This thread discusses the Content article: [url=http://www.thefreekick.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&Itemid=67&id=77]Rugby Squad Takes Shape
Actually seems that O’Sullivan is going for a 16-14 split and not 17-13 which means an extra back. I think Duffy will get a spot so and then it’s impossible to call among the loose forwards but I suppose next Saturday against Scotland will reveal all.
Team to face Scotland:
15 - Geordan Murphy Leicester (48)
14 - Brian Carney Clonakilty/Munster (2)
13 - Brian ODriscoll Captain UCD/Leinster (74)
12 - Gavin Duffy Galwegians/Connacht (6)
11 - Tommy Bowe Belfast Harlequins/Ulster (9)
10 - Paddy Wallace Ballymena/Ulster (4)
9 - Isaac Boss Ballymena/Ulster (8)
1 - Bryan Young Ballymena/Ulster (7)
2 - Jerry Flannery Shannon/Munster (15)
3 - Simon Best Belfast Harlequins/Ulster (18)
4 - Malcolm OKelly St.Marys College/Leinster (85)
5 - Paul OConnell Young Munster/Munster (43)
6 - Neil Best Belfast Harlequins/Ulster (12)
7 - Stephen Ferris Dungannon/Ulster (3)
8 - Jamie Heaslip Clontarf/Leinster (2)
Replacements:
16 - Rory Best Belfast Harlequins/Ulster (12)
17 - John Hayes Bruff/Munster (73)
18 - Alan Quinlan Shannon/Munster (24)
19 - Keith Gleeson St.Marys College/Leinster (26)
20 - Eoin Reddan Wasps (2)
21 - Ronan OGara Cork Constitution/Munster (71)
22 - Shane Horgan Lansdowne/Leinster (55)
Conclusions:
Hard to read too much into that match today.
BACKS:
Murphy was quality. Nearly everything he did was first class. Looked full of confidence and assured under the high ball.
Of the wingers Carney showed much better early on and took up some good ball. Bowe was more involved in the second half but he seems less disciplined as a defender and I thought Carney looked the better overall.
Didn’t see much or anything of Duffy or O’Driscoll really. Duffy will get a spot by all accounts anyway.
Wallace was poor at out half really. He has a half decent break but he overuses it sometimes I think which meant our backs were denied possession when we were killing them out wide when we held our running lines. His kicking from hand was shocking - he looked like he was deliberately picking out Rory Lamont with all his kicks. Still we’ve no alternative but we’d be fecked without ROG.
Didn’t like Boss at all at scrum half. The panel were getting on his back about the steps he was taking before passing and rightly so. It was a joke and it’s the worst trait a scrum half can have. I much prefer the look of Reddan. Boss also was very hit and miss with his tackles. He went for a couple of big hits where he ended up getting nothing. Stringer’s defence is so much better because he realises his limitations and if he has to take a guy low that’s what he does.
FORWARDS:
The pack were more worrying. Front row went backwards all day and there was nothing positive to say about the props really. Flannery’s throwing in the first half was poor but he improved as the game went on and he did show a bit around the park.
O’Connell was very good in the second row and he looked hungry for action - carried an awful lot of close-in ball. O’Kelly and Quinlan didn’t really do much alongside him.
Back row were disappointing. Heaslip showed his experience at being comfortable behind a retreating scrum but that was about it from him. Ferris put in one cracking hit in the first half but that was about it from him. Best was about the same (getting a bit worried about his form now but I dthink it’s probably hard to give it your all when you know you have the place in the squad anyway).
Didn’t like the way they made very easy yards around the fringes of the rucks and mauls. We seemed to concede 4 or 5 yards on every carry and only worried about stopping them dead when they got near the line. Their back row in particular destroyed us in the first half.
Biggest positive from the game was that if our second team are so much worse than our first team and our second team were reasonably competitive against Argentina then our first XV should beat them.
Squad has been picked:
Forwards (16):
Name Club/Province
Neil Best Belfast Harlequins/Ulster
Rory Best Belfast Harlequins/Ulster
Simon Best Belfast Harlequins/Ulster
Simon Easterby Llanelli
Stephen Ferris Dungannon/Ulster
Jerry Flannery Shannon/Munster
John Hayes Bruff/Munster
Marcus Horan Shannon/Munster
Denis Leamy Cork Constitution/Munster
Donncha OCallaghan Cork Constitution/Munster
Paul OConnell Young Munster/Munster
Malcolm OKelly St.Marys College/Leinster
Alan Quinlan Shannon/Munster
Frankie Sheahan Cork Constitution/Munster
David Wallace Garryowen/Munster
Bryan Young Ballymena/Ulster
Backs (14):
Isaac Boss Ballymena/Ulster
Brian Carney Clonakilty/Munster
Gordon DArcy Lansdowne/Leinster
Girvan Dempsey Terenure College/Leinster
Gavin Duffy Galwegians/Connacht
Denis Hickie St. Marys College/Leinster
Shane Horgan Lansdowne / Leinster
Geordan Murphy Leicester
Brian ODriscoll Captain UCD/Leinster
Ronan OGara Cork Constitution/Munster
Eoin Reddan Wasps
Peter Stringer Shannon/Munster
Andrew Trimble Ballymena/Ulster
Paddy Wallace Ballymena/Ulster
Carney gets the wing spot ahead of Bowe and Quinlan and Ferris get the forwards spots. No Mick O’Driscoll means Quinlan is a second row more than flanker. Not sure how useful a second row he is but considering O’Sullivan was selecting at least one utility forward (by going for a 16-14 split) then I’d much prefer Quinlan as a second row than O’Driscoll as a back row forward.
