The Rugby Thread (Part 1)

At this stage of Stringer’s career he’ll be of more benefit playing Magners Leagues games, mentoring the Munster 3rd choice scrum half than he would being in a squad where he is the 3rd choice scrum half

BTW Blue, I agree with you in regards to Boss, but I do think he’d get more from being in the Ireland squad than Stringer would

Considering he’s still our 3rd c hoice choice scrum half and he’s still earning a full IRFU contract and given that if one of Reddan or TOL gets injured he’ll be on the bench, I’ll be happy to see him where is is still. Typical Irish thing, toss away experience far too soon. Plenty of coaches in Munster to help out down there, Stringer has a role to play yet.

As for Boss, he’s gotten far more out of Ireland than he should have imo.

[quote=“myboyblue”]Considering he’s still our 3rd c hoice choice scrum half and he’s still earning a full IRFU contract and given that if one of Reddan or TOL gets injured he’ll be on the bench, I’ll be happy to see him where is is still. Typical Irish thing, toss away experience far too soon. Plenty of coaches in Munster to help out down there, Stringer has a role to play yet.

As for Boss, he’s gotten far more out of Ireland than he should have imo.[/quote]
IMVHO 1 of the main reasons Ireland underperformed in the last WC was cause for the previous 4 years we relied too much on expierence and when some players underperformed we didn’t have anyone else to bring on.

Yes, I’m all for giving youth its swing, but I wouldnt throw experience from the squad, which was what you suggested. Bring on TOL, Reddan, but keep Stringer there for what he can offer.

I don’t think we are going to agree on this 1 :slight_smile:

I know exactly what your saying and see your point (which is completly valid), but in my opinion, Stringer would get more benefit from playing matches than training, in fact, he’d even get a game against the All Blacks, where he can play himself back into contention rather than sitting on the bench.

at his age youl never coach the step out of him. He was playing wing and FB before he came to Ulster because he couldnt get a game at scrum half.

Ulster are a shambles, watched both there HEC games and it was actually kind of sad to see how bad they were. its not good for Irish rugby. Case study in poor management, whos fault it is I dont know but they allowed all there best players contracts to expire together at the end of last season and by all accounts there are another 15 expiring at the end of this season.

hard to attract players up there as well, previosuly the sterling would have blinded a lot of players to how shite they were.

Some seriously disruptive influences in the squad as well in the past few years and there would have been a lot of players maybe not pulling in the same direction. Williams wants out badly Id say. They need a strong disciplinarian to take over and bring them back to basics. I think they will really struggle to leapfrog Connacht in mag lge and if they didnt qualify for the HEC it would be a disaster for them.

There signings this year were poor as well. Early days to tell maybe but some real shockers there!

[quote=“myboyblue”]What drugs are you on?!!! Boss is fucking muck, putting him in the squad over Stringer would be a slap in the face to an experienced campaigner. Stringer has gotten pucks of game time this year and has shown himself to be as asolid a campaigner as ever, the only problem being, that TOL offers more than him, simple as that.

I wouldnt let Boss muck out pigs.[/quote]

thin stringers form has been very poor myself MBB, he was brutal against Montabaun, looked like he has started taking a step himself!

I thought he’d be going well up til the Mont game though. He wasn’t the only fella to have a mare that day, nt looking at anyone in particular Rog.

you can only piss with the dick your given and Stringer was horsing out some fair manure that night. He threw some shockers, he fired one at ROG from about 10 feet that would have hit a man 30 feet away, ROG dropped it and gave stringer some filthy loook! interestingly ROG was not very subtle in his opinion of Strings in the book, proffessional relationship only id say

Think thats a given at this stage re ROB and Strings relationship. Anyways, prior to the Mont game I woulda been pleasantly impressed with Stringers development from his horror show of last season.

I think we’re both on the same page anyway, the turd in trap three would be a better passer of a ball than Boss.

I’ve been to Ravenhill a few times for matches, I would nearly go as far as to say it’s my favourite venue for a match, they have a real family atmosphere going on up there (and a great beer tent) but politics have really messed them up up there. I have heard that the players are taxed up there whereas down here they aren’t, so the players get the standard IRFU contract but end up getting less that all the rest that play in the Republic

Ya bang on they dont benefit from the 10 year tax rule.

Have been inravenhill to see Ulster a few times, good venue alright. Heading there Sat for the Munster game so that should be a proper atmosphere

I’ll continue to refer to these games as the Autumn Internationals despite the thread title thank you very much.

Is there no way players up there can benefit from same tax exemption as the rest of the country and just move administration of Ulster Rugby to Cavan, Monaghan or Donegal while still playing matches at Ravenhill. Been a real pity over last few years that Ulster haven’t reached their potential. Historically they have probably been the most succesful of Irish provinces but have been real poor over last eight years or so when we could have done with a few more players in key positions.

The are past HEC* and Celtic League champions, only Irish team to win both

No discussion of the reduced Irish squad named on Friday on here yet. 34 man panel is:

Backs:
Tommy Bowe (Ospreys)
Ian Dowling (Shannon – Munster)
Girvan Dempsey (Terenure College – Leinster)
Keith Earls (Young Munster – Munster)
Luke Fitzgerald (Blackrock College – Leinster)
Shane Horgan (Boyne – Leinster)
Robert Kearney (UCD – Leinster)
Geordan Murphy (Leicester)
Brian O’Driscoll (UCD – Leinster) (capt)
Ronan O’Gara (Cork Constitution – Munster)
Tomas O’Leary (Dolphin – Munster)
Eoin Reddan (Wasps)
Jonathan Sexton (St. Mary’s College – Leinster)
Peter Stringer (Shannon – Munster)
Andrew Trimble (Ballymena – Ulster)
Paddy Wallace (Ballymena – Ulster)

Forwards:Rory Best (Banbridge – Ulster)
Tony Buckley (Shannon – Munster)
Ryan Caldwell (Dungannon – Ulster)
Stephen Ferris (Dungannon – Ulster)
Jerry Flannery (Shannon – Munster)
John Hayes (Bruff– Munster)
Cian Healy (Clontarf – Leinster)
Jamie Heaslip (Naas – Leinster)
Marcus Horan (Shannon – Munster)
Bernard Jackman (Clontarf – Leinster)
Shane Jennings (St. Mary’s College – Leinster)
Denis Leamy (Cork Constitution – Munster)
Donncha O’Callaghan (Cork Constitution – Munster)
Paul O’Connell (Young Munster – Munster)
Mick O’Driscoll (Cork Constitution – Munster)
Alan Quinlan (Shannon – Munster)
Donnacha Ryan (Shannon – Munster)
David Wallace (Garryowen – Munster)

O’Kelly the big absentee really.

did he play minor for Armagh??? :frowning: :smiley:

seeing as Dungannon is in Tyrone quite unlikely :smiley:

oh so parish rule applies to rugby does it?..what part of templeogue did Brent pope come from when he played for Marys or even Brian o’ Meara with lansdowne??..:smiley: