Ireland v. England

[olaf the fat]

Not sure about any claims re lack of basic abilities - the squad have worked with Schmidt for 3.5 years and have of them have worked with him for a couple of years before that. Basic ability wasn't a problem a couple of years ago and isn't really a problem when they play for their provinces. Its a bit of a cop out to use this excuse imo.

Players aren't looking as good for Ireland as they do for their provinces - Zebo being a very good example of this - that has to be on the coaching

Not that it can't be overturned but he needs to address it

On McFadden it doesn't surprise and it'll probably have no impact but it seems like another missed oippourtinuty - Ringrose was around squads for a good whiole before being introduced. He shoudl have had 1 or 2 younger backs doing teh same thing this 6N.

The rest of the year is the important part for Schmidt now - if he continues to go back to the old favourites its only going to go downhill

I would not read that much into bringing Ferg back to the squad because A) Most likely he is not there for selection B) for training he already knows the ropes C) Does not take a young player from either Leinster or Munster when they could be working for the up coming QF's.

For this 6Ns Wales were written off before the game by many here - based on a poor first game in Italy - Wales are often slow starters in the 6N and the temporary coach was still bedding in. They should of taken England. While Scotland have had a good competition - there best in a long long time.

We are not taking our opportunities to score, and shipped 3 trys in both our big away games. Both A and D not where it should be, but we were in position to win both those games. So you are on the nail when you say Joe has something to address. It may be disappointing, but we are far from bad.

*Joe's big issue was not subbing a clearly injured Murray much earlier. He could not pass which put us under pressure, but with only 14 on the pitch he had now where to hid and could of been really injured trying one arm tackles on the likes of North.

Bowe came from outside the squad to the match day 23 - nothing to say that he won't do the same with McFadden, and if selection so far is anything to go on its as likely - He has gone the old reliable route for the 23 jersey in 3 of the games. We could see him retain Kearney and Ringrose and have Payne on the bench, or if Ringrose is dropped he will amost certainly go to 23. I'm assuming that Kearney if dropped wouldn't go to 23, but I wouldn't rule that out. I reckon McFadden is already ahead of Conway and TOH and is probably ahead of Gilroy as well in Schmidts mind

I'd like to see 13 Ringrose 15 Payne 23 Zebo/Gilroy I reckon we'll see 13 Payne 15 Kearney 23 Ringrose (with McFadden next in line)

Joe being Joe - Payne on the bench in place of Bowe will be the big change!

[Dave Cahill]

I definitely think that the best way to take on an English backrow consisting of some of Haskell, Hughes, Vunipola, Itoje and Wood is to try to run through them. I can't see how that could go wrong.

[matt]

I would only make 1 change in pack POM for SOB with POM 6 & Stander 7. SOB could make big impact off bench. I am big fan of VDF & Leavy but their day will likely come starting with Japan?

Possibly only 1 change in backs Payne for Kearney with Carbery on bench instead of Bowe. Have reservations about Zebo but at this stage Byrne or Sweetman are not being considered.

There is an outside chance that if Marmian & Carbery are on the bench JS could go for a 6:2 split allowing both SOB & Leavy at expense of Jackson. Would be very brave and some would say unnecessary risk but to win on Saturday we may need to take one or two risks in otherwise structured game.

[Oldschool]

Get ya
Need some 7 cover for POM from somewhere though

Jaysus, do I have to spoon feed you lot?
Surely you know, at this stage, that Jamie can do everything in the BR and usually has to.

[Oldschool]

I definitely think that the best way to take on an English backrow consisting of some of Haskell, Hughes, Vunipola, Itoje and Wood is to try to run through them. I can't see how that could go wrong.

It's a fair bet that you'll get to see your theory tested.

[Oldschool]

I would only make 1 change in pack POM for SOB with POM 6 & Stander 7. SOB could make big impact off bench. I am big fan of VDF & Leavy but their day will likely come starting with Japan?

Possibly only 1 change in backs Payne for Kearney with Carbery on bench instead of Bowe. Have reservations about Zebo but at this stage Byrne or Sweetman are not being considered.

There is an outside chance that if Marmian & Carbery are on the bench JS could go for a 6:2 split allowing both SOB & Leavy at expense of Jackson. Would be very brave and some would say unnecessary risk but to win on Saturday we may need to take one or two risks in otherwise structured game.

It's actually a pity that neither Byrne or Sweetman are deemed fit for purpose.
May is almost nailed on for England and his only attribute is his pace. Both Byrne and Sweetman have a lot more to offer than May will ever have, even at this stage of their careers.

