The IRISH RUGBY thread

[JPGJOHNNYG]

I think Ireland rugby's whole stance on player recruitment is leaving them harder for me to support them like I used to. At the weekend Niall Annett played his 100th game for Worchester Warriors as hooker yet we had Rob Herring from South Africa at number 2 yesterday, Donnacha Ryan and Simon Zebo discarded for going to France yet a blind eye was turned to Sexton. We have James Lowe who to be honest wouldn't get near England, France, Wales or Scotland squads and Billy Burns on the bench who knew he hadn't a hope of getting an England cap.

I agree that its daft not picking the boys playing in England or France. They are doing it to try and protect the provinces but at the expense of the national team? - seems crazy to me. Gareth steenson was one of the top out halves in the premiership for years and never got close to a cap
Some of the foreign lads have been great like stander but James Lowe has been shown up to be very average. Not much point bringing in a whole load of imports who dont actually improve the squad. JGP is another we have plenty of alternatives- maybe not great but certainly not worse than him.

[sid waddell]

The IRFU are right to want to protect the domestic game

A fair compromise would probably be to allow players over a certain age who are playing abroad to be eligible for the national team

Say 28 or 29

[GetOverTheBar]

Ireland find themselves in the bizarre situation where even after a fairly decent win, we still are a bit down on the whole thing.

I've long thought JGP/Lowe/Aki have been fairly second rate to be honest, add on top of them poor enough domestic born players like Earls....although he wasn't too bad yesterday as it happens.

I don't know why the country persists in going after what are not really much better than what we produce anyway, is Aki that much better than McCloskey or Farrell for example that it kept them from really getting a proper chance over the past few years? (I know Farrell was in France until 2017 odd and pretty much slipped through the gaps).

Of course Ireland doesn't have a massive pick, the Sexton anomaly of being picked whilst abroad leaves a fairly bad taste I suppose. You have Zebo, Ryan and even Paddy Jackson (I know) that would come straight into that starting 15 at the minute. Maybe Zebo v Keenan would be a decent debate for a manager. Jackson v Cooney would be a serious battle too actually. It would be better to have them, but sure we didn't really care too much during 2016 to about 2018 when Ireland were genuinely World Class.

For what its worth, like Sid says they are right to protect the domestic game....but if the question was an Irish man in France or a Kiwi in Dublin (after his time), is that threading on racial grounds? I don't know, I just think Ireland in the spot they are in now from what they were 2 years ago....can only hope Farrell begins to turn the tide really. The problem is, Lowe / JGP will be 30+ by time the World Cup comes, so we've already decided they are getting the 4 year cycle at it.

[tonto1888]

I'm not sure what league they are trialling this in but the league Rob Kearney is playing in now is doing the 50:22 rule which looks like a good way of rewarding a good kick into the opposition 22 by giving the kicking team the line out ball rather than the defending team

So they have basically taken the 40:20 rule from rugby league

[dublin7]

I don't thnk you can plan 4 years ahead in rugby as it's such an attritional sport and injures have such a key role. Ireland need the income from finishing high in the 6 nations table so just throwing in a new team and finishing down the table isn't an option.

I think Earls and JGP are unfairly criticised here. JGP's kicking yesterday had Scotland in all sorts of trouble and it was a successful tactic all day. Murray used to be a master of this as well but in recent years for whatever reason his box kicking has been very poor and that's probably why he didn't make it off the bench yesterday. Whatever about the merits of Cooney, Schmidt and now Farrell clearly don't fancy him as he seems a long way from their thoughts. They see him and speak to the provincial coaches regularly so they obvioulsy have their reasons.

The criticism the Irish football team get is bad, but reading some of the papers online today you'd think Ireland lost yesterday. Some of the criticism to me seems way over the top. 

[Estimator]

Selection for the England game will be interesting. Will he persist with Lowe + JGP, given their poor performances? It was said in the run up to the game that Farrell was picking a team to beat Scotland, not looking at the future. But the team just about got over the line, and needed Sexton to play the full 80mins.. plus Scotland were playing with a replacement scrum-half in the back row towards the end of the game.

I'd assume that James Ryan will be out after his knock. I'd hope Stockdale returns to the wing in place of Lowe and Murray will probably start over JGP

[seafoid]

I don't thnk you can plan 4 years ahead in rugby as it's such an attritional sport and injures have such a key role. Ireland need the income from finishing high in the 6 nations table so just throwing in a new team and finishing down the table isn't an option.

I think Earls and JGP are unfairly criticised here. JGP's kicking yesterday had Scotland in all sorts of trouble and it was a successful tactic all day. Murray used to be a master of this as well but in recent years for whatever reason his box kicking has been very poor and that's probably why he didn't make it off the bench yesterday. Whatever about the merits of Cooney, Schmidt and now Farrell clearly don't fancy him as he seems a long way from their thoughts. They see him and speak to the provincial coaches regularly so they obvioulsy have their reasons.

The criticism the Irish football team get is bad, but reading some of the papers online today you'd think Ireland lost yesterday. Some of the criticism to me seems way over the top.

They do try to plan ahead. Paddy Jackson was the chosen replacement for Sexton and they brought Billy Boots over from England wheren that didn't work out. The team hasn't recovered from 2019 when the tactics were found out.  Is it the coaches or the players ?

[Gmac]

I don't thnk you can plan 4 years ahead in rugby as it's such an attritional sport and injures have such a key role. Ireland need the income from finishing high in the 6 nations table so just throwing in a new team and finishing down the table isn't an option.

I think Earls and JGP are unfairly criticised here. JGP's kicking yesterday had Scotland in all sorts of trouble and it was a successful tactic all day. Murray used to be a master of this as well but in recent years for whatever reason his box kicking has been very poor and that's probably why he didn't make it off the bench yesterday. Whatever about the merits of Cooney, Schmidt and now Farrell clearly don't fancy him as he seems a long way from their thoughts. They see him and speak to the provincial coaches regularly so they obvioulsy have their reasons.

The criticism the Irish football team get is bad, but reading some of the papers online today you'd think Ireland lost yesterday. Some of the criticism to me seems way over the top.

They do try to plan ahead. Paddy Jackson was the chosen replacement for Sexton and they brought Billy Boots over from England wheren that didn't work out. The team hasn't recovered from 2019 when the tactics were found out.  Is it the coaches or the players ?

if I was Ireland I wouldn't try pass the ball around like they have done the last couple games against England I would kick for territory and go for the disruption of the English line out try get penalties and keep game in England's half .

[dublin7]

I don't thnk you can plan 4 years ahead in rugby as it's such an attritional sport and injures have such a key role. Ireland need the income from finishing high in the 6 nations table so just throwing in a new team and finishing down the table isn't an option.

I think Earls and JGP are unfairly criticised here. JGP's kicking yesterday had Scotland in all sorts of trouble and it was a successful tactic all day. Murray used to be a master of this as well but in recent years for whatever reason his box kicking has been very poor and that's probably why he didn't make it off the bench yesterday. Whatever about the merits of Cooney, Schmidt and now Farrell clearly don't fancy him as he seems a long way from their thoughts. They see him and speak to the provincial coaches regularly so they obvioulsy have their reasons.

The criticism the Irish football team get is bad, but reading some of the papers online today you'd think Ireland lost yesterday. Some of the criticism to me seems way over the top.

They do try to plan ahead. Paddy Jackson was the chosen replacement for Sexton and they brought Billy Boots over from England wheren that didn't work out. The team hasn't recovered from 2019 when the tactics were found out.  Is it the coaches or the players ?

Joey Carbery was seen as the replacement for Sexton (they'll still hope he will be) that's why he went to Munster. Burns was signed as a replacement for Jackson as he is Irish qualified.

England have a better side than Ireland at the moment. I don't think you can blame anyone for that. That's just the way cycles work in sport. England got caught out by Scotland on the opening weekend with Jones picking players lacking match sharpness and England probably underestimating Scotland, but they looked good on Saturday with the run of games under their belt and it's clearly made a difference

[Estimator]

James Ryan and Gary Ringrose out of the game this weekend.

[seafoid]

I don't thnk you can plan 4 years ahead in rugby as it's such an attritional sport and injures have such a key role. Ireland need the income from finishing high in the 6 nations table so just throwing in a new team and finishing down the table isn't an option.

I think Earls and JGP are unfairly criticised here. JGP's kicking yesterday had Scotland in all sorts of trouble and it was a successful tactic all day. Murray used to be a master of this as well but in recent years for whatever reason his box kicking has been very poor and that's probably why he didn't make it off the bench yesterday. Whatever about the merits of Cooney, Schmidt and now Farrell clearly don't fancy him as he seems a long way from their thoughts. They see him and speak to the provincial coaches regularly so they obvioulsy have their reasons.

The criticism the Irish football team get is bad, but reading some of the papers online today you'd think Ireland lost yesterday. Some of the criticism to me seems way over the top.

They do try to plan ahead. Paddy Jackson was the chosen replacement for Sexton and they brought Billy Boots over from England wheren that didn't work out. The team hasn't recovered from 2019 when the tactics were found out.  Is it the coaches or the players ?

Joey Carbery was seen as the replacement for Sexton (they'll still hope he will be) that's why he went to Munster. Burns was signed as a replacement for Jackson as he is Irish qualified.

England have a better side than Ireland at the moment. I don't think you can blame anyone for that. That's just the way cycles work in sport. England got caught out by Scotland on the opening weekend with Jones picking players lacking match sharpness and England probably underestimating Scotland, but they looked good on Saturday with the run of games under their belt and it's clearly made a difference

Forgot about JC
England have been significantly better than Ireland in the recent past.

[From the Bunker]

As a sunshine Rugby fan looking from the outside. The following amazes me:

How England and France are not miles ahead?

How Ireland do as well as they do?

How Scotland kept going up to now?

How long more can we put up with Italy?

How the media are excited this week about an England/Ireland game that means nothing?

How every year we have more and more non Irish born playing for Ireland?

[Tony Baloney]

Stander retiring at end of this season.

[Capt Pat]

Stander retiring at end of this season.

That is a blow to the Irish and Munster teams. He is just 30 years old.

[gallsman]

Not sure it's that big a deal for Ireland to be honest. He slows play down a lot and the forwards are motoring quite a bit at the minute. Not sure he'd be first choice going forward.