Ones That Got Away XV

[tackle-bag]

Gary Halpin spent the prime period of his career with London Irish.

[simonokeeffe]

we only had Casey for 2 or 3 years and more of a case he made his name in England rather than here, but we could have most certainly done with him here when you consider some of the mutts or the lack of ballast we've had in the second row at times over the last 12 years

[colinmtn]

Kyran Bracken is from Skerries, still does some coaching with kids at Skerries RFC whenever he is over visiting family.

[Livestrong7]

if there the ones that got away, we've done more than ok..cus most players there arent exactly world beaters.

[simonokeeffe]

would disagree with you a bit there, a few journeymen in there definitely but when you look at some of them compared to the people we had instead of them
Geordan Murphy (c80 Irish caps)
Conor O'Shea
Nick Popplewell (Lion)
Brian Carney (look at the clips of him playing league)
Bob Casey (esp compared to Williams, Byrnes, O'Donohue, Potts, Jowett), would have a pre crash McCullough ahead of them too
Paul Doran Jones (compared to Newland, Fossi, Gomez, McCormack)
Felix Jones would have gone to world cup if it wasn't for injury
Roger Wilson (compared to Stephen Keogh)

But yeah Johnny Murphy, Downey etc not huge losses, just saying they did much better/did well elsewhere

[cormac]

Barretto at prop is a must.

On a more serious note, even though I never rated him in his shortish spell at Leinster, Barry Everitt should probably be ahead of Ian Keatley at 10.

[TerenureJim]

would disagree with you a bit there, a few journeymen in there definitely but when you look at some of them compared to the people we had instead of them
Geordan Murphy (c80 Irish caps)

I don't think anyone would argue that we should have swapped Geordan Murphy for Girve and lately Rob realistically if it's between Murphy and Girve well there's no competition as to who the better fullback is IMO.

[Rob K]

Anyone know what happened with Jason H Wright?

[enby]

Anyone know what happened with Jason H Wright?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_u ... 640025.stm

[Rob K]

Anyone know what happened with Jason H Wright?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_u ... 640025.stm

Thanks

[Flash Gordon]

Barretto at prop is a must.

On a more serious note, even though I never rated him in his shortish spell at Leinster, Barry Everitt should probably be ahead of Ian Keatley at 10.

1200 points for Irish. Carried that team for seasons and was leading points scorer in the premiership at a time when Ireland couldn't kick for toffee!

On the subject of exiles, Niall Woods sprung to mind, maybe even Brendan Mullin and of course, Rob Henderson - if memory serves I think he played for Leinster.

[gfo]

Do the likes of Galazra, CJ and Jowitt count? Shocking to think that Jowitt once kept a young man by the name of Sean O'Brien on the bench

[claire_m]

With no disrespect intended, I'd not include Peter Bracken as one that got away.

Having seen him play for the Quins A team a few years ago (and that's not including his time at the pests and the various other clubs he was at), he never really set the world on fire. If he had, he wouldn't have changed clubs every couple of season. Pretty decent guy, by all accounts, nothing more than a semi-decent club player though...

I'd possibly include Simon Keogh in there too, but only because he became such a favourite of the Stoop faithful. Well aware that we couldn't pronounce his name right, I still hear 'KKKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH' being shouted out by over 10,000 when he scored (or even touched the ball!) in my head. Fond memories...

[cormac]

Barretto at prop is a must.

On a more serious note, even though I never rated him in his shortish spell at Leinster, Barry Everitt should probably be ahead of Ian Keatley at 10.

1200 points for Irish. Carried that team for seasons and was leading points scorer in the premiership at a time when Ireland couldn't kick for toffee!

On the subject of exiles, Niall Woods sprung to mind, maybe even Brendan Mullin and of course, Rob Henderson - if memory serves I think he played for Leinster.

Thought Henderson only played for us once, against Argentina before the RWC in 99. Think that was as a favour to the IRFU as he probably needed game time, Kieron Dawson also started for us that evening. We were hammered, with a future Leinster favourite racking up the scores for Argentina.

[R-Dog]

Dont think we can really count the likes of wallace, wilson and mccullagh as ones who got away. The might have been in college in dublin but had all been involved with ulster already at schools level and were still involved at u20's/development contract level.

The real big one who got away was Ciaran Scally lost to injury aged 20, in the same year in school as BOD and made his international debut before him too!

On the positive side we can look at the ones we got back,

Miller was a lion with lecister but had some great performances for us
leo and jenno no doubt came back better players from lecister too

Mal and Vic had a hiatus at London Irish too

[Jimi Caucaunibuca]

Didn't Aaron Maugher play a few games for Suttonians,now that was a player that should have been held against his will and made declare forIreland........

[ceemec]

He did. Came over for a year when he was 18 or 19. His jersey is still on the wall in the bar. Very popular lad there and has mates around the area.

[simonokeeffe]

whole point of the thread was players we missed out on or that enjoyed more success elsewhere or made their names elsewhere
RE Bracken not a huge loss per se but compared to some dodgy props we have had, front row esp was the tough area as was pack in gen for making a XV out of it, but yeah Wilson, McCullough a wee bit tenuous.
Backs was the easy part for the basis with Carney, Murphy, Artemyiev, Jones etc

Galarza an interesting one as good enough to be on Argentina's bench but not ours

Aaron Mauger and Brian Carney 2 big losses/missed opportunities

CJ more of just a duff signing

[Dave Cahill]

whole point of the thread was players we missed out on or that enjoyed more success elsewhere or made their names elsewhere
RE Bracken not a huge loss per se but compared to some dodgy props we have had, front row esp was the tough area as was pack in gen for making a XV out of it, but yeah Wilson, McCullough a wee bit tenuous.
Backs was the easy part for the basis with Carney, Murphy, Artemyiev, Jones etc

Galarza an interesting one as good enough to be on Argentina's bench but not ours

Aaron Mauger and Brian Carney 2 big losses/missed opportunities

CJ more of just a duff signing

Brian Carney? Really? He was a seconds player for Lansdowne before taking up a different sport, and when he returned to Union we saw why.

[Ruckedtobits]

Dara O'Mahony - winger, ex-UCD, try scorer extraordinary in Premiership. Must be worth a review as one that got away