[matt]

I would only make 1 change in pack POM for SOB with POM 6 & Stander 7. SOB could make big impact off bench. I am big fan of VDF & Leavy but their day will likely come starting with Japan?

Possibly only 1 change in backs Payne for Kearney with Carbery on bench instead of Bowe. Have reservations about Zebo but at this stage Byrne or Sweetman are not being considered.

There is an outside chance that if Marmian & Carbery are on the bench JS could go for a 6:2 split allowing both SOB & Leavy at expense of Jackson. Would be very brave and some would say unnecessary risk but to win on Saturday we may need to take one or two risks in otherwise structured game.

It's actually a pity that neither Byrne or Sweetman are deemed fit for purpose.
May is almost nailed on for England and his only attribute is his pace. Both Byrne and Sweetman have a lot more to offer than May will ever have, even at this stage of their careers.

I just hope on the Summer tour that Byrne and Sweetman are allowed compete against each other as the two no 14's and they move Earls to 11.

[Ruckedtobits]

Most on here are focused on proposing cerebral solutions for Saturday's game. That's probably also what Joe and his fellow Coaches are doing. However, one truism of rugby is that it's not all about the head. Sometimes it's as least as much about blind passion and fear.

Probably the only point that Shaggy and RO'G absolutely agreed on, prior to the game on Friday, was that the Welsh players would produce a performance out of fear of ridicule throughout the Principality, outside their front door, down the local Cafe and certainly in the pubs and clubs.

We do not have the same pervasive community involvement with rugby throughout the country. However, in every rugby community and on every social media outlet which covers rugby, there is a strong sense of disappointment, of being let down, of us never producing when it is expected.

This is different from 2011 or even 2001, but it is doable.

Remember 2001 in the old Lansdowne Road, with these teams:

Ireland: G Dempsey (Terenure College); S Horgan (Lansdowne), B O'Driscoll (Blackrock College), K Maggs (Bath), D Hickie (St Mary's College); D Humphreys (Dungannon), P Stringer (Shannon); P Clohessy (Young Munster), K Wood (Harlequins, capt), J Hayes (Shannon), M Galwey (Shannon), M O'Kelly (St Mary's College), E Miller (Terenure College), D Wallace (Garryowen), A Foley (Shannon).

Replacements: F Sheahan (Cork Constitution), E Byrne (St Mary's College), T Brennan (Barnhall), K Dawson (London Irish), G Easterby (Llanelli), R O'Gara (Cork Constitution), M Mullins (Young Munster).

England: I Balshaw (Bath); D Luger (Harlequins), W Greenwood (Harlequins), M Catt (Bath), J Robinson (Sale); J Wilkinson (Newcastle), M Dawson (Northampton, capt); J Leonard (Harlequins), P Greening (Wasps), J White (Bristol), S Shaw (Wasps), D Grewcock (Bath), M Corry (Leicester), N Back (Leicester), R Hill (Saracens).

Replacements: D West (Leicester), G Rowntree (Leicester), S Borthwick (Bath), L Moody (Leicester), K Bracken (Saracens), A Healey (Leicester), M Perry (Bath).

Referee: Paul Honiss (New Zealand).

There was nothing easy about that English team and they certainly didn't come quaking in their boots. But we got stuck into them. Yes, it was October, not March, because of foot and mouth I think, but we got stuck into them and never let up. Abiding memories are Balshaw dropping a skier from Humphreys and Strings getting a tap tackle after a huge break by Luger.

We don't need to forget all the technical planning we've done and all the hours of preparation. But we do need to be driven, fearful we've let down each other, our coaches, our families and ourselves, by not taking the opportunity we worked so hard for. Saturday is about ability...and pride. But we won't get a chance to show the first, unless we play with the second

After all the talk and planning, this one is about bottle and sticking it down Eddie J's throat!

[Oldschool]

Most on here are focused on proposing cerebral solutions for Saturday's game. That's probably also what Joe and his fellow Coaches are doing. However, one truism of rugby is that it's not all about the head. Sometimes it's as least as much about blind passion and fear.

Probably the only point that Shaggy and RO'G absolutely agreed on, prior to the game on Friday, was that the Welsh players would produce a performance out of fear of ridicule throughout the Principality, outside their front door, down the local Cafe and certainly in the pubs and clubs.

We do not have the same pervasive community involvement with rugby throughout the country. However, in every rugby community and on every social media outlet which covers rugby, there is a strong sense of disappointment, of being let down, of us never producing when it is expected.

This is different from 2011 or even 2001, but it is doable.

Remember 2001 in the old Lansdowne Road, with these teams:

Ireland: G Dempsey (Terenure College); S Horgan (Lansdowne), