Wales v Ireland Fri 10th March 8 05pm

[Oldschool]

Obviously disagree on the selections at 15 and 23. Bowe, legend that he is, hasn't been in the top 10 wingers in Ireland this year. Would he make any of the provinces 23's - hope we don't need to chase the game

Slightly worried about our backrow v Warburton and Tipuric

Big test for Ringrose - will definitely be targeted, but confident he'll get through

We shoudl be winning this looking at the teams

Agree on Bowe but if you are selecting a FB based on current form then RK's international form is better than Zebo's international form.
In fact RK, since and including the NZ game in Chicago has been quite effective and not just under the high ball.
He has made a number of telling incursions into the line, leading to or almost leading to tries, give the man some credit.
As regards BR hopefully Joe et all have a plan.

[The Avoidable Stench]

I think Kearney has completely validated his selection over the first three games this year and his worth was obvious after he went off in the France game. The French started to find grass a lot more often with their kicking play. RK covers the backfield with minimal help from his wings as well as most back three's do working together.

[simonokeeffe]

Welsh have been livid over Faletau coming on as a preplanned sub for Moriarty despite him playing so well from the start, Warburton has grown well into a 6 though

Ringrose will be grand v Davies, Davies is a poor passer and seldom does it so relatively easy to defend against

[Golf Man]

Agree on Bowe but if you are selecting a FB based on current form then RK's international form is better than Zebo's international form.
In fact RK, since and including the NZ game in Chicago has been quite effective and not just under the high ball.
He has made a number of telling incursions into the line, leading to or almost leading to tries, give the man some credit.
As regards BR hopefully Joe et all have a plan.

I think Kearney has completely validated his selection over the first three games this year and his worth was obvious after he went off in the France game. The French started to find grass a lot more often with their kicking play. RK covers the backfield with minimal help from his wings as well as most back three's do working together.

I'll do one post on this because I'm not getting into another Kearney dialogue

- Kearneys performance in New Zealand has been completely overstated - he made a good break that led to Standers try and was better in attack than he has been. he had a glaring error in Barretts try - yes there were other issues in defence but he was again shown up as poor in one on one situations (which for a full back really is unacceptable)
- In the 3 games to date Kearney has been ok ish at best - again some defensive issues v Scotland (and a woeful pass attempt to Zebo when there was a real chance), set up a try v Italy I think, two very poor defensive issues v France - Serin and with the disallowed try
- His issues in defence - particularly in tackling are very long standing and haven't been addressed
- His attacking prowess is extremely limited and has waned from his pomp - he offers very little threat
- His positional play is still very good, his kicking is pretty good (don't necessarily think its better than the alternatives, but its not a weakness. His catching ability is not as good as it was - at his peak he was absolutely the best in the world at this
- He has had a lot of injuries - played I think 3 halves for Leinster since October? - I don't think he has the capacity to come straight back in
- There are alternatives - Zebo (not the finished article, but has been excellent from fb for Munster and is far more of an attacking threat) Payne, TOH - we beat Australia with Zebo at full back for the majority of the game for example, we beat south africa with Payne at fb
- He seems to be undroppable - I don't think his performances justify this in any way shape or form (unlike say Sexton, Murray, Heaslip, etc)
- I understand why Schmidt keeps picking him - he is ultimately very conservative in selection (same reason he has picked Bowe at 23)
- I would hope that in the summer tour the decision is made to move on from Kearney, but not sure it will

[LeRouxIsPHat]

I'd have Payne ahead of him but with Payne and Trimble injured I don't really see any issue tbh. Plus Wales have Biggar, Williams and Halfpenny who are all excellent fielders so I'm happy to have Rob and Zebo at the back.

[paddyor]

Welsh have been livid over Faletau coming on as a preplanned sub for Moriarty despite him playing so well from the start, Warburton has grown well into a 6 though

Ringrose will be grand v Davies, Davies is a poor passer and seldom does it so relatively easy to defend against

Davies passes quite a bit actually, in the Nick de Luca style, into row Z. Serious threat when he gets up a head of steam though, as Sexton found out last time in Cardiff, need to go low on him. If the ball goes out it'll be through Scott Williams.

[matt]

Agree on Bowe but if you are selecting a FB based on current form then RK's international form is better than Zebo's international form.
In fact RK, since and including the NZ game in Chicago has been quite effective and not just under the high ball.
He has made a number of telling incursions into the line, leading to or almost leading to tries, give the man some credit.
As regards BR hopefully Joe et all have a plan.

I think Kearney has completely validated his selection over the first three games this year and his worth was obvious after he went off in the France game. The French started to find grass a lot more often with their kicking play. RK covers the backfield with minimal help from his wings as well as most back three's do working together.

I'll do one post on this because I'm not getting into another Kearney dialogue

- Kearneys performance in New Zealand has been completely overstated - he made a good break that led to Standers try and was better in attack than he has been. he had a glaring error in Barretts try - yes there were other issues in defence but he was again shown up as poor in one on one situations (which for a full back really is unacceptable)
- In the 3 games to date Kearney has been ok ish at best - again some defensive issues v Scotland (and a woeful pass attempt to Zebo when there was a real chance), set up a try v Italy I think, two very poor defensive issues v France - Serin and with the disallowed try

- His issues in defence - particularly in tackling are very long standing and haven't been addressed
- His attacking prowess is extremely limited and has waned from his pomp - he offers very little threat
- His positional play is still very good, his kicking is pretty good (don't necessarily think its better than the alternatives, but its not a weakness. His catching ability is not as good as it was - at his peak he was absolutely the best in the world at this
- He has had a lot of injuries - played I think 3 halves for Leinster since October? - I don't think he has the capacity to come straight back in
- There are alternatives - Zebo (not the finished article, but has been excellent from fb for Munster and is far more of an attacking threat) Payne, TOH - we beat Australia with Zebo at full back for the majority of the game for example, we beat south africa with Payne at fb
- He seems to be undroppable - I don't think his performances justify this in any way shape or form (unlike say Sexton, Murray, Heaslip, etc)
- I understand why Schmidt keeps picking him - he is ultimately very conservative in selection (same reason he has picked Bowe at 23)
- I would hope that in the summer tour the decision is made to move on from Kearney, but not sure it will

Would not disagree with this. If all were fit I would have gone 15 Payne, 14 Trimble, 11 Earls as I don't think Kearney or Zebo are good enough to be on a top 4 team in the World. Alternatives like O'Halloran, Sweetnam, Adam Byrne, O'Loughlin, Carbery have to be given a chance in Japan.

[simonokeeffe]

Welsh have been livid over Faletau coming on as a preplanned sub for Moriarty despite him playing so well from the start, Warburton has grown well into a 6 though

Ringrose will be grand v Davies, Davies is a poor passer and seldom does it so relatively easy to defend against

Davies passes quite a bit actually, in the Nick de Luca style, into row Z. Serious threat when he gets up a head of steam though, as Sexton found out last time in Cardiff, need to go low on him. If the ball goes out it'll be through Scott Williams.

He runs good lines and is a hefty unit to stop at full tilt but is greedy as sin to put it politely

[offshorerules]

I'm sure that Kearney remains the best Irish full back available for this match. The constant snipping and bitching really is ridiculous, get behind the man, get behind the team and hope and pray that they muller the sheep botherers.

[Golf Man]

Agree on Bowe but if you are selecting a FB based on current form then RK's international form is better than Zebo's international form.
In fact RK, since and including the NZ game in Chicago has been quite effective and not just under the high ball.
He has made a number of telling incursions into the line, leading to or almost leading to tries, give the man some credit.
As regards BR hopefully Joe et all have a plan.

I think Kearney has completely validated his selection over the first three games this year and his worth was obvious after he went off in the France game. The French started to find grass a lot more often with their kicking play. RK covers the backfield with minimal help from his wings as well as most back three's do working together.

I'll do one post on this because I'm not getting into another Kearney dialogue

- Kearneys performance in New Zealand has been completely overstated - he made a good break that led to Standers try and was better in attack than he has been. he had a glaring error in Barretts try - yes there were other issues in defence but he was again shown up as poor in one on one situations (which for a full back really is unacceptable)
- In the 3 games to date Kearney has been ok ish at best - again some defensive issues v Scotland (and a woeful pass attempt to Zebo when there was a real chance), set up a try v Italy I think, two very poor defensive issues v France - Serin and with the disallowed try

- His issues in defence - particularly in tackling are very long standing and haven't been addressed
- His attacking prowess is extremely limited and has waned from his pomp - he offers very little threat
- His positional play is still very good, his kicking is pretty good (don't necessarily think its better than the alternatives, but its not a weakness. His catching ability is not as good as it was - at his peak he was absolutely the best in the world at this
- He has had a lot of injuries - played I think 3 halves for Leinster since October? - I don't think he has the capacity to come straight back in
- There are alternatives - Zebo (not the finished article, but has been excellent from fb for Munster and is far more of an attacking threat) Payne, TOH - we beat Australia with Zebo at full back for the majority of the game for example, we beat south africa with Payne at fb
- He seems to be undroppable - I don't think his performances justify this in any way shape or form (unlike say Sexton, Murray, Heaslip, etc)
- I understand why Schmidt keeps picking him - he is ultimately very conservative in selection (same reason he has picked Bowe at 23)
- I would hope that in the summer tour the decision is made to move on from Kearney, but not sure it will

Would not disagree with this. If all were fit I would have gone 15 Payne, 14 Trimble, 11 Earls as I don't think Kearney or Zebo are good enough to be on a top 4 team in the World. Alternatives like O'Halloran, Sweetnam, Adam Byrne, O'Loughlin, Carbery have to be given a chance in Japan.

Not good enough to be in a top 4 team is kind of a nothing statement - we have who we have and have to go from there.

Zebo in particular has been ok in the 6N so far but was excellent in the Autumn and has been excellent generally for Munster this season
After the 6N we have 6 games (assuming 2 Tier 1 and 1 Tier 2 games in Autumn 2017) before our next proper competitive test. Its also the halfway point to the next world cup.
This is a timeline of fixtures (4 v Tier 2) that we don't often get as well as having the team (witrh a lot of pretty new faces) for 3 weeks on tour. I would hope that we take the chance to make decisions and properly introduce guys. I'm guessing we have probably SA and Argentina in the autumn - I hope we don't end up reverting again to the tried and trusted and instead introduce a few more in the same way that Ringrose has been (although I think we've missed a bit of a trick by not having some of those guys Sweetnam and Byrne stand out for me in the wider squad, as Ringrose has previously been). I hope that the older senior guys who don't make the Lions aren't picked for Japan
Carberry - do you want him at 15? Its an asset to have that ability but I'd kind of prefer if he concentrated at 10

[Golf Man]

I'm sure that Kearney remains the best Irish full back available for this match. The constant snipping and bitching really is ridiculous, get behind the man, get behind the team and hope and pray that they muller the sheep botherers.

I absolutely don't agree with the bolded part

I absolutely hope he has a blinder

[matt]

I'm sure that Kearney remains the best Irish full back available for this match. The constant snipping and bitching really is ridiculous, get behind the man, get behind the team and hope and pray that they muller the sheep botherers.

I absolutely don't agree with the bolded part

I absolutely hope he has a blinder

I don't see anything wrong in pointing out where we need to improve. This is a forum after all and is just people giving their opinions.

I also hope Zebo has a blinder tomorrow but would have liked to see Adam Byrne or Sweetman get a chance earlier in the season ahead of him. Both have better pace, strength and concentration.

North & Halpenny not playing well at the moment but the one area we need to improve if we are to win tomorrow is the back 3 where only Earls has performed for us this season.

[simonokeeffe]

Byrne and Sweetnam have played all or vast majority of their pro rugby at 14 not 11 though, plus theyre only in their breakthrough seasons

Do hope Sweetnam is 14 for 2019 though (and Payne 15, and Earls 11) personally

[Golf Man]

I'm sure that Kearney remains the best Irish full back available for this match. The constant snipping and bitching really is ridiculous, get behind the man, get behind the team and hope and pray that they muller the sheep botherers.

I absolutely don't agree with the bolded part

I absolutely hope he has a blinder

I don't see anything wrong in pointing out where we need to improve. This is a forum after all and is just people giving their opinions.

I also hope Zebo has a blinder tomorrow but would have liked to see Adam Byrne or Sweetman get a chance earlier in the season ahead of him. Both have better pace, strength and concentration.

North & Halpenny not playing well at the moment but the one area we need to improve if we are to win tomorrow is the back 3 where only Earls has performed for us this season.

Zebo was imo fully deserving of his place in the starting team for the 6N - he was excellent in the AIs and has been consitently excellent for Munster this season - hasn't been as good in the last three games without being bad. I still think he is ahead of the other options by a distance though. I understand the reasons but having players like Sweetnam and outside the squad and TOH inside but not getting a look in when out of form players are playing annoys me

I hope the back 3 tear it up tomorrow - because I think you can get at Wales out wide

[Golf Man]

Byrne and Sweetnam have played all or vast majority of their pro rugby at 14 not 11 though, plus theyre only in their breakthrough seasons

Do hope Sweetnam is 14 for 2019 though (and Payne 15, and Earls 11) personally

I'm not sure I'd have either of them starting for a number of reasons including the ones you've outlined - that said its disappointing they weren't in the wider squad, with a view to then intregating them into the team in the summer and from there on. Concern I'd have is that the back 3 players that dont make the Lions, and lets face it atm none of them are going to (I still think Zebo has a shot, very dependent on full back selection behind Hogg), would be brought to japan/US to ensure there is a bit more experience leadership there as you expect 8-10 of the other 12 starters to go.

[cormac]

Roof will be closed

[simonokeeffe]

Roof will be closed

Taking Wales excuse away from them, Joe going for some clever psychological warfare, think we're goading them into trying to play beyond their skills and or sowing confusion about how we'll play

[Golf Man]

Roof should have no impact on anything, and I don't think there is any psychological benefit either way - if we show up and perform we should beat them

[fourthirtythree]

There's rain forecast for Friday night/ Saturday morning is why it's closed. He said during the week that they'd see the weather and if if was going to be fine they'd leave it open as the pitch can get slippy if it's closed. Otherwise they were happy.

I don't think there's some kind of double guessing never get into a land war in Asia kind of thing going on

https://youtu.be/U_eZmEiyTo0?t=92

[simonokeeffe]

Roof should have no impact on anything, and I don't think there is any psychological benefit either way - if we show up and perform we should beat them

ex Welsh players swear it gives them a lift (by increasing atmosphere) but Welsh (management) have always liked to bleat on about how other NH teams wont let them play with it closed etc. Could be overreading, could be on to something, Welsh have no excuse not to chuck it about which IMO doesnt suit them and Ireland are saying maybe we wont just try to grind this out

what matters is I have to miss the second half