Shane Jenningsesque…
No need to be posting up pics of The Runt here Julio
Disgraceful yet unexpected.
Do you mean “not unexpected” there Bandage?
No way Best, DO’C or Leamy should be selected. Best has been in and out of Ulster side with injuries and hasn’t really played well all season. If I was picking an Ulster side tomorrow I’d have Brady of him. Selection of latter two is particularly baffling though. How is DO’C in there ahead of Cullen? Tuohy too should be well ahead of him in the pecking order. Leamy hasn’t come close to matching form of Jennings or Faloon.
I meant what I meant.
I would think that all three have been picked in the hope that they play themselves into form somewhat…Best needs the gametime and I’d would presume management didn’t want to start with a front of Healy-Cronin-Ross as it lacks a bit of experience and leadership…Cullen can definately feel very hard done by…With Wallace the only one of the preferred back row for the past couple of seasons available he was always going to start at 7, especially with O’Brien’s form at 8 in recent weeks, Leamy is the most experienced blind side available, wouldn’t have much complaint if Mcloughlin started at 6 but he is only back from injury…
We should have enough to get past Italy by 15 points or thereabouts given their injury woes and our record in Rome, wouldn’t be surprised if they are a few changes to the team the next day, especially if it is a somewhat flat performance
Will Carling-what a dickhead :rolleyes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PL_aak-QDws#
A fucking travesty of a selection
Fitz and Earls both exceptionally lucky to be starting,
TOL [size=“6”]FFS[/size] it would be comical if it was some other country’s team
DOC and Leamy [size=“6”]FFS[/size] again both have played themselves out of the team,
I wonder why Kidney dislikes Leo so much- he had great games in the first two 6 nations last year only to be inexplicably dropped and now he can’t even get on the team…
And I forgot not picking Cronin… Jesus what a shite team selection
Is Leamy not picked at 6? Both Jennings and Faloon are sevens primarily so picking either would have meant playing Wallace at 8 and SOB at 6. Unnecessary I would have thought to make two changes to back row where neither of the others is likely to be as effective. I would imagine if there wasnt as many enforced changes McLaughlin or Ruddock may have come into the reckoning. Leamy is blessed based on his form no doubt. Cant understand the DOC selection. Has been very poor for Munster and looks like could do with a break/kick in the hole, take your pick.
Agree Best is a strange choice. Would have gone with Cronin Varley. Tuhoy is injured isnt he?
Should beat Italy with that side. I think they are without Parrisse based on an interview in Tribune last weekend, also Bergamasco and Gower are out, would have beat them with all three so should have more than enough with them missing. Looking forward to seeing the back three in action.
See my other post for opinion on most. Agree re form of Earls and Fitz but with all the injuries (Kearney, Bowe, Murphy, Horgan, Trimble) there was no choices. Could suggest Duffy/Carr but neither are in the plans for the WC (rightly so) so why pick them now. If we are down to playing Duffy at FB in the WC we might as well not go so worth a chance with Luke.
TOL is horses for courses. In shocking shocking form though. Stringer must be fairly sickened at this stage. All 4 of main candidates should have been in the mix realistically.
Mike Tindall has been named England captain and Northampton flanker Tom Wood will make his England debut in Friday’s RBS 6 Nations opener against Wales in Cardiff, the RFU confirmed today.
Johnson said of the new man: 'It’s a chance for Tom to come and play. Would he have got there with all the guys fit? He probably wouldn’t, but he’s worth a look and worth his place - he was very impressive in the autumn when he came in and the way he’s playing, most importantly, with his club, he’s a pretty impressive player.
'It’s not great to have guys injured but great to get Tom on the field in a big-time Test match. He’s 24, 25, so he’s not in his first year of it, he’s got a bit of experience.
'Tom’s good in the breakdown, even though he’s an aerial player, Louis Deacon is also a good all-round player, very good at the breakdown and very good organisationally in the line-out, so I think we’re fine.
‘We’ve got good carrying ability in that back five as well with James (Haskell) coming in, all those back-row guys are slightly different and it is a good combination we’ve got.’
Tindall got the nod ahead of Nick Easter as captain, but Johnson backed the latter to marshal the pack and inexperienced scrum-half Ben Youngs.
He said: 'Nick will do a good job leading the forwards, he’s closer in to the play there and will give us direction with Ben and Toby (Flood) at 10.
‘Mike’s a good captain, very experienced, but if he’s not there we’ve got Nick, Louis Deacon who’s had a real good week as well - it’s good to have him back and in good form.’
Talk of the World Cup later in the year has featured prominently in the build-up to the game, but Johnson is refusing to look too far ahead.
‘We want to push in competitions, which we always do,’ Johnson said.
'If we win (the game) then great, if not we’ll take our medicine and play from there. Despite what’s happening later in the year - we all know about that - the Six Nations tournament as a stand-alone, if there were no other games for six months, it would still be a big game.
‘The Six Nations is a great tournament and it’s also five stand-alone important Test matches. We’ve got to go out there and perform with real tempo in what we do, real accuracy, real passion - that’ll put us in a good place.’
England team to play Wales in the RBS 6 Nations at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff on Friday, February 4 (kick-off 7.45pm):
B Foden (Northampton Saints); C Ashton (Northampton Saints), M Tindall (Gloucester, capt), S Hape (Bath), M Cueto (Sale Sharks); T Flood (Leicester Tigers), B Youngs (Leicester Tigers); A Sheridan (Sale Sharks), D Hartley (Northampton Saints), D Cole (Leicester Tigers), L Deacon (Leicester Tigers), T Palmer (Stade Francais), T Wood (Northampton Saints), J Haskell (Stade Francais), N Easter (Harlequins).
Replacements: S Thompson (Leeds Carnegie), D Wilson (Bath), S Shaw (Wasps), J Worsley (Wasps), D Care (Harlequins), J Wilkinson (Toulon), M Banahan (Bath).
Scrum aside it looks an average enough side, very few standout top class players
Tindall seems like an alright sort
L McLean; A Masi, G Canale, A Sgarbi, M Bergamasco; K Burton, E Gori; S Perugini, L Ghiraldini, M Castrogiovanni, S Dellape, Q Geldenhuys, J Sole, A Zanni, S Parisse (capt).
Replacements: F Ongaro, A Lo Cicero, C Del Fava, V Bernabo, P Canavosio, L Orquera, G Garcia.
Christ this RTÉ coverage is insufferable these days.
Hook hasn’t a fucking clue. Do RTÉ tell him to play up the accent and the pompous preaching? He seems to be enthralled by himself the whole time.
O’Shea is the best on that panel by a long shot but must be wondering how he’s finding himself contributing to a discussion with McGurk and Hook in it.
Ireland should win handy, You can’t win the way Italy play without a serious No. 10.
O’Leary is already looking like a liability here.
O’Leary all day with the ball there. Parisse might have been a shade offside but O’Leary was taking an age anyway.
Couple of sloppy pieces of handling from O’Leary/Wallace and O’Connell so far. They’ve made more handling errors but they’re the type of straightforward errors you just wouldn’t see the All Blacks making.
Decent possession there but a stupid decision to kick from Earls.
Ireland moving it fairly wide off most passes to stretch Italy. Forwards on both sides of the pitch.
nice bit of continuity from Ireland here, mightn’t be making huge yards but at least we are shifting the ball and have lads coming onto it at pace and making the Italian defensive line move across the field as opposed to picking and driving and little pop passes at the side of the ruck