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A bit early to be picking a lions team before a squad has been picked and the form of players at the time of the tour can be seen but here goes.

Kearney
Williams
O'Driscoll
Darcy
Sackey
Hook
Peel
Jenkins
Flannery
Vickery
O'Callaghan
O'Connell
Wallace
Williams
Heaslip

Play a left and right flanker like the French do rather than openside and blindside. That is 8 Irish players, that is 8 Irish, 5 welsh and 2 English players based on the form of the tournament

[The foot came out]

I thought the ref was a bit of a lottery and had way too much influence on the game. A penalty ratio of 17-4 seems highly unusual too. Though I did think it was justice that O'Gara missed the first one - looked like a dive to me. I didn't see any contact. But when I mentioned it in the pub last night I was shouted down. "The foot came out", I was told. I didn't see it. What do people think? (Looking for ammo to resume the debate tonight).

It did but on such a great day for Irish Rugby and Sport how did you end up debating that ??

p.s hope u do your grand national thing again this year.

No the Welsh player obviously obstructed him, they were at it all day and got pulled up for it once. He may or may not have dived obstruction is still a penalty though.

Having just watched the final penalty decision again, I am still not sure that what the ref did was right. From what I could see it should have been a penalty the other way for holding on. Wallace did not come in from the side he was a part of the ruck and moved towards the side to try and pick up the ball, maybe the ref had already said hands away its a ruck but I didn't hear that. I can't see the start of the play on the replay I have so it may not have been a ruck when Wallace first put hands on the ball. I thought the ref gave a couple of other dogy penalty decisions to Wales as well.

[Wallace not on long enough to be rated]

he came on into the white heat of battle, but he may claim the Irish number 2 jersey off Flannery in the near future.
Wallace not on long enough to be rated.
Court not on long enough to be rated

On wards and upwards lads, I can't wait for the next world cup, with the exception of Hayes, Dave Wallace and injuries they will all be there again. This is just the beginning ,Kidney is already a legend the real deal as a coach unlike EOS and it is going to be so good for Ireland to have someone like him in the "most important position on the team"

Would disagree.. For someone only on the field a couple of minutes, he managed to score himself a fat zero in my book for that act of stupidity....
All in all though fantastic achievement with O Drisc and O Connell immense, yet again.
Well done lads!

i missed that are you implying that he gave away the last penalty, please expand on that.

Murphy - 7
Had a good clearance to touch and was the last man to touch the ball.
Stringer - 6
Got to the pace of the game straight away and started making mistakes, like everybody else on the team. Got runover by Phillips and got up to redeem himself and drag phillips down but the damage was done and Jones dropped a goal.

Are you serious??? All Murphy did was drop a simple pass when there wasn't a Welshman within 50 yards of him, the resilt of which was that it ended up costing three points. Phillips did not flatten Stringer, Stringer went to ground as that's the only way he could have brought him down and prevented a try after Phillips had already broken several tackles. O'Connell even said in the interview afterwards that he was the one who missed the original tackle on Phillips. Stringer also made another fantastic tackle (on Williams I think) and expertly controlled the forwards to set up O'Gara's drop goal.

That dropped pass was an over cooked pass by Stringer. Stringer missed a tackle on Phillips and then got up and tackled  him 10 yards closer to the Irish goal line, hardly the best example of Stringers passing ability. I saw that replayed a few times. Like I said I had no help from the tv people or the people in tomorrows papers, stick up your own player ratings so we can have a laugh at them too.

Sensational. What a great way to win a grand slam. It was better than a 50 point victory to win it that way. I did not think it was a penalty to Wales at the end so justice was done, anyone disagree with that. I though the game itself though was very scrappy and will make an attempt to do some player ratings. I watched in a noisy pub so they are my own opinions and might not correspond with what Hook and Guscott had to say.

15 Kearney - 6.5
Had a bad knock on before being subbed but was solid enough.
14 Bowe - 8
He has to get a good mark for the game clinching try. How sweet was that moment, after going in at half time thinking same old story and then to come out in the first 6 minutes of the second half and score 2 trys, the second under the posts. I was over the moon at that point, think Ray Houghton scoring against England in Stuttgart or against Italy in New York for an equivalent moment of great sporting importance.
13 O'Driscoll - 8
He began the turn around in the second half, the guy is immense and will be the Lions Captain again imho.
12 Darcy - 7.5
Gordon darcy is back from the dead, making breaks, making the gain line on most of his carries and has been under estimated over the years.
11 Fitzgerald - 7.5
Had a great break on the counter attack returning a Welsh kick that might have lead to an Irish score and solid in the rest of his play.
10 O'Gara - 8.5
For the drop goal and the kick that set up Tommy Bowes try, they were game changing moments. Had some hairy moments during the game but delivered when it mattered most.
9 O'Leary - 7
an erratic performance from O'Leary but that mirrored the game where a lot of players made a lot of mistakes, his kicking was a mixed bag, but you can see the importance of his strength and tackling when he went off Stringer got run over by Phillips to help set up the Welsh drop goal.
8 Heaslip - 7
Not his best game of the championship but a decent enough performance from someone who has become one of Irelands players strongest performers on a consistent basis.
7 Wallace - 7
Not the greatest of games from Wallace who slipped on a couple of occasions(as did O'Leary, Stringer and a number of others) but this guy deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as O'Driscoll, O'Connell and Wood. The David O'Leary of Irish rugby, the best back row player for Ireland of this golden era. It is not surprising that we win a grand slam when the coach who thought he wasn't up to it for so long is replaced by Kidney. I think if Kidney had been in charge since 2005 we would probably have had 2 grand slams and Wales 1. Anyway on with the ratings
6 Ferris - not on long enough to be rated
Great championship and this player has arrived and is here to stay, at last a big powerful ulster player on the team to give Ireland a bit of a physical edge that they may have at times lacked(think of Simon Easterby), as good as easterby was Ferris is a big upgrade in this position.
5 O'Connell - 10
To the best of my recollection, he destroyed the Welsh lineout and won the game for us single handedly. Little more needs to be said.
4 - O'Callaghan - 6.5
Must learn not to push Welsh scrum halves, could have cost us a grand slam but we will forgive him
3 Hayes - 7
The scrum did ok today and he even got involved in the loose play passing and running the ball
2 - Flannery - 7.5
The line out held up very well today considering all the other mistakes that were made during the course of the game, and was the basis for this victory
1 - Horan - 7
The Clare man srummaged solidly and was involved in a turnover or 2 in general play

Subs
Leamy - 7.5
Came in after about 10 minutes for ferris and didn't let the side down after coming back from a serious injury and getting injured against the Scots he grabbed this opportunity with both hands and will be hard to keep off the team in future.
Murphy - 7
Had a good clearance to touch and was the last man to touch the ball.
Stringer - 6
Got to the pace of the game straight away and started making mistakes, like everybody else on the team. Got runover by Phillips and got up to redeem himself and drag phillips down but the damage was done and Jones dropped a goal.
Best - Like  Stringer found it difficult when he came on into the white heat of battle, but he may claim the Irish number 2 jersey off Flannery in the near future.
Wallace not on long enough to be rated.
Court not on long enough to be rated

On wards and upwards lads, I can't wait for the next world cup, with the exception of Hayes, Dave Wallace and injuries they will all be there again. This is just the beginning ,Kidney is already a legend the real deal as a coach unlike EOS and it is going to be so good for Ireland to have someone like him in the "most important position on the team"

Does anyone remember how Wales won the grand slam last year, shutting down all their matches with 2o minutes to go with endless recycling going nowhere,as long as they were a few points ahead? It doesn't really matter as long as you win at the end of the day.

Stringer got man of the match, hopefully Kidney won't buy into that and bring O'Leary back in for Cardiff as he is the better player imho. Stringer got the break for the try when half the pitch opened up in front of him after some consistent Irish pressure but O'Leary still does that type of thing a lot better. Overall a solid performance from the team today and not too big a win to get us over confident going into the Cardiff match. I don't know whether we are good  enough to win that game or whether the Welsh will raise their performance levels as they seem to be running out of steam after good form in the Autumn internationals and at the start of the 6 nations. It is in Cardiff where we are usually second to none and all the cards seem to be falling into place. So retain Darcy in the team and bring back Heaslip Flannery and O'Leary and I will go for ireland by 3 poiints.

