it is the team.
Oh dear Lord. Leaving Leo Cullen out is bordering on criminal and England will now murder us in the front five battle. Shaw had to be brought into the Lions team last summer to mind O’Connell; now Borthwick and himself are going to pulverise Ireland up front. Best’s lack of match fitness and Hayes’ edging ever closer to being past it, if he’s not already, will make this a long day for the front row too. The decision to retain the scrum half is obscene also.
Ah this is a joke. Cullen comes in and outplays O’Connell and now he’s dropped. Bullshit, pure and utter bullshit.
I won’t start on O’Leary but I knew it was going to happen once Stringer and Boss were left out of the 32.
Tony Buckley on the bench - Lord save us all. Our front row is going to be completely murdered on Saturday.
Jennings on the bench is a bad call. Paddy Wallace has done nothing wrong and gets dropped out altogether. I’d say himself and Leo Cullen are a happy duo at the moment.
Hopefully Hayes will just get the 100 caps on Saturday and leave it at that. The poor man owes nothing to anyone but he just can’t keep going. Having Buckley as his backup is a pure joke in the extreme.
Thankfully England are poor at the moment and if we lose it shouldn’t be that embarrassing.
Not arguing Cullen is unlucky, but he can’t replace POC apparently, they are different positions.
Tony Buckley HAS to be down to injury. Otherwise i’m going to question DK for the first time ever. I’d say Court is out though.
Jennings is tactical with Donnacha Ryan out. Only explanation, Wallace is just unlucky.
Wallace is very unlucky alright. As I’ve said on here before he’d be a different player with a running threat inside him. Anyway I can understand that call in terms of balance in the replacements.
Find the second row decision odd at best. Jennings is another who is benefitting from versatility on the bench (and I think Ireland got burned in Paris in this respect). There are better players out there. Think O’Leary is very lucky but the real replacements aren’t in the 22 so no huge complaint.
Court must be injured, didn’t he pick up a knock recently?
I’m curious as to this clamour for Tom Court.
Can someone (Larry?) give us an idea as to how much time he’s actually played at tighthead?
Disappointed to see them start Donncha, while I understand his mobility and grunt have been sadly lacking these past 2 games, I’d be very worried about this knee injury and the fact that he’s been touch and go for a while now.
Following that, the team is as I would have expected. I didnt think he would cast aside TOL so quickly, and to be honest I think he deserves a game with Sexton to see how they go. TOL is obviously the future for now of Irish no 9’s unless Reddan pulls the finger out significantly more than he has already.
After that, the team picks itself, although I’d liked to have seen Cronin in for Best to start with. Either way, he’ll see plenty of it before Saturday is over. I assume Court is injured, although to give Buckley his dues, I saw him play recently for Munster and his scrummaging looked to have come on a bit, and lets be honest, should anyone fear that English front row as scrummaging machine?
Tighthead is Courts favoured and despite playing more at loose he is well capable of playing tight or loose. Would have had Wallace in the 22 ahead of ROG myself. Not sure how Bowe will do on left wing but hopefully he will be just as classy there. Think Murphy, Earls and particularly O’Leary are fortunate to be included while Cullen can be very disappointed not to make the first 15
Bowe is on the right wing
Best has barely played any rugby in past six months while Brady has played superbly.
What are you on about with comments regarding national side? Fooking ridiculous.
I stand corrected. I think I must be watching too much of Against The Head or something.
Tis your field Bull, 100 Caps
[quote=“myboyblue, post: 427849”]
Tis your field Bull[/quote]
Belongs to the RFU I believe.
Congratulations to John Hayes on reaching the superb milestone of 100 caps for his country. 
just thinking out loud larry, no need to take it to heart.
I’ve always been curious as to the attraction for the Ulster contingent, i.e. how would wearing the green jersey compare to the white one (the ulster one I mean)
there seems to be a quasi-nationalistic pride to playing for ulster.
go on so you’ve hooked one, why do you put Ireland in inverted commas?
Well indeed playing for Ulster would be a huge honour given the success of the side historically and there is a provincial pride also which isn’t replicated in the other provnices no matter how much they try to manufacture it. Having said that playing for Ireland is clearer a far bigger deal.
Looking at it from the players’ perspective, the likes of Rob Kearney have previously expressed misgivings about the commitment to the Irish jersey of the Munster contingent. I don’t think any issues have been raised in recent times about Ulster players’ commitment.
SHocked at this team to be honest
A number of puzzling, worrying and crazy choices
Leo dropped is a crazy one, his partner in the second row has plyed worse than him
TOL keeping his place- nuts
Hayes 99 caps or not shouldn’t have started
Murphy at 15 is an odd decision, I would have gone with Earls
Sexton for ROG is the only one he got right
The bench is a joke
Buckley- for fucks sake
Wallace getting dropped is very strange
I don’t know what Deccie is doing but delivering the slam means he gets the benefit of the doubt this once
I’m very worried for us this weekend
The biggest concern with O’Callaghan is his poor discipline. Guaranteed he’ll concede his usual quotient of 2-3 scorable penatlies on Saturday. Its a baffling decision to drop Cullen.