Ireland Squad Nov 2018 - Who’s going to play errr England?

First topic message reminder :

Italy 3 Nov - Chicago - Ireland 54-7
Argentina 10 Nov Dublin - 28-17
New Zealand 17 Nov Dublin 16-9
USA 24 Nov Dublin - 52-14

November Total - 150-47

Frontrowers
Rory Best 112 (c)
Rob Herring 6
Sean Cronin 63
Niall Scannell 10

Tadhg Furlong 26
Andrew Porter 9
John Ryan 15

Finlay Bealham 8
Cian Healy 81
Dave Kilcoyne 23
Jack McGrath 51


Locks
Tadhg Beirne 3
Iain Henderson 40 USA
Quinn Roux 7
James Ryan 11
Devin Toner 61

Backrowers

Dan Leavy 10
Josh van der Flier 11
Jordi Murphy 23
Sean O’Brien 51
Peter O’Mahony 50 (vc)
Rhys Ruddock 20
Jack Conan 10
CJ Stander 26


Scrumhalves
John Cooney 3
Kieran Marmion 22
Luke McGrath 6

10s
Jonathan Sexton 76 (vc)
Ross Byrne 2
Joey Carbery 14

Centres
Garry Ringrose 15
Robbie Henshaw 36
Will Addison 2
Bundee Aki 10
Sam Arnold 1
Stuart McCloskey 3

Back three
Andrew Conway 8
Keith Earls 70
Rob Kearney 86
Jordan Larmour 7
Jacob Stockdale 12
Darren Sweetnam 3

Oh well...that makes fluidity of discussion difficult.... luckily I'm on my way out anyway.

Collapse2005 wrote:

eirebilly wrote:I have said before that I think some are underestimating the Argentinians. They are a lot better than some think and they could push Ireland.

That's always the case with Argentina though. If you break it down Ireland are most vulnerable against them in rugby world cup games. They have won 3 from 4 games. Ireland do not appear that vulnerable against them in November as in 8 tests there have been no losses.

Of course that doesn't mean Ireland cant lose, the last November test Argentina started to come back into the game in the last quarter and it became a bit uncomfortable. However, in all fairness if Ireland do what they do well it should be nothing other than an Ireland win. We are ranked 2 they are ranked 11 and the game is in Dublin. We are justifiably favorites and shouldn't be afraid to acknowledge that.

For this game Argentina have selected their back up props, given that Argentina's front row have been struggling all year I expect Ireland really to punish them in the scrum and this and the breakdown will be the basis for strangling Argentina for 80 minutes. Get it wrong though and of course new captain Sanchez, DelGuy and Moroni etc will punish you very quickly.

I'd like to see a more ruthless Ireland this season. Argentina, Wales, England and Australia were all let back into the game late on when Ireland were looking comfortable.

Yeah thats true re Argentina, Wales and Australia. Not really so v England though, they were never really within a sniff of being in that game. Ireland were way too far ahead when the lovely try from Jonny May came.

SecretFly wrote:Oh well...that makes fluidity of discussion difficult....  luckily I'm on my way out anyway.

Gone fly fishing?

Well beaten by ireland on the day. Late flourish made it look respectable.

Taylorman wrote:

SecretFly wrote:Oh well...that makes fluidity of discussion difficult....  luckily I'm on my way out anyway.

Gone fly fishing?

You're a 'cod'ger sure enough Taylor

I was out out...as in actually outside, as in getting drenched by strong gusts of rain wrapped in wind.   So you didn't know how pertinent you were..... oh and then I had a shower..............  You're positively prophetic!

SecretFly wrote:

Taylorman wrote:

SecretFly wrote:Oh well...that makes fluidity of discussion difficult....  luckily I'm on my way out anyway.

Gone fly fishing?

You're a 'cod'ger sure enough Taylor

I was out out...as in actually outside, as in getting drenched by strong gusts of rain wrapped in wind.   So you didn't know how pertinent you were..... oh and then I had a shower..............  You're positively prophetic!

Geez, I came home in strong gusts of rain and wind last night. Been like that for days. I thought one of us was supposed to have good weather being on opposite sides...

I blame Trump, fake news

Taylorman wrote:

SecretFly wrote:

Taylorman wrote:

SecretFly wrote:Oh well...that makes fluidity of discussion difficult....  luckily I'm on my way out anyway.

Gone fly fishing?

You're a 'cod'ger sure enough Taylor

I was out out...as in actually outside, as in getting drenched by strong gusts of rain wrapped in wind.   So you didn't know how pertinent you were..... oh and then I had a shower..............  You're positively prophetic!

Geez, I came home in strong gusts of rain and wind last night. Been like that for days. I thought one of us was supposed to have good weather being on opposite sides...

I blame Trump, fake news

It's the final proof that the Earth is flat. Thank God for that. I tire of these Globalists talking crap.

Bookies have Ireland as 17point favourites. I don't think Argentina have been hockeyed in a while so that seems large to me. Especially if this weather keeps up and the ball rightly doesn't go beyond 12. It's been lashing sideways in Dublin all afternoon.

SecretFly wrote:

Taylorman wrote:

SecretFly wrote:

Taylorman wrote:

SecretFly wrote:Oh well...that makes fluidity of discussion difficult....  luckily I'm on my way out anyway.

Gone fly fishing?

You're a 'cod'ger sure enough Taylor

I was out out...as in actually outside, as in getting drenched by strong gusts of rain wrapped in wind.   So you didn't know how pertinent you were..... oh and then I had a shower..............  You're positively prophetic!

Geez, I came home in strong gusts of rain and wind last night. Been like that for days. I thought one of us was supposed to have good weather being on opposite sides...

I blame Trump, fake news

It's the final proof that the Earth is flat.  Thank God for that.  I tire of these Globalists talking crap.

True...actual photo...took it the other day...

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcSYz9YE93nRBS-4AiqfnHf_77kSE3EWehRF1Fd9BAtm6NY0X5ut

If any of you get a chance listen to the last ten minutes of the 42s rugby podcast. It contains a fantastic letter from a kiwi named Keith.

carpet baboon wrote:If any of you get a chance listen to the last ten minutes of the 42s rugby podcast. It contains a fantastic letter from a kiwi named Keith.

where can you get it?

At the bottom of the latest Sean O'Brien article. That's about 4 since Thursday. Nothing like a Kiwi ranting and raving to brighten up this miserable morning.

Thanks

Ha quality interview. Typical Kiwi moron.

Collapse2005 wrote:Ha quality interview. Typical Kiwi moron.

Takes one to know one.

Taylorman wrote:

Collapse2005 wrote:Ha quality interview. Typical Kiwi moron.

Takes one to know one.

Im not a Kiwi. You havent even listened to the interview.

Collapse2005 wrote:

Taylorman wrote:

Collapse2005 wrote:Ha quality interview. Typical Kiwi moron.

Takes one to know one.

Im not a Kiwi. You havent even listened to the interview.

Dont need to. My response was to your blatant generalistic comment, in that morons generally know one another.

Addison in for henshaw

Jeez. Ireland are playing poorly. The Addison late intro not helping but overall communication and lineout malfunction not looking good.

This is as bad as I've seen Ireland play in a while. The line out has been poor as has the defending in the 10-12 channel

How many times is the referee going to tell Argentina about their discipline before he actually does something

Leavy has been very impressive.

Geez Ireland are the new old South Africa alright. All one and two ups, three tries all from fall overs after multi attempts close in at the goal line, the good ol Aucklander one of em. Havent seen it go through the full backline once.

Meanwhile Argie look sublime with ball in hand at times. Brilliant try from half way, lavanini is having an awesome game.

Here we go again. Fall over number 4?

Better from Ireland, we are back near the line again. Yep, back to one upsys and penalty to ireland.

Tough game as it always is against Argentina.

Gonna have to up it a few gears next Saturday.

Good win to Ireland but not very impressive. Too one dimensional for me on a track begging for the ball to be used in space. Ireland dont seem to have an planned back moves other than to head back in to the defence, kick the corners, bang away at the line endlessly until they score. Theyre good at it, but its too one dimensional.
But Im not picking the matches very well, so I wont go overboad on an AB prediction other than to say Ireland will need more than that, as will the ABs.
Didnt feel we saw the best two sides in world rugby this weeken$ though I guess, we must have.
Looks like Aki will be another one meeting his Super rugby pals next week, looked good on the ball, straight and hard runner as youd expect from a midfielder. Limped a bit at the end there though.

Any injuries?

Taylorman, O'Brien looks like he picked up an arm injury. Looked like a possible break.

Anyone else match Barrett in the pouring rain at 100% goalkicking this week?

Everywhere else was dry in the home nations so no, unless its p1ssing it in Paris this evening

Taylorman wrote:Good win to Ireland but not very impressive. Too one dimensional for me on a track begging for the ball to be used in space. Ireland dont seem to have an planned back moves other than to head back in to the defence, kick the corners, bang away at the line endlessly until they score. Theyre good at it, but its too one dimensional.
But Im not picking the matches very well, so I wont go overboad on an AB prediction other than to say Ireland will need more than that, as will the ABs.
Didnt feel we saw the best two sides in world rugby this weeken$ though I guess, we must have.
Looks like Aki will be another one meeting his Super rugby pals next week, looked good on the ball, straight and hard runner as youd expect from a midfielder. Limped a bit at the end there though.

Any injuries?

Yep not a great performance first up for the team - hopefully they’ll be the better for it.
Lineout went very badly. Cronin and Toner corrected things.

Midfield is a mess with potential injuries. Addison with his first start went well. If Henshaw and Ringrose are out again for next week and Farrell injured, he’ll have to go again. Aki may be carrying an injury too. Hope Arnold doesn’t have to replace him as well but more likely Earls or Stockdale shift inside.

Did we win any contestable kicks? I'd say they won 90% of them.
Lineouts and restarts were also terrible. Coughed up a lot of possession from them and will need a massive improvement next week.


Larmour and Henderson probably played themselves out of the team next week. Sexton wasn't much better and Best is starting to look his age.


Leavy was immense when he came on. SOB is done, unfortunately.


POM, Ryan and Aki were the best of the rest.

Mind you holding Argentina to one try was good going on reflection given the mess of our backline. The Pumas put 3 or 4 past some of the 4 nations teams like Aus and NZ

I feel like Ireland were a little caught between two stools this evening. On the one hand a makeshift midfield with a late change and probably limited enough expansive practice this week with the weather. A malfunctioning kicking and lineout game on the other. Nowhere to go but truck it up against a team that defended very well.

Toner must start next week. Sexton will kick better. First phase attack will be better. Positive is that it was a facile enough win against a supposedly all singing all dancing SH championship team.

The other is that New Zealand weren't all conquering today. Kicked the ball 40-50 times and got out of jail with an offside. Looked vulnerable against the direct style that Taylorman is giving out about above.

Ringrose will be back so that will instantly improve attack and defense,thought McGrath made a big difference when he came on.He just seemed to fibd runners who were on good lines most of the time.
Kearney will definitely start and rightly so, you don't know what you've got til it's gone.
Lineout needs to improve, Best was underthrowing badly,even when we won them tje catcher was getting it on his chest.
PoM and Leavy were good at the ruck and Addison wad excellent considering itvwad his first start and he was thrown in late.
Our restart reception and defense of high balls were both poor,while Sexton was average from play and poor kicking from hand.Isuppose it says a lot that we were so poor at a lot of very basic areas and still won comfortably.

Maine man wrote:Taylorman, O'Brien looks like he picked up an arm injury. Looked like a possible break.

Oh that was OBrien. Ok. Ireland not a lot worse of there though.

A tendency to over-react after a game like that.  

The team looked too nervous and weren't in a mood to impose themselves early enough.  Some of that was that Argentina are a good side but still............ strange mood in the team.  In my mind that happens when certain players aren't fully comfortable with the players next to them.  I think Marmion played with the confidence of probably now being clearly 3rd choice.  You really do need that 9 and 10 to be purring confidence and self belief.  It wasn't there and it permeated through the team.

I'll get back to that point.

Having said that about not enough punch in the side (that can then make moves smoother and cut out the errors) it was still in the end a pretty good score, playing badly, against a strong side.  Had the side gelled more, it would have been a bigger margin of course.

Players can have off days but it was said about this side that there are so many great players in it that one or two players falling off the pace can be to an extent carried.  That didn't happen.  The team suffered when a number of players just didn't have a good night.  Despite the nice try, I'd say Marmion plus Henderson, and Larmour were apparent weak points but few of the players really shone. Leavy and of course Toner added lots of momentum.

Toner seems to just BE.  Now I know that has something to do with his height but there is more to it than that.  He is a very calm and methodical player.  He doesn't have big dips or big disappointments, he holds his own - always.  That regularity calms the minds of the players around him. Like I say, he's more than just the lineout catches. He's really developed into a player probably few of us expected of him when he started out.

So................ , getting back to that earlier point, HOPEFULLY we haven't returned to being a one player team, with a special player - like Hayes once was - that we really can't afford to be without.

Now it's only one night so yes, we have to be cautious about over-reactions.  First time playing together for a time - rust.  But I didn't like that lack of intent and aggression from the start.  Ireland have to play like Number 2 all the time.

A pretty shoddy game with loads of sloppy errors...but still, not a bad result in the end in terms of showing dominance despite the poor performance.

I've been a fan of Best but I can't help feel that father time has caught up with him. Ulster's line out improves imo when he doesn't play. I know it won't happen but I wouldn't mind seeing Scannell starting. Let's see what he's made out of so to speak.

Pot Hale wrote:

Taylorman wrote:Good win to Ireland but not very impressive. Too one dimensional for me on a track begging for the ball to be used in space. Ireland dont seem to have an planned back moves other than to head back in to the defence, kick the corners, bang away at the line endlessly until they score. Theyre good at it, but its too one dimensional.
But Im not picking the matches very well, so I wont go overboad on an AB prediction other than to say Ireland will need more than that, as will the ABs.
Didnt feel we saw the best two sides in world rugby this weeken$ though I guess, we must have.
Looks like Aki will be another one meeting his Super rugby pals next week, looked good on the ball, straight and hard runner as youd expect from a midfielder. Limped a bit at the end there though.

Any injuries?

Yep not a great performance first up for the team - hopefully they’ll be the better for it.
Lineout went very badly.  Cronin and Toner corrected things.

Midfield is a mess with potential injuries. Addison with his first start went well. If Henshaw and Ringrose are out again for next week and Farrell injured, he’ll have to go again.   Aki may be carrying an injury too.   Hope Arnold doesn’t have to replace him as well but more likely Earls or Stockdale shift inside.

Fair enough, no wonder they didnt risk it out wide a lot. Leavy was good. Very effective side in the 22 so ABs dont want them there too often. I just hope we get a dry track for one of these two matches.

Maine man wrote:I've been a fan of Best but I can't help feel that father time has caught up with him. Ulster's line out improves imo when he doesn't play. I know it won't happen but I wouldn't mind seeing Scannell starting. Let's see what he's made out of so to speak.

Time is time, and I think people beginning to ask questions of him will be matched by he himself asking the same questions.

So yes, his end is approaching.... BUT....I still think he'll warm up to a good level next week (if played) and for a bit more in the Irish shirt. Still think he might just make the WC...on merit. Hopefully, he does anyway. I'd like to see him make it - not as a passenger - as an integral part.

Taylorman wrote:

Pot Hale wrote:

Taylorman wrote:Good win to Ireland but not very impressive. Too one dimensional for me on a track begging for the ball to be used in space. Ireland dont seem to have an planned back moves other than to head back in to the defence, kick the corners, bang away at the line endlessly until they score. Theyre good at it, but its too one dimensional.
But Im not picking the matches very well, so I wont go overboad on an AB prediction other than to say Ireland will need more than that, as will the ABs.
Didnt feel we saw the best two sides in world rugby this weeken$ though I guess, we must have.
Looks like Aki will be another one meeting his Super rugby pals next week, looked good on the ball, straight and hard runner as youd expect from a midfielder. Limped a bit at the end there though.

Any injuries?

Yep not a great performance first up for the team - hopefully they’ll be the better for it.
Lineout went very badly.  Cronin and Toner corrected things.

Midfield is a mess with potential injuries. Addison with his first start went well. If Henshaw and Ringrose are out again for next week and Farrell injured, he’ll have to go again.   Aki may be carrying an injury too.   Hope Arnold doesn’t have to replace him as well but more likely Earls or Stockdale shift inside.

Fair enough, no wonder they didnt risk it out wide a lot. Leavy was good. Very effective side in the 22 so ABs dont want them there too often. I just hope we get a dry track for one of these two matches.

Yep - that'll benefit both sides definitely. At least rain stopped before this match but that's November weather for ya in Ireland. Next week expect sunshine and you'll get snow.

Toner made the difference in the lineout, and it was noticeable how the scrum dominance disappeared when Best went off. It's increasingly obvious though that Best isn't going to last to the next RWC, but thus far neither Cronin nor Scannell are putting their hands up.

The Great Aukster wrote:Toner made the difference in the lineout, and it was noticeable how the scrum dominance disappeared when Best went off. It's increasingly obvious though that Best isn't going to last to the next RWC, but thus far neither Cronin nor Scannell are putting their hands up.

Scannell has been very good this season. He does the basics very well. Cronin is a completely different type of player but he's also been playing well.


Having said that I'd still give Best a chance to play his way out of the team. He is captain and experienced so I'd start him next week against the kiwis.


I presume it'll be Ryan and Toner in the row and I think Beirne will make the bench.

Maine man wrote:Everywhere else was dry in the home nations so no, unless its p1ssing it in Paris this evening

Yes, the only one with a 100% record is the kiwi kicker criticised for his poor kicking and hes kicking in a downpour as well..ironic. Even halfpenny missed one in front. Cannot remember that happening outside of womens sevens...

More or less how I thought the game would go. 9 wins in a row in Lansdowne. Not pretty but ground them down. Leavy to start v NZ is probably a good thing.

I thought Henderson had a poor game and I think he's been pretty ordinary for Ulster as of late as well. I think given the lineout problems Schmidt will start Toner and go with either Beirne or Henderson on the bench.

1 - Healy
2 - Best
3 - Furlong
4 - Toner
5 - Ryan
6 - O'Mahony
7 - Leavy
8 - Stander

16 - Cronin
17 - McGrath
18 - Porter
19 - Beirne
20 - Murphy

Collapse2005 wrote:More or less how I thought the game would go. 9 wins in a row in Lansdowne. Not pretty but ground them down. Leavy to start v NZ is probably a good thing.

Yep ground me down as well. Theyre very good at that. ABs wont want to muck around in their own 22 for long as Ireland will do what SA used to do all day. Play the corners and pummel away from there all day.

Theyll want to stretch Ireland as they tried unsuccessfully in horrid conditions to do to England, and got lucky. Not a good effort to change the game plan and got away with it, plain and simple. I would have accepted that try and loss, already had at the time.

Full injuries still to vone out but SBWs shoulder looked his injury, SOBs arm, maybe Aki’s foot, and awkward looking dance on it. Our subs came on early so the load was shared and the returnees will be better for the run.

Just keep the rain away Ireland, this match deserves better.

Taylorman wrote:Anyone else match Barrett in the pouring rain at 100% goalkicking this week?

Barrett was alright. Hes no Sexton though.

Collapse2005 wrote:

Taylorman wrote:Anyone else match Barrett in the pouring rain at 100% goalkicking this week?

Barrett was alright. Hes no Sexton though.

Thank god for that too. Sexton miss a couple did he? Tried one out of range? Gotta know your limits. Ive seen Sexton kick for years and as soon as he said kick for goal i said itll drop short. Even struck well as he could it dropped short. Beyond his limit.

He shoukd have known that. Kickers know their range given the conditions. That was a good two meters short, and he coukdnt have struck it better. Waste of good field posn.