The Official Irish Rugby Thread

[rialtoblue]

EOS called in the Ireland squad as cover for Ed Byrne.

Good shout with EOS. Cronin would be the best available LH after Healy by my reckoning, but he probably falls into the same boat as Ruddock and Cooney; too old to be worth bringing up to speed at the expense of younger players.

And he's thick as fuck.

Unlike the rocket surgeon Cian Healy?

Rocket Surgery is like 590 points these days!

[earl the beaver]

EOS called in the Ireland squad as cover for Ed Byrne.

Good shout with EOS. Cronin would be the best available LH after Healy by my reckoning, but he probably falls into the same boat as Ruddock and Cooney; too old to be worth bringing up to speed at the expense of younger players.

And he's thick as fuck.

Unlike the rocket surgeon Cian Healy?

Compared to you both are incredibly intelligent undoubtedly

[hermie]

https://www.rte.ie/sport/rugby/2020/112 ... h-backrow/

I just don't know what happened Stander at the weekend. He has been one of Ireland best and most consistent forwards over the past two years and had a nice little rest the week before to be good to go against the pigdogs.

[camroc1]

EOS called in the Ireland squad as cover for Ed Byrne.

He'll be the second Templeogue player to be capped after Mal O'Kelly if he gets on.

[rialtoblue]

Complete overraction/navel gazing 23 for Georgia

Healy
Kelleher
Tom O Toole
Ryan
Henderson
Doris
Connors
Coombes

Cooney
H Byrne
Daly
Frawley
C Farrell
Stockdale
Keenan

Sheahan
EOS
Porter
Thornbury
Stander
Casey
Healy
Conway

[hermie]

Harry Byrne called up as well.

Where'd you see that?

[SFBB]

Would be daft to drop Doris. He was far from the problem, and probably showed the most energy of the backrowers. He's just unsuitable to be at 8 against a pack like Englands without some mongos around him. So many times he fronted up for a carry, running a good line at pace, and was met with a white wall of orcs. At least a double tackle every time, with channels full of locks and props.

Against a worse team, or a defence going backwards, he would have been making loads of meters, but they were waiting for him. I'd play him at 6 with Coombes at 8 in my 'hypothetical young fellas 23"

[hermie]

Would be daft to drop Doris. He was far from the problem, and probably showed the most energy of the backrowers. He's just unsuitable to be at 8 against a pack like Englands without some mongos around him. So many times he fronted up for a carry, running a good line at pace, and was met with a white wall of orcs. At least a double tackle every time, with channels full of locks and props.

Against a worse team, or a defence going backwards, he would have been making loads of meters, but they were waiting for him. I'd play him at 6 with Coombes at 8 in my 'hypothetical young fellas 23"

I'd go the other way. Doris has good hands an looks a little bit quicker so should stay at 8. Minor quibble.

[nardol]

Glad to see cooney, jgp stank up the place

[nardol]

Is that munster 10 healy on the bench

[SFBB]

I'd prefer the more agile player on the flank, lending assistance to the blindside defence. Coombes with the first carry off the base

[feckwanker]

Harry Byrne called up as well.

A step in the right direction. Hopefully he passes his older brother on his way out the door as he's going in.

[rialtoblue]

Is that munster 10 healy on the bench

Yes, in an unexpected twist, the IRFU have given me power of squad selection for the coming weekend, and I've gone with Healy on the bench

[feckwanker]

Is that munster 10 healy on the bench

Neither Healy or Cooney have been called up.

[Mullet 2]

EOS called in the Ireland squad as cover for Ed Byrne.

Good shout with EOS. Cronin would be the best available LH after Healy by my reckoning, but he probably falls into the same boat as Ruddock and Cooney; too old to be worth bringing up to speed at the expense of younger players.

And he's thick as fuck.

Unlike the rocket surgeon Cian Healy?

Who you just said is the best LH available

[nardol]

Is that munster 10 healy on the bench

Yes, in an unexpected twist, the IRFU have given me power of squad selection for the coming weekend, and I've gone with Healy on the bench

Ah feck... I thought it was squad announcement not naval gazing

[DeDoc]

“ Born in Dublin, O'Sullivan attended Templeogue College and Trinity College, where he completed a business studies course. O'Sullivan represented his native Leinster at under-17, under-18, under-19 and under-20 level, but missed out on a place in Leinster's academy. Strong performances for Dublin University in the All-Ireland League caught the attention of Ulster and, after an appearance for Ulster's 'A' side in early 2017, O'Sullivan joined the Ulster academy.”

So he never represented Ireland at underage. That right?

He was a number 8 until he was 17/18 AFAIK, and given the guys around his age group - Timoney, Doris, Deegan etc, it was probably a clever move to make! Also explains why he didn't make much of a splash at age-group level

[earl the beaver]

Do you "rest" Ryan for this weekend and make someone else captain, say Henderson?