Got a thing at work to do any help with these anagrams would be much appreciated, apparently they are either famous comedians or comedy actors.

DEVILRY OH AR - Oliver Hardy

CHINCHILLA PEAR - Charlie Chaplin

HONOR AND LA LA - Ardal O'Hanlon

FRANCS KRONA -

TALCUM SAT - Matt Lucas

JACKY RUB IT MM -

HARRY RIPCORD - Richard Pryor

UNMORAL PET - Paul Merton

MY RICE JAR - Jim Carrey

Cheers lads for any help

7 out of nine on my own.

I wouldn't have made the changes myself lads, however I can seee what Kidney is trying to do in terms of this match and looking down the road to Cardiff and beyond. All the positions changed, the replacement coming in is just as good as the player dropped. In relation to Best for Flannery, Best will increase the scrummaging strength against a strong scottish pack, and negate an area where the Scots could have gained a big advantage. Stringer for O'Leary, one of the strengths O'Leary has apart from line breaking is his kicking game. Ireland have introduced a game plan similar to Argentina had getting third place in the world cup of putting up a lot of garyowens with O'Leary doing a lot of this. Scotland however only lost against Argentina by a point in the world cup indicating this us the type of game they would like to play. So as well of a qicker pass the inclusion of Stringer points to a change of tactic and getting the ball wide quicker and more often. Darcy for Wallace, Darcy as well as being the better player is the better attacking midfield runner and tackler which will be better for a game plan that will see us running the ball more. He is also very good on the ground in midfield which will be very important against the strong rucking Scots. As I said earlier Wallaces kicking strengths won't be required as much in this game. Leamy for Heaslip, Leamy is the more rugged type of scrappy player and a better rucker(important against the Scots) wheras Heaslip has better ball carrying skills. As I see us putting the ball wide more instead of Heaslip running off the base of the scrum, which could be a backward moving scrum against the powerful Scottish pack. It is hard to make good yards from number 8 when the pack are reeling backwards.

On the whole I think it is good to see Kidney making changes like this, I don't think the team loses very much over all if anything in terms of overall skill by making the 4 changes. The changes also look shrewd in terms of the opposition and likely tactics for this game. What is really good to see thinking back is changes like these never happened under O'Sullivan, not only do these changes look correct given the opposition they also will help increase a sense of competition within the matchday squad. Under O'Sullian and a lot of other coaches, change only came after a defeat or when a player was injured, this created complacency within the squads. Of the 4 players picked for this game I think Darcy retains his place for the Welsh game, the other 3 need to play out of their skins or close to perfect to hold on to their places.

Liverpool were very good tonight but to say, as someone did, that no one could live with them the way they were playing tonight is pushing it big time. Real were awful, I think that was plain to see. English football would appear to be leaps and bounds ahead of anything the continent has to offer.

.

"English football" 5 Spaniards and a Spanish manager in Liverpools first 11. I thought it was a great night for Spanish football also. How many Spaniards were on the Real team?

Anvil - The Story of Anvil. This is one you have to go and see it is a mocumentary and a cross between "Spinal Tap" and "The Wrestler". The best film I have seen in a while.

It isnt a mockumentary- its a documentary.

Tell me more about Anvil then, had you heard of them before this. I am trying to work it out, but it is not a straight up documentary it is a mocumentary. It will remind you of those 2 movies I have mentioned and is still very good regardless of what genre it lands in.

I watched 'In Bruges' on Sunday night, and I enjoyed it very much too.  Three excellent performances, even though Ralph Fiennes could never pass for a Cockney git.

The film was originally a stage play, and Feinnes played that role as it was played on stage, ie it is a bit camp and over the top effort for an east end villain( at least that is my opinion of his effort)

Anvil - The Story of Anvil. This is one you have to go and see it is a mocumentary and a cross between "Spinal Tap" and "The Wrestler". The best film I have seen in a while.

I saw the spirit and quite enjoyed it. It only has a 5.2 rating on IMDB which I can't understand. It is very like Sin City obviously. I think if you like that type of movie you will like this one.