Thought Paul Dean would have got in ahead of Paddy Wallace.
O’Sullivan’s arguing that when it came down to it he went for versatility and its hard to argue with that as a guiding principle.
There wasn’t much between Ferris and Heaslip, so I suppose Ferris has played in more positions. I think he’s really a six though and if you want lack of versatility how are ya Neil Best? I thought Best had a shocker on Saturday, played off the park by Jason White and was virtually anonymous. He’s lost form badly and has basically just hung on in there on the form from last autumn.
After the last World Cup O’Sullivan made a couple of comments about rugby being more and more like war and being decided by strength and power. I think Ferris has benefitted from that outlook. He may be built like a South African backrow but in any game I’ve seen he hasn’t really done anything special. Mind you, the whole backrow failed to put their hands up on Saturday including Heaslip.
Decision to leave Mick O’Driscoll a blessed relief and I don’t think anybody would begrudge Alan Quinlan his place on the plane.
One thing I would say, there’s a lot more fellas in the backrow places who aren’t afraid of a bit of dirt and you wonder if he could be thinking about a horses for courses Argentina selection. That’s basically how Quinlan got in last time. You’d have no shrinking violets in a Ferris, Best, Leamy backrow with Quinlan on the bench.
Can’t argue with Carney. Bowe is just a lesser version of Hickie and Carney offers you something different. Not sure how likely Duffy is to play and if there’s going to be a passenger I’d prefer it to be Luke Fitzgerald but there you go.
We’ve Quinlan, Ferris, Easterby, Best all as blind side flankers with Leamy very comfortable there. He’s certainly gone for bulk over creativity in the back row but I’m not sure that’s the way to beat Argentina and the likes. Certainly a few scrappers in there alright and you’re probably right in that Argentina must have been a consideration.
Scottish back row destroyed us on Saturday and Ferris and Best are still going on the Tour. Putting Leamy alongside them instead of Heaslip would be an improvement but it’s worrying how outclassed we were. Neil Best is falling way behind the other trio in the first team. He was sensational in the autumn but he looks far removed from that at the moment.
Jesus, you’re right. We’re bringing five players who are really number sixes. That’s crazy. Each of them might be a better individual player than Keith Gleeson but you can’t pick a squad on that basis.
I can’t believe how much I’ve become my dad and I don’t normally get worked up about these things, but Isaac Boss’s hair is a fucking disgrace.
It’s embarassing.
Boss has awful hair alright to go with his shocking pass. It’s less important for a back than a forward I know but I still hate seeing players with white boots or a fancy scrum cap or something that distinguishes them to the referee. You really want to just blend in when you’re around rucks and mauls.
32-6 to Ireland against Bayonne so far.
Tries from:
Hickie x2
O’Connell x2
Trimble
First Half Updates: Ireland, playing in blue as it is a not an international game, made an impressive start with Ronan O’Gara landing a first-minute penalty, chipping over from a central position from 25 metres out.
A first try soon followed with good lineout possession seeing Paul O’Connell driven over in the corner in the eighth-minute. Gordon D’Arcy was very prominent in the build-up as he raced from the halfway line up the Bayonne 22 to set up a good position for the Irish to attack from.
An O’Gara crossfield kick paved the way for Denis Hickie to brilliantly run in Ireland’s second try, 11 minutes in. The Leinster winger gathered it and darted from his own ten-metre line right to the try line, evading two would-be tacklers on his way. O’Gara converted for a 15-0 scoreline.
Bayonne then had lock Mikaera Tewhata sin-binned, but the numerical advantage was squared up when Irish flanker Neil Best also saw yellow coming up to the half-hour mark. The French hosts managed to get their first points on the scoreboard when Richard Dourthe bisected the posts with a penalty, as Ireland, with most of the players playing together for the first time since the spring, predictably lost their shape a little.
Denis Leamy was forced off with an unconfirmed injury in the 37th-minute, with his Munster team-mate Alan Quinlan replacing him and he had an immediate impact as it was his long pass which led to Andrew Trimble skating over for Ireland’s third try in injury-time. O’Gara narrowly missed with the conversion attempt - Bayonne had, just minutes earlier, notched another successful penalty through Dourthe. Half-time - Bayonne 6 Ireland 20.
Second Half Updates: Ireland shoot out of the blocks again at the start of the half, scoring two tries in the space of six minutes with Hickie and O’Connell again off the mark. Two minutes after the resumption, Hickie danced his way over the close to the right touchline for a 25-6 Irish lead.
Five minutes later, Ireland again carved open the hosts’ defence. In arguably the try of the night, the charge forward was led by prop Marcus Horan who made his way up to the Bayonne 22 before he offloaded when being tackled for the supporting O’Connell who showed great pace and strength to hold off the challenge of Daniel Larrechea and cross the whitewash. O’Gara tagged on the extras for a 32-6 buffer.
O’Gara’s second penalty of the night moves Ireland further clear. Word from the Ireland camp is that Leamy injured his shoulder but it is too early to say how serious an injury it is. In what was a bruising encounter, Ireland captain Brian O’Driscoll was forced off in the 61st-minute having been punched in the face by a Bayonne player.
But Ireland let their rugby do the talking and completed a six-try success four minutes from time when the on-form Hickie ran in his third try with O’Gara making it a seven-pointer. A full match report will follow. Full-time - Bayonne 6 Ireland 42.
Worrying about Leamy. I’m sure O’Driscoll is alright if it’s just a punch he was on the end of but it sounds like it was a tough game. No harm really considering we’ve 2 handy games at the start of the tournament.
Yeah, we’re on a different peformance trajectory (just made that up). We’re looking to start to peak on the third weekend of the World Cup, whereas France and Argentina play each other in the first game.
Essentially two of our warm-up games happen to be technically included as World Cup matches.
It’s funny, you worry more about the likes O’Driscoll or O’Gara injuring themselves in a warm-up game than you would in a normal game.
Looks like O’Driscoll got a decent smack for himself anyway:
RTE are reporting that he’s got a fractured cheekbone. Not good news.
Is the World Cup still going ahead?
Bandage wrote:
Is the World Cup still going ahead?
Of a sort Bandage but it’ll be like the OC after Marissa left.
Freaking disaster for Ireland because we fall apart a bit without him, as evidenced against France in the Six Nations. Not just in regular decision making, where O’Connell and O’Gara tend to egg each other on too much, but in defensive backs alignment and attack, where all of our moves are basically implicitly based upon the threat of the ball going to him.
Five yellow cards, so sounds like a filthy game. Nevermind the whole France in our group shite. Club team against an international team with no cameras or sanction either probably because it wasn’t in any competition or even a full representative game. Probably not the safest option in retrospect.
Yeah I didn’t really think it was a great idea but then I warmed to it but knowing about the lack of suspensions and everything it was a recipe for disaster.
Sky are saying he’s out of the World Cup apparently but they couldn’t know for sure at this stage so they’re obviously just sensationalising it.
Eurosport saying it’s a fracture:
Ireland captain Brian O’Driscoll has been taken to hospital with a fractured cheekbone after being punched during Ireland’s match with Bayonne on Thursday night, according to a spokesman for the French club.
Centre O’Driscoll, considered one of the world’s best backs, was forced to leave the pitch during the second half of his side’s 42-6 win at Stade Jean Dauger after being struck by lock Mikaera Tewhata.
A Bayonne spokesman confirmed coach Eddie O’Sullivan’s worst fears after the match, although the Irish camp would not be drawn on the extent of O’Driscoll’s injury until after further hospital tests are conducted this evening.
The IRFU are expected to release a statement on O’Driscoll later tonight, and with Ireland’s first game in the forthcoming World Cup just 24 days away, his participation now appears to be in doubt.
There was better news concerning flanker Denis Leamy, who was also taken off during the match with a shoulder injury, with an Ireland spokesman confirming his problem is not serious.
If it’s true it’s an absolute disaster.
I don’t follow rugby and didn’t know we were playing a French club side tonight until I heard about it on the radio earlier.
But how stupid was it to play a French side with France being in our group?
Say Dublin and Meath get to the All Ireland Final over the next two Sundays. I doubt you’ll see Pillar Caffrey arranging a warm up game for the Dubs a few weeks before the final up in Meath against Navan O’Mahony’s or someone.
Why? Because (and no offence to them) there’d more than likely be a load of the club players lining up to have a rattle at the Dublin players.
Though I don’t like rugby I appreciate what a genuinely superb talent O’Driscoll is. It’d be an awful shame if he was out, espcecially after his experience on the Lions Tours a while back too.
Post edited by: Bandage, at: 2007/08/17 00:17
Another Kiwi. What ever you think about him, and obviously loads of people absolutely hate him, its freaking well harsh to for him to miss the world cup because of another piece of dirty play.
This guy from the leinsterfans website amuses me:
"does anyne know if the ba****d Mikaera Tewhata was binned or sent off, or did the ref miss it?.. It is a despicable, shameful act to deliberately target someone in this way, but then, is it not what we expect from Kiwi’s, if we recall the spear tackle from the Lions tour.
cheats…dirty cheats…
mind you, could have been put up to it by the French…guess we will never know.
on a more positive note, I have found what I think is Mikaera Tewhata phone number on the web - just google him and go to page 2…guess there could be another fella by this name in South West France I suppose!!!"
Turn a negative situation into positive action eh?