Looks like the physical domination by England plus the burden of the captaincy impacted his thought process, had he even captained Leinster prior to the England game?

[Trostan]

Fudge Eir and Virgin and their bich-argument!!

Any streams for GLA v MUN? None listed on the usual sites VIPBox, Cricfree or Wiziwig......

Can't even go tho the bloody pub to watch it....

https://www.vipleague.lc/rugby-sports-stream

That's a handy aul website. I'm quite reliant on Mobdro and an app I have for my android box but couldn't seem to get a working link on either of them. Good to have another option. Don't appear to be able to cast it to the tv though. Any time I click to do it it doesn't work.

Just looking into that link above again. When I click the red box on the page instead of one of the broadcast links it takes me to another page called allsports4free.live. Has anyone used this and verify it's legit? It says it's free yet requires credit card details, but promise they won't charge it. Sounds a bit fishy but it looks pretty nifty.

I've tried it but it bounces my Ulster bank debit card.
Don't think they want Irish!

[rialtoblue]

Do you "rest" Ryan for this weekend and make someone else captain, say Henderson?

Looks like the physical domination by England plus the burden of the captaincy impacted his thought process, had he even captained Leinster prior to the England game?

No, let him learn from it and captain again. I was really surprised in reports saying that he was calling the lineout, I think that is a mistake, too many jobs for one man. Give the lineout to someone else.

I'm pretty sure POC 's first captaining of Ireland resulted in a Parisian routing, so I wouldn't be condemning Ryan's captaincy just yet

[hermie]

Do you "rest" Ryan for this weekend and make someone else captain, say Henderson?

Looks like the physical domination by England plus the burden of the captaincy impacted his thought process, had he even captained Leinster prior to the England game?

Yes he had and he's still an excellent choice for Ireland captain.

That said, rotation in the 2nd row for Georgia isn't a bad shout.

[YOYO]

EOS called in the Ireland squad as cover for Ed Byrne.

Good shout with EOS. Cronin would be the best available LH after Healy by my reckoning, but he probably falls into the same boat as Ruddock and Cooney; too old to be worth bringing up to speed at the expense of younger players.

And he's thick as fuck.

Unlike the rocket surgeon Cian Healy?

Jumper do you mean rocket scientist? Tree surgeon yes, rocket surgeon no.

[Conspicuous]

Harry Byrne called up as well.

Is that confirmed ? I see the Indo are suggesting he’s going to be involved this weekend but there’s no mention of him in the IRFU press release

[Mullet 2]

Do you "rest" Ryan for this weekend and make someone else captain, say Henderson?

Looks like the physical domination by England plus the burden of the captaincy impacted his thought process, had he even captained Leinster prior to the England game?

So we hive it to the calm headed lad coming back from a braindead red card.

Good man Earlsy

[earl the beaver]

Do you "rest" Ryan for this weekend and make someone else captain, say Henderson?

Looks like the physical domination by England plus the burden of the captaincy impacted his thought process, had he even captained Leinster prior to the England game?

No, let him learn from it and captain again. I was really surprised in reports saying that he was calling the lineout, I think that is a mistake, too many jobs for one man. Give the lineout to someone else.

I'm pretty sure POC 's first captaining of Ireland resulted in a Parisian routing, so I wouldn't be condemning Ryan's captaincy just yet

Farrell has already said that Henderson would normally call the lineout but wasn't selected so it fell to Ryan.

[DeDoc]

Complete overraction/navel gazing 23 for Georgia

Healy
Kelleher
Tom O Toole
Ryan
Henderson
Doris
Connors
Coombes

Cooney
H Byrne
Daly
Frawley
C Farrell
Stockdale
Keenan

Sheahan
EOS
Porter
Thornbury
Stander
Casey
Healy
Conway

I'd love to see O'Toole and EOS involved in an Irish squad soon, but I wonder if Georgia is game, given what kind of game they play. I'd probably be a little conservative around front-row selection for this game. As such I'd probably go with Herring on the bench again. Maybe EOS to start with Kelleher and Porter and Healy, Herring and O'Toole to come off the bench. I think Ruddock deserves recognition for his form and I'd be tempted to start with a Ruddock, Doris, Connors backrow and bring Coombes off the bench. Thornbury is an interesting shout, but I think Baird needs to be involved - I'd actually start him and have Ryan/Henderson on the bench.
Cooney at 9 is a good call, but I doubt we'll see it, I'd imagine JGP will get another start. I doubt we'll see three novice half-backs in the 22 either. I'd maybe go Casey and Ross Byrne/Billy Burns on the bench. I like your centres selection, but we'd need someone on the bench to cover. That could be a specialist centre in place of an O/H sub (leaving Frawley/Cooney to cover), but if you go that route you'd probably want an experienced 9. I think you have to play Lowe, so I'd probably put Daly on the bench.
My 23:

EOS*, Kelleher, Porter
Baird*, Ryan (c)
Ruddock, Doris, Connors
Cooney, H Byrne*
Lowe, Frawley*, Farrell, Keenan
Stockdale

Healy, Herring, O'Toole*, Henderson, Coombes*, JGP, Aki, Daly*
* 7 new caps

[rialtoblue]

Do you "rest" Ryan for this weekend and make someone else captain, say Henderson?

Looks like the physical domination by England plus the burden of the captaincy impacted his thought process, had he even captained Leinster prior to the England game?

No, let him learn from it and captain again. I was really surprised in reports saying that he was calling the lineout, I think that is a mistake, too many jobs for one man. Give the lineout to someone else.

I'm pretty sure POC 's first captaining of Ireland resulted in a Parisian routing, so I wouldn't be condemning Ryan's captaincy just yet

Farrell has already said that Henderson would normally call the lineout but wasn't selected so it fell to Ryan.

Well that makes sense, but Roux and POM were on the starting team on Saturday and one of them, probably POM, should have been calling it

[Jumper]

EOS called in the Ireland squad as cover for Ed Byrne.

Good shout with EOS. Cronin would be the best available LH after Healy by my reckoning, but he probably falls into the same boat as Ruddock and Cooney; too old to be worth bringing up to speed at the expense of younger players.

And he's thick as fuck.

Unlike the rocket surgeon Cian Healy?

Jumper do you mean rocket scientist? Tree surgeon yes, rocket surgeon no.

No. Rocket surgeon.

[YOYO]

Good shout with EOS. Cronin would be the best available LH after Healy by my reckoning, but he probably falls into the same boat as Ruddock and Cooney; too old to be worth bringing up to speed at the expense of younger players.

And he's thick as fuck.

Unlike the rocket surgeon Cian Healy?

Jumper do you mean rocket scientist? Tree surgeon yes, rocket surgeon no.

No. Rocket surgeon.

Do you mind explaining your logic here?

[hermie]

Harry Byrne called up as well.

Is that confirmed ? I see the Indo are suggesting he’s going to be involved this weekend but there’s no mention of him in the IRFU press release

Sounds like he hasn't called anyone else up: https://www.the42.ie/ireland-farrell-eu ... 0-Nov2020/

FFS, Farrell dropping further in my estimation.

[Winnie]

Do you "rest" Ryan for this weekend and make someone else captain, say Henderson?

Looks like the physical domination by England plus the burden of the captaincy impacted his thought process, had he even captained Leinster prior to the England game?

No, let him learn from it and captain again. I was really surprised in reports saying that he was calling the lineout, I think that is a mistake, too many jobs for one man. Give the lineout to someone else.

I'm pretty sure POC 's first captaining of Ireland resulted in a Parisian routing, so I wouldn't be condemning Ryan's captaincy just yet

Yep
Play Ryan as captain
Have hendo beside him calling the lineout to take one of the jobs of his shoulders

[Nolanator]

Harry Byrne called up as well.

Is that confirmed ? I see the Indo are suggesting he’s going to be involved this weekend but there’s no mention of him in the IRFU press release

Sorry, lots of "to be called up" on Twitter, but no official word from camp, unlike EOS who's been confirmed.

[earl the beaver]

EOS
Kelleher
Porter
Henderson
Ryan
Bierne
Connors
Doris
Murray
Burns
Lowe
McCloskey
Farrell
Earls
Stockdale

Herring
Healy
Bealham
Dillane
Stander
Marmion
Byrne
Daly

[YOYO]

What’s this? Official?

[Jim Lahey]

When did big Stu last play?
Feels like he was injured and then straight into camp.
It wasn’t Toulouse was it?

[Winnie]

What’s this? Official?

Much too early
I’d say it’s earls prediction

[earl the beaver]

When did big Stu last play?
Feels like he was injured and then straight into camp.
It wasn’t Toulouse was it?

Played 3 weeks ago when released to Ulster then back with the squad.

Given Ireland have held onto him throughout and not released him to Ulster except when there was a week off I'd guess there was always a plan to play him in this game.

[feckwanker]

Lads, Cooney won't be getting called up under this regime. Not sure what he's done to sour the milk but obviously it's enough to ignore him from a team management POV.

[Winnie]

Lads, Cooney won't be getting called up under this regime. Not sure what he's done to sour the milk but obviously it's enough to ignore him from a team management POV.

Ireland has too small a playing pool to have a management throwing a huff with one of his better players

[feckwanker]

Lads, Cooney won't be getting called up under this regime. Not sure what he's done to sour the milk but obviously it's enough to ignore him from a team management POV.

Ireland has too small a playing pool to have a management throwing a huff with one of his better players

You'd think so but maybe he is disruptive in camp or likes boorish things like sleeping with the lights on - who knows? All we know for certain is that his card is marked by Farrell and co.