Saints away 7th December

[carlow man]

Ports, dev, doris, jgp, Dk all in! Wow!!

[wixfjord]

15. Jordan Larmour (41)
14. Dave Kearney (141)
13. Garry Ringrose (67)
12. Robbie Henshaw (39)
11. James Lowe (36)
10. Johnny Sexton (162) CAPTAIN
9. Jamison Gibson-Park (79)
1. Cian Healy (211)
2. Rónan Kelleher (9)
3. Andrew Porter (56)
4. Devin Toner (239)
5. James Ryan (33)
6. Rhys Ruddock (164)
7. Josh van der Flier (75)
8. Caelan Doris (23)

16. James Tracy (101)
17. Ed Byrne (48)
18. Tadhg Furlong (103)
19. Scott Fardy (50)
20. Max Deegan (54)
21. Luke McGrath (116)
22. Ross Byrne (79)
23. Rob Kearney (212)

Very tasty side and some bench to bring in!

Delighted for Porter and Doris, form selections.

[wixfjord]

15 Ahsee Tuala
14 Tom Collins
13 Matt Proctor
12 Rory Hutchinson
11 Taqele Naiyaravoro
10 Dan Biggar
9 Cobus Reinach

1 Alex Waller (co-capt)
2 Mike Haywood
3 Ehren Painter
4 Alex Moon
5 Api Ratuniyarawa
6 Tom Wood
7 Jamie Gibson
8 Teimana Harrison (co-capt)

Replacements:
16 Michael van Vuuren
17 Francois van Wyk
18 Paul Hill
19 Alex Coles
20 Lewis Ludlam
21 Connor Tupai
22 James Grayson
23 Piers Francis

Biggar in, no Lawes or Franks bros.

[arsebiscuits1]

Can't see that pack living with ours to be honest.

Massive gap between out starting 8 and theirs (except possibly for Harrison and Doris)

[wixfjord]

I wonder should we expect to see RK, McGrath, Furlong, Fardy, Deegan in for leg two.
Nice bit of rotation.

[wixfjord]

Getting Lowe one on one v Collins could be very interesting. Big power differential there.

Proctor v Ringrose should be fascinating to watch. Need our centres to have big games defensively.

[St.Kenneth]

It's the loss of George Furbank at 15 that worries me most. He had two HIA's during the Leicester match, so perhaps he is out with something along those lines. Never been a huge admirer of Tuala and Furbank was on fire last weekend.

On paper there is only one winner of this match. Your side is stronger in every department, but big things are expected in the future for the likes of Hutchinson, Painter, Moon, Hill, Coles, Ludlam, Grayson so it will be interesting to see how we stack up. I hope we give you a good run around and should you end up winning, I hope it's the hardest game you've had to play in a long while.

Safe travels to all coming over.

[carlow man]

Would love to see henshaw have a big game in attack. Think he might be starting to be remembered for his defensive strength and being a leader in the backline but I'd like to see him show more with ball in hand. Conor o'Brien had a great game with his ability to beat defenders on the outside and give the pass rather than trucking it up the middle. Think he could push rob this year if he stays injury free and keeps up the form from Glasgow away

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Apart from DK that's the team I thought we'd start next week if this game went well, really surprised we've gone with it.

I find it strange that Dev and Doris start after playing the 80 last week, but like I said the other day Doris was great so it's not like he doesn't deserve it. Connors is really unlucky to miss out, just unfortunate that he only covers 7 and hopefully he'll get still get to play lots of big games over the next couple of months.

I don't really get the DK selection, don't think he's playing well, and for me the JGP one is odd timing. If he'd played well last week it would make complete sense but he was poor.

Didn't expect Rob to be on the bench after he made it back a couple of weeks ago, but really I want Larmour to be our starting fullback now and this is a huge game for him to lay down a marker in. Porter fully deserves the start and I'm excited about that one as well.

I just love how the coaches always back the players and aren't afraid to try things. We just won in Lyon and yet they make all these changes.

[cormac]

Apart from DK that's the team I thought we'd start next week if this game went well, really surprised we've gone with it.

I find it strange that Dev and Doris start after playing the 80 last week, but like I said the other day Doris was great so it's not like he doesn't deserve it. Connors is really unlucky to miss out, just unfortunate that he only covers 7 and hopefully he'll get still get to play lots of big games over the next couple of months.

I don't really get the DK selection, don't think he's playing well, and for me the JGP one is odd timing. If he'd played well last week it would make complete sense but he was poor.

Didn't expect Rob to be on the bench after he made it back a couple of weeks ago, but really I want Larmour to be our starting fullback now and this is a huge game for him to lay down a marker in. Porter fully deserves the start and I'm excited about that one as well.

I just love how the coaches always back the players and aren't afraid to try things. We just won in Lyon and yet they make all these changes.

With all the RWC players getting two-weeks holidays over Christmas I suspect that Connors will be starting both interpros against Ulster and Munster.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Co captains? What wanky nonsense

It'll be interesting to see how JGP does against Reinach. He's a decent defender but Luke is a really good one, would have thought you'd want him to keep an eye on Reinach's break and trail runs.

Ludham is good but our bench looks far better, might make a big difference.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Apart from DK that's the team I thought we'd start next week if this game went well, really surprised we've gone with it.

I find it strange that Dev and Doris start after playing the 80 last week, but like I said the other day Doris was great so it's not like he doesn't deserve it. Connors is really unlucky to miss out, just unfortunate that he only covers 7 and hopefully he'll get still get to play lots of big games over the next couple of months.

I don't really get the DK selection, don't think he's playing well, and for me the JGP one is odd timing. If he'd played well last week it would make complete sense but he was poor.

Didn't expect Rob to be on the bench after he made it back a couple of weeks ago, but really I want Larmour to be our starting fullback now and this is a huge game for him to lay down a marker in. Porter fully deserves the start and I'm excited about that one as well.

I just love how the coaches always back the players and aren't afraid to try things. We just won in Lyon and yet they make all these changes.

With all the RWC players getting two-weeks holidays over Christmas I suspect that Connors will be starting both interpros against Ulster and Munster.

Yeah and if we were to win the next two games then I'd love to see him be involved in the last two European games as well, maybe one start and one bench appearance.

[St.Kenneth]

Can't see that pack living with ours to be honest.

Massive gap between out starting 8 and theirs (except possibly for Harrison and Doris)

As you say, our pack is significantly weaker than yours. Healy v 21 year old Painter and Toner up against 23 year old Moon being prime examples of the gulf in experience between the two sides. Our back row is pretty competitive, although Gibson does have a habit of giving away silly penalties at times, so Sexton should be happy about that.

[tingman]

Can't see that pack living with ours to be honest.

Massive gap between out starting 8 and theirs (except possibly for Harrison and Doris)

Bang on - this is where we should win this thing.....squeeze them hard up front.

[arsebiscuits1]

Can't see that pack living with ours to be honest.

Massive gap between out starting 8 and theirs (except possibly for Harrison and Doris)

As you say, our pack is significantly weaker than yours. Healy v 21 year old Painter and Toner up against 23 year old Moon being prime examples of the gulf in experience between the two sides. Our back row is pretty competitive, although Gibson does have a habit of giving away silly penalties at times, so Sexton should be happy about that.

He might well be. But he definitely wont show it

That pack are well capable of just putting the squeeze on the opposition. Should hopefully be able to keep you playing in your half.

Biggar might fancy a few tests of Larmour at fullback though

[carlow man]

It's the loss of George Furbank at 15 that worries me most. He had two HIA's during the Leicester match, so perhaps he is out with something along those lines. Never been a huge admirer of Tuala and Furbank was on fire last weekend.

On paper there is only one winner of this match. Your side is stronger in every department, but big things are expected in the future for the likes of Hutchinson, Painter, Moon, Hill, Coles, Ludlam, Grayson so it will be interesting to see how we stack up. I hope we give you a good run around and should you end up winning, I hope it's the hardest game you've had to play in a long while.

Safe travels to all coming over.

On paper Ireland should have beaten Japan but we all know what happened there!! If leinster play to their maximum then we will win. If not and saints continue their recent form then it's a 50/50 game. Hope it's a cracker of a game. All the best mate!!!

Delighted that it's only 30 min drive for me so I'm happy but hope everyone gets over and back safely!!

[tingman]

It's the loss of George Furbank at 15 that worries me most. He had two HIA's during the Leicester match, so perhaps he is out with something along those lines. Never been a huge admirer of Tuala and Furbank was on fire last weekend.

On paper there is only one winner of this match. Your side is stronger in every department, but big things are expected in the future for the likes of Hutchinson, Painter, Moon, Hill, Coles, Ludlam, Grayson so it will be interesting to see how we stack up. I hope we give you a good run around and should you end up winning, I hope it's the hardest game you've had to play in a long while.

Safe travels to all coming over.

Thanks, Ken....may the best team and all that!......it should be tasty one though!

[LeRouxIsPHat]

He might well be. But he definitely wont show it

That pack are well capable of just putting the squeeze on the opposition. Should hopefully be able to keep you playing in your half.

Biggar might fancy a few tests of Larmour at fullback though

Biggar would fancy a few high balls against anyone really, he's probably the best in the world at chasing his own kicks, maybe the best ever.

[joooooe]

Co captains? What wanky nonsense

It'll be interesting to see how JGP does against Reinach. He's a decent defender but Luke is a really good one, would have thought you'd want him to keep an eye on Reinach's break and trail runs.

Ludham is good but our bench looks far better, might make a big difference.

Given that only the captain is allowed to speak to the referee why don't we just have 15 "co-captains". It's BS.

[St.Kenneth]

Yep, don't understand the co-cap thing myself, especially as they are both forwards. It's obviously a NZ thing as Wayne Smith did the same when he was in charge some years ago now.