.
A pointless excercise would be the follwing (taking sunday likely lineups).
Oāleary - Whitaker
OāGara - Sexton
Dowling - Horgan
Mafi - Comteponi
Tipoki - OāDriscoll
Howlett - Fitzgerald
Earls - Dempsey
Stringer - Keane
Warwick - ā¦ (leinster will most likely pick 5 forwards on bench)
Hurley - Kearney
Obviously on current form Munster shade that 5 1/2 to 1 1/2 (ryder cup scoring) on the 9-15 and 2-1 on the bench.
:[quote=āBandageā]Youāre right about Horgan now that I think about it. Iād shunt him out to the wing and play Luke Fitzgerald in the centre. It should be an entertaining prospect having the two best young back prospects in Irish rugby on the one pitch in a big game and I expect both of them to deliver. And out of the two itās hard to tell at present whether Fitzgerald or Kearney will become the better player over the next 5 years. Great to have such an embarrassment of riches in our squad though.[/quote]
Stick to the soccerball you Leinster gobshite http://www.thefreekick.com/board/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif