Planet Rugby Forum

kerry_exile wrote:

Mr. Very Popular wrote:

Salanya wrote:I feel bad for Keet now. He can't help being selected by Kidney (unless he is using pictures....). And for all we know the Welsh might let him run with the ball for the afternoon and the bugger will play a blinder... (Though I still disagree with selecting a wing in the centre)

The problem is that we haven't seen the team play in 5 months; they might be crap, they might play really well. The issue now is which one to prepare for to get the hopes/expectations on a reasonable level.

Of all Kidney's decisions the one for DOC must be the worst one. If he's not starting for Munster how can he be starting in the national team? What message is that sending to players and supporters? And it is appaling towards Ryan, who fought his way in there fair and square, only to be put on the bench.

For DoC, I think Kidney wants to see how he reacts to having pressure on him for his place,and I think it's loyalty as well.
When Ryan comes on,he needs to play a blinder to force the issue for the French game.
It'll be nice to have 2 nutcases sitting on the bench to unleash if things are getting a bit hairy.

Loyalty my arse...its a bullshit call, simple as that. Ryan needs to play a blinder to force the issue for the French game. WTF? He's played far better than DOC so far this season and ousted him from the Munster team. He should be starting already.

Salanya wrote:The problem is that we haven't seen the team play in 5 months; they might be crap, they might play really well. The issue now is which one to prepare for to get the hopes/expectations on a reasonable level.

He Man Rugger Pints wrote:

Salanya wrote:The problem is that we haven't seen the team play in 5 months; they might be crap, they might play really well. The issue now is which one to prepare for to get the hopes/expectations on a reasonable level.

I'm never confident that Ireland will play well. We can be difficult to play against at times because we have a good backrow and quite a good defence depending on who the coach picks, but when we have the ball we're rarely able to do anything with it against big teams. Ireland will always come first in my mind but it's not as enjoyable as it used to be.

Hellraiser wrote:

Mr. Very Popular wrote:

Salanya wrote:I feel bad for Keet now. He can't help being selected by Kidney (unless he is using pictures....). And for all we know the Welsh might let him run with the ball for the afternoon and the bugger will play a blinder... (Though I still disagree with selecting a wing in the centre)

The problem is that we haven't seen the team play in 5 months; they might be crap, they might play really well. The issue now is which one to prepare for to get the hopes/expectations on a reasonable level.

Of all Kidney's decisions the one for DOC must be the worst one. If he's not starting for Munster how can he be starting in the national team? What message is that sending to players and supporters? And it is appaling towards Ryan, who fought his way in there fair and square, only to be put on the bench.

For DoC, I think Kidney wants to see how he reacts to having pressure on him for his place,and I think it's loyalty as well.
When Ryan comes on,he needs to play a blinder to force the issue for the French game.
It'll be nice to have 2 nutcases sitting on the bench to unleash if things are getting a bit hairy.

Bollocks! He hasn't f**king responded to the pressure on his place at Munster why the fudge would the national team be any different. It is just an absolutely unjustifiable call and a blatant insult to any form player who isn't an "insider". This is the same shit we saw under EOS.

Boxcar Ira wrote:

Crash wrote:One irrelevant mention of "small" centres prompts a diatribe? Inexcusable apologism it seems...

You lot will be looking for him to pick Buckley in the centre before long.

Uncle Fester wrote:

Flametop wrote:

binge90 wrote:

kerry_exile wrote:Can we please throw a bit more spite towards the 2nd row selection...I know it doesn't suit the Leinster heads, as it is a Munster man losing out, but Ryan has been royally screwed with this selection and its as bad a call if not worse than Earls at 13 IMO.

I think people are struggling with it because it just doesn't seem believable.

Ryan when he heard the announcement:

I have no trouble believing it... Deccie's got form. Not learning the lesson of 2 "small" centres is inexcusable.

The determination to tar Deccie with anything, anything at all is beginning to reach fever pitch now.

Let's have a look at the 2 "small" centres Kidney has been hamstringing the team with.
One is Brian Gerald O'Driscoll, the greatest and most successful Irish player of all time. He is coming to the end of a stellar career but is still streets ahead of any other contenders.
The other is Gordon William D'Arcy, another highly decorated player who has sadly declined from his peak years but is still a leading contender mainly due to the lack of other alternatives.

Alternatives to the above are:
Paddy Wallace - even smaller than D'Arcy.
McFadden - not exactly huge and only emerging in the last year or so
Earls - - not exactly huge
Trimble - plenty big not really a centre
Bowe - played even less games at centre than Earls
Fitz - not huge either and not a centre

So who exactly were these physically imposing centres that Kidney has "inexcusably" omitted from the Irish team?

Nolanator wrote:

Boxcar Ira wrote:

Crash wrote:One irrelevant mention of "small" centres prompts a diatribe? Inexcusable apologism it seems...

You lot will be looking for him to pick Buckley in the centre before long.

I think you're on to something. Buckle crash-ball. He'd be excused from most of the rucking duties (which he doesn't do much of anyway) and as we all know he's got soft hands for a big fella.

Just think, Buckle crashing it up on the front foot and then offloading to our back three behind the gainline. Niiiiiicccccccce!

Lenny wrote:

Nolanator wrote:

Boxcar Ira wrote:

Crash wrote:One irrelevant mention of "small" centres prompts a diatribe? Inexcusable apologism it seems...

You lot will be looking for him to pick Buckley in the centre before long.

I think you're on to something. Buckle crash-ball. He'd be excused from most of the rucking duties (which he doesn't do much of anyway) and as we all know he's got soft hands for a big fella.

Just think, Buckle crashing it up on the front foot and then offloading to our back three behind the gainline. Niiiiiicccccccce!

I watched Buckley in the Sale/Brive game and, if possible, he's gone backwards. Still getting destroyed in the scrum but has added an even greater level of immobility and ruck inspecting to his game. I can't believe they are actually paying him.

Salanya wrote:Keet is a dad?!
The boy who couldn't find his toy cuddly lion....
(Ella May is quite a country name, but quite sweet all the same)


''As if he hasn’t enough on his mind, Earls became a father last week when his partner, Edel, gave birth to their first child, Ella May, due to which he was unable to take part in training this week. However, his excellent performance in Munster’s 50-pointer away to Northampton and his training in Limerick last week prompted Declan Kidney’s decision.''

Salanya wrote:Keet is a dad?!
The boy who couldn't find his toy cuddly lion....
(Ella May is quite a country name, but quite sweet all the same)


''As if he hasn’t enough on his mind, Earls became a father last week when his partner, Edel, gave birth to their first child, Ella May, due to which he was unable to take part in training this week. However, his excellent performance in Munster’s 50-pointer away to Northampton and his training in Limerick last week prompted Declan Kidney’s decision.''

LeinsterLion wrote:As is the "stupid Leinster whinging" style posts

I have no trouble believing it... Deccie's got form. Not learning the lesson of 2 "small" centres is inexcusable.

rialtoblue wrote:I thought they were, in two weeks time during the int break?

Any sign of the Leinster Junior thread on this bored yet?

Salanya wrote:Keet is a dad?!
The boy who couldn't find his toy cuddly lion....
(Ella May is quite a country name, but quite sweet all the same)


''As if he hasn’t enough on his mind, Earls became a father last week when his partner, Edel, gave birth to their first child, Ella May, due to which he was unable to take part in training this week. However, his excellent performance in Munster’s 50-pointer away to Northampton and his training in Limerick last week prompted Declan Kidney’s decision.''

Uncle Fester wrote:

LeinsterLion wrote:As is the "stupid Leinster whinging" style posts

Ah come on. There's been some ludicrous posts over the last week attempting to stick anything, anything at all on Deccie (see one particular gem below) rather than have a rational discussion on two contentious selections he has made.

I have no trouble believing it... Deccie's got form. Not learning the lesson of 2 "small" centres is inexcusable.

camroc1 wrote:

Salanya wrote:Keet is a dad?!
The boy who couldn't find his toy cuddly lion....
(Ella May is quite a country name, but quite sweet all the same)


''As if he hasn’t enough on his mind, Earls became a father last week when his partner, Edel, gave birth to their first child, Ella May, due to which he was unable to take part in training this week. However, his excellent performance in Munster’s 50-pointer away to Northampton and his training in Limerick last week prompted Declan Kidney’s decision.''

Probably the oldest first time Dad in Moyross !

Munster Rugby announced today that Northampton Saints centre James Downey will be joining them at the end of the current season.
Downey (30) who had a previous stint with Munster (06/07), joined Northampton Saints at the start of the 2007/2008 season and quickly established himself as a regular in their match day squad. In November 2010 he made his 100th appearance for the club and to date has made 135 appearances scoring 12 tries.

A Churchill Cup winner with Ireland in June 2009 he began his career in Leinster before moving to Connacht for two seasons and now returns to Munster on a 2 year contract.

Commenting on the news Tony McGahan said. " James is a quality player who has been on our radar for some time now. We've seen at first hand, on several occasion in recent times in the Heineken Cup exactly what he has to offer and believe that his style and his attitude can only enhance our squad."

--DD-- wrote:

Despot wrote:

LeinsterLion wrote:

Uncle Fester wrote:Where's this notion that Bowe is an amazing (or even adequate emergency replacement) 13 coming from?

One game for the Lions when nobody else was fit and SA couldn't be arsed?

Club level games? Sure Keith has looked great at 13 in club games too.

He's looked better than Earls, for club and the Lions. And that's all that's relevant. No one is saying he's great, but it is definitive that Earls isn't.

How often and when recently has he played for at 13? were the opposition decent? Just curios cause I seemed to have a lot of it.

Bowe runs lovely lines from the No.13 position, but he really needs a playmaking No.12 with world class vision and distribution inside him to put him through the holes. He looked good at the Ospreys when paired with Hook, and did a fine job for the Lions with Flutey alongside him.

However with D'arcy there for Ireland, all Bowe would get would be shit ball, and he has never shown that he has the other elements to his game to succeed in the midfield (quick hands, ability to put his wingers away, grubbers, chips, etc etc) nor has his defence been severely tested.

fogerty wrote:

Munster Rugby announced today that Northampton Saints centre James Downey will be joining them at the end of the current season.
Downey (30) who had a previous stint with Munster (06/07), joined Northampton Saints at the start of the 2007/2008 season and quickly established himself as a regular in their match day squad. In November 2010 he made his 100th appearance for the club and to date has made 135 appearances scoring 12 tries.

A Churchill Cup winner with Ireland in June 2009 he began his career in Leinster before moving to Connacht for two seasons and now returns to Munster on a 2 year contract.

Commenting on the news Tony McGahan said. " James is a quality player who has been on our radar for some time now. We've seen at first hand, on several occasion in recent times in the Heineken Cup exactly what he has to offer and believe that his style and his attitude can only enhance our squad."

fogerty wrote:

Munster Rugby announced today that Northampton Saints centre James Downey will be joining them at the end of the current season.
Downey (30) who had a previous stint with Munster (06/07), joined Northampton Saints at the start of the 2007/2008 season and quickly established himself as a regular in their match day squad. In November 2010 he made his 100th appearance for the club and to date has made 135 appearances scoring 12 tries.

A Churchill Cup winner with Ireland in June 2009 he began his career in Leinster before moving to Connacht for two seasons and now returns to Munster on a 2 year contract.

Commenting on the news Tony McGahan said. " James is a quality player who has been on our radar for some time now. We've seen at first hand, on several occasion in recent times in the Heineken Cup exactly what he has to offer and believe that his style and his attitude can only enhance our squad."

Uncle Fester wrote:

He Man Rugger Pints wrote:

Salanya wrote:The problem is that we haven't seen the team play in 5 months; they might be crap, they might play really well. The issue now is which one to prepare for to get the hopes/expectations on a reasonable level.

I'm never confident that Ireland will play well. We can be difficult to play against at times because we have a good backrow and quite a good defence depending on who the coach picks, but when we have the ball we're rarely able to do anything with it against big teams. Ireland will always come first in my mind but it's not as enjoyable as it used to be.

I'm guessing you've forgotten most of the dross we played during the Eddie era and we were plain shite before that so drop the revisionism. We've always been like this except for very short periods in 2000, 2004 and 2008.

Banana Man wrote:

fogerty wrote:

Munster Rugby announced today that Northampton Saints centre James Downey will be joining them at the end of the current season.
Downey (30) who had a previous stint with Munster (06/07), joined Northampton Saints at the start of the 2007/2008 season and quickly established himself as a regular in their match day squad. In November 2010 he made his 100th appearance for the club and to date has made 135 appearances scoring 12 tries.

A Churchill Cup winner with Ireland in June 2009 he began his career in Leinster before moving to Connacht for two seasons and now returns to Munster on a 2 year contract.

Commenting on the news Tony McGahan said. " James is a quality player who has been on our radar for some time now. We've seen at first hand, on several occasion in recent times in the Heineken Cup exactly what he has to offer and believe that his style and his attitude can only enhance our squad."

Bye bye Mafi.

Seems smashing Jean De Villiers with some big tackles in Franklins Gardens 2 years ago does get you a contract with Munster.
Come on Tommy Bowe/Casey Laulala and Willem Alberts..

DiscoHips D'Arcy wrote:

Banana Man wrote:

fogerty wrote:

Munster Rugby announced today that Northampton Saints centre James Downey will be joining them at the end of the current season.
Downey (30) who had a previous stint with Munster (06/07), joined Northampton Saints at the start of the 2007/2008 season and quickly established himself as a regular in their match day squad. In November 2010 he made his 100th appearance for the club and to date has made 135 appearances scoring 12 tries.

A Churchill Cup winner with Ireland in June 2009 he began his career in Leinster before moving to Connacht for two seasons and now returns to Munster on a 2 year contract.

Commenting on the news Tony McGahan said. " James is a quality player who has been on our radar for some time now. We've seen at first hand, on several occasion in recent times in the Heineken Cup exactly what he has to offer and believe that his style and his attitude can only enhance our squad."

Bye bye Mafi.

Seems smashing Jean De Villiers with some big tackles in Franklins Gardens 2 years ago does get you a contract with Munster.
Come on Tommy Bowe/Casey Laulala and Willem Alberts..

Is alberts anything other than just a wish or is there any substance to it. Don't think you wil get tommy so Laulala may be the answer.

Hellraiser wrote:

camroc1 wrote:

Salanya wrote:Keet is a dad?!
The boy who couldn't find his toy cuddly lion....
(Ella May is quite a country name, but quite sweet all the same)


''As if he hasn’t enough on his mind, Earls became a father last week when his partner, Edel, gave birth to their first child, Ella May, due to which he was unable to take part in training this week. However, his excellent performance in Munster’s 50-pointer away to Northampton and his training in Limerick last week prompted Declan Kidney’s decision.''

Probably the oldest first time Dad in Moyross !

You really are a wit kant.

Hellraiser wrote:

DiscoHips D'Arcy wrote:

Banana Man wrote:

fogerty wrote:

Munster Rugby announced today that Northampton Saints centre James Downey will be joining them at the end of the current season.
Downey (30) who had a previous stint with Munster (06/07), joined Northampton Saints at the start of the 2007/2008 season and quickly established himself as a regular in their match day squad. In November 2010 he made his 100th appearance for the club and to date has made 135 appearances scoring 12 tries.

A Churchill Cup winner with Ireland in June 2009 he began his career in Leinster before moving to Connacht for two seasons and now returns to Munster on a 2 year contract.

Commenting on the news Tony McGahan said. " James is a quality player who has been on our radar for some time now. We've seen at first hand, on several occasion in recent times in the Heineken Cup exactly what he has to offer and believe that his style and his attitude can only enhance our squad."

Bye bye Mafi.

Seems smashing Jean De Villiers with some big tackles in Franklins Gardens 2 years ago does get you a contract with Munster.
Come on Tommy Bowe/Casey Laulala and Willem Alberts..

Is alberts anything other than just a wish or is there any substance to it. Don't think you wil get tommy so Laulala may be the answer.

Complete wish list. But we're big believers in self-fulfilling prophecies.

Hellraiser wrote:

camroc1 wrote:

Salanya wrote:Keet is a dad?!
The boy who couldn't find his toy cuddly lion....
(Ella May is quite a country name, but quite sweet all the same)


''As if he hasn’t enough on his mind, Earls became a father last week when his partner, Edel, gave birth to their first child, Ella May, due to which he was unable to take part in training this week. However, his excellent performance in Munster’s 50-pointer away to Northampton and his training in Limerick last week prompted Declan Kidney’s decision.''

Probably the oldest first time Dad in Moyross !

You really are a wit kant.

ZappaMan wrote:Should we adopt players á la the World Cup for the 6 Nations as a gesture of inclusion and solidarity?

Also, message for the noobs; this is a (mostly) non-trolling thread, lads.

DiscoHips D'Arcy wrote:I haven't seen a lot of butler but didnt he come off the bench for you guys when we scalped you. I think he started when your A's scalped us as well. I think he was impressive on both occasions. I think he will make it to HEC level at least.

You may start praying for Laulala then!

ZappaMan wrote:Should we adopt players á la the World Cup for the 6 Nations as a gesture of inclusion and solidarity?

Also, message for the noobs; this is a (mostly) non-trolling thread, lads.

Banana Man wrote:

ZappaMan wrote:Should we adopt players á la the World Cup for the 6 Nations as a gesture of inclusion and solidarity?

Also, message for the noobs; this is a (mostly) non-trolling thread, lads.

I agree etc etc.
What days are in Cheltenham for Zappa? You over for the 1st day?

Banana Man wrote:

DiscoHips D'Arcy wrote:I haven't seen a lot of butler but didnt he come off the bench for you guys when we scalped you. I think he started when your A's scalped us as well. I think he was impressive on both occasions. I think he will make it to HEC level at least.

You may start praying for Laulala then!

Butler was never even in academy I think, straight into Development Contract.
A fine player, tough and has a bit of skills about now.

Not unlike a certain Irish hero James Coughlan