Ireland Vs England - One game too many?

Ireland seem to have the hardest World Cup warm up of all the teams.
They have played, Scotland France home and away, Connaght, and are now going to play England.
Granted 2 weeks later they open up their World Cup with a game against the USA, and I don't think anyone will look past a Ireland win. But no England V Ireland game is an easy game and you can expect both teams to be knocking lumps out of each other, it does seem very risky, because Ireland will have to squeeze everything they can out of their players to win the game.

It's a game both sides must win so do they play their strongest side or do they sensibly mothball some key players.
Does England play Ashton etc or do they send him down under with little game time and also do Ireland take the risk with O'Connell who in my opinion is Ireland's key player even without ball in hand.

I don't think any Celtic team is capable of not going 100% for the win in a home game against England.
There's nothing worse in life than having the English dropping a turd on your door step is there

And yet, it looks like both teams will probably be glad they have another warm-up match before they head to NZ.

England will want a win under their belts after their poor performance against Wales, and to knock over Ireland - in Dublin - would be a good feather in their cap given their lamentable win record against them in recent years. Johnson will also need to trial his 9 back-ups after Care's injury. And to see if Moody is back to full-fitness.

Ireland badly need a good performance for 80 minutes, never mind the win. It's a perfect final warm-up, against their favourite foe. O'Driscoll, Darcy, Heaslip, Ferris, and some others need more game time to gel and get up to speed, whilst Wallace and Bowe haven't had any as yet. (You have to figure Kidney will also have to play some of them in the US match before Australia for at least some of the match.)

Healy may have to be rested (if only to avoid having his toe being trodden on again by some mischievous English prop ), and the notion of Court starting instead will have the English front row licking their lips. Kearney has to get more game time after his groin injury rest, and likely Bowe and Fitzgerald. Possibly Reddan to start with Murray on the bench, after O'Leary's poor display yesterday.
Does he start Flannery for this one?

Both RWC 30s have to be called tomorrow. Do Johnson and Kidney only pick their match-day 22 from these for this final match?

This final match - only agreed to after IRFU gave up the TV rights to Sky apparently - could well be the match saver for both coaches.

I'm delighted we have this game. I'd rather have a battle hardened team missing a few through injury than a full strength team with no match sharpness.

I think it takes about 2 or 3 games for a player to reach his best level. That's pretty much what we're getting. We'll have used about 50 players by the end of this.

Notch wrote:I'm delighted we have this game. I'd rather have a battle hardened team missing a few through injury than a full strength team with no match sharpness.

I think it takes about 2 or 3 games for a player to reach his best level. That's pretty much what we're getting. We'll have used about 50 players by the end of this.

+1

AlynDavies wrote:Ireland seem to have the hardest World Cup warm up of all the teams.

...yes, as opposed to Australia who have only had to play NZ twice and SA twice! I take your point though but I personally think it's better to be over prepared than under.

Most likly this will be our second game with a full(ish) team and a full team will almost certinly be played aganist the usa so that will be three games before the OZ match so I think and hope we will be in full flow for that match.

Defo happy with the England match. Its a match that will get the boys into full flow. Ireland love playing England and will be highly motivated. I say send the strongest team out there as well.

I'm torn by this match tbh - an England win could see them with their tails up and trouncing Arg in their opening game of the RWC, leaving Arg a must win against Scotland to get out of the pool; alternatively an England loss could seem them with heads down, no plan B to speak of, and vulnerable to Arg, where an Arg victory could throw the pool wide open - just too many possibilities. Ah well, will the real Ireland please stand up?

I would think 5 games is too much, but surely Declan Kidney didn't think so.

When you actually look at the stats at the end of these warm-ups, you'll find only a few players have started more than 2 games and I think nobody will have started 4.

Really it's between 2/3 test matches for our first team because the teams put out against Connacht and Sscotland contain loads of players who just will not be involved.

So far the most used players have been Andrew Trimble (3 tests at 14), Paddy Wallace (2 tests at 12, vs Connacht at 10), Denis Leamy (2 tests at 8, vs Connacht at 8), Leo Cullen (2 tests at 5, vs Connacht at 5) and Donnacha Ryan (1 test at 4, 1 test at 6, off the bench versus Connacht). All of those guys would have been considered as fringe players coming in, although to be fair Andrew Trimble must now be in with a great chance of moving up the pecking order after some good displays.

D'Arcy, O'Driscoll, O'Connell and Heaslip made their first appearances of the season yesterday. Stephen Ferris, David Wallace and Tommy Bowe are yet to start a test. So there are some key players who are only now coming in whether through injury or design. Viewed in that light, its hard to draw conclusions from our form with only the game yesterday being the first serious alarm bell. We have no settled team and it's to be hoped that we'll go strong against England and get a real insight into how we plan to approach this tournament now everyone has had at least one game.

The France game was most disappointing because we weren't too far off a full-strength side and senior players let us down to an extent. The team as a whole performed poorly for a significant portion of the match despite starting really well. But we also looked like a side still finding our way to match sharpness. I'm hoping for an improvement next week, but one thing is for sure; if we didn't have a game next week, our first XV would not be prepared for the World Cup. We need at least one more game.

[quote="biltongbek"]I would think 5 games is too much, but surely Declan Kidney didn't think so.[/quote]

I think the idea was that after trying out players the team would put together and would gain momentum going in to the wc. If we beat England and and have a stormer vs the USA then the plan has worked, we will have to judge it after the OZ match though.

Both teams will surely want to head off with a win after disappointing outings in their last games.

There is the potential for his to be a hum dinger of a game and as a neutral am looking forward to it.

Both sides I imagine will field their strongest side to try and get that win but with one less week of recovery time if injury hits anyone they could also look at resting a few.