Ireland Team vs England - 27th Aug 2011

First topic message reminder :

Ireland Team:
15 - Geordan Murphy (Leicester)
14 - Tommy Bowe (Ospreys)
13 - Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster)
12 - Gordon D'Arcy (Lansdowne/Leinster)
11 - Andrew Trimble (Ballymena/Ulster)
10 - Ronan O'Gara (Cork Constitution/Munster)
9 - Eoin Reddan (Lansdowne/Leinster)

1 - Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster)
2 - Jerry Flannery (Shannon/Munster)
3 - Mike Ross (Clontarf/Leinster)
4 - Donncha O'Callaghan (Cork Constitution/Munster)
5 - Paul O'Connell (Young Munster/Munster) Captain
6 - Stephen Ferris (Dungannon/Ulster)
7 - David Wallace (Garryowen/Munster)
8 - Jamie Heaslip (Naas/Leinster)

Replacements:
16 - Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster)
17 - Tom Court (Malone/Ulster)
18 - Donnacha Ryan (Shannon/Munster)
19 - Denis Leamy (Cork Constitution/Munster)
20 - Conor Murray (Garryowen/Munster)
21 - Jonathan Sexton (St. Mary's College/Leinster)
22 - Fergus McFadden (Old Belvedere/Leinster)

England team:
15 Ben Foden (Northampton Saints),
14 Chris Ashton (Northampton Saints),
13 Manu Tuilagi (Leicester Tigers),
12 Mike Tindall (Gloucester Rugby, captain),
11 Mark Cueto (Sale Sharks),
10 Jonny Wilkinson (Toulon),
9 Richard Wigglesworth (Saracens),

1 Andrew Sheridan (Sale Sharks),
2 Steve Thompson (London Wasps),
3 Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers),
4 Louis Deacon (Leicester Tigers),
5 Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints),
6 Tom Croft (Leicester Tigers),
7 James Haskell (Ricoh Black Rams),
8 Nick Easter (Harlequins).

Replacements: 16 Dylan Hartley (Northampton Saints), 17 Matt Stevens (Saracens), 18 Simon Shaw (Unattached), 19 Tom Wood (Northampton Saints), 20 Joe Simpson (London Wasps), 21 Toby Flood (Leicester Tigers), 22 Delon Armitage (London Irish).

Yeah, I hope so. Maybe he will. I'm not scared of Tuilagi really.

Tuilagi is just like any other big lump of a center. Hit him hard and hit him low and he'll go down

Is he injured or just rested?

[quote="majesticimperialman"]Is he injured or just rested?[/quote]

To who are you refering to?

Before seeing the selections I went for England by 12 in the prediction game thingy.Am I off the mark or in with a shout?
Feel that England by 5 may have been a better call.Any thoughts?

I'm biased so I think Ireland will win but I can't see England beaten us by more than 10 in Ireland in the next few years anyway.

Taffineastbourne wrote:Before seeing the selections I went for England by 12 in the prediction game thingy.Am I off the mark or in with a shout?
Feel that England by 5 may have been a better call.Any thoughts?

I think we'll play better; obviously we need a big improvement to get a result but we're expecting a better performance. I don't see them running away with it. A score either way.

Ireland have lost a fair few games in recent times, but a pretty high proportion of those defeats have been by less than a score. Only the All Blacks have really ran away with games against us; againt pretty much everyone else we've left the pitch frustrated at a near miss.

My prediction; Ireland by 5.

[quote="Notch"][quote="Taffineastbourne"]Before seeing the selections I went for England by 12 in the prediction game thingy.Am I off the mark or in with a shout?
Feel that England by 5 may have been a better call.Any thoughts?[/quote]

I think we'll play better; obviously we need a big improvement to get a result but we're expecting a better performance. I don't see them running away with it. A score either way.

Ireland have lost a fair few games in recent times, but a pretty high proportion of those defeats have been by less than a score. Only the All Blacks have really ran away with games against us; againt pretty much everyone else we've left the pitch frustrated at a near miss.[/quote]

Thats our problem though we always come back or come close but never close enough, this is most evident when we are playing France.

But for some reason, we do seem to find that extra 10% against England to get us over the line. You're absolutely correct though.

England are better at front row,equal at second row,worse at backrow,better at halfback and all square behind.The Romulon in me tends towrds England victory but what do Romulons know about Rugby?

Taff, halfbacks are around equal. Wilko is slightly better than ROG while Wigglesoworth is worse than Reddan.

Thomond,scrummies are close,10's are a fair distance apart to be fair.

Did that last post sound daft?You know what I mean

No it sounded daft because they are closer than that.

Yea far too close to be effective

The Great Aukster wrote:No it sounded daft because they are closer than that.

Aukster,Wiko's tackling is better and I am pretty sure his goalkicking is better.ROG is great at positional kicking but can get a bit flakey.Whilst recognising the English press' love affair with Jonny,he is miles better.

Since when has tackling been the deciding factor for a flyhalf - I thought they were supposed to be the playmakers?

Wilko's kicking of late hasn't been near his 2003 form from what I've seen both for club and country. He never was a creative 10 and relies heavily on his forwards setting up drops or penalty chances. If England dominate the set piece they will win as there is no better 10 to convert those opportunities.

ROG has well documented weaknesses, but he is also intelligent (unless he gets a bang to the head) and that makes up for a lot of his shortcomings.

I certainly don't think there is "miles" between them - maybe a foot in favour of Wilko (if the game suits him), but ROG might claim the top two inches back.

Is it being shown via Sky Sports or RTE or maybe even the BBC?!

Taffineastbourne wrote:Aukster,Wiko's tackling is better and I am pretty sure his goalkicking is better.ROG is great at positional kicking but can get a bit flakey.Whilst recognising the English press' love affair with Jonny,he is miles better.

- Wilko's tackling is better: yes it is.

- Wilko's goalkicking is better: I would say it's currently extremely close between the two.

- ROG's positional kicking is better: yep.

- ROG can be flaky: Bit of a myth that one. ROG has probably been one of Ireland's highest and most consistent performers of the last 2 seasons. A lot of this is down to the pressure that Sexton is putting on him by playing well.

- Wilko is miles better: He's better in some areas, in other areas ROG is better. I'd say overall they're very very close at the moment.

nottins_jones wrote:Is it being shown via Sky Sports or RTE or maybe even the BBC?!

This game is exclusively live on Sky. BBC and RTE have highlights later tomorrow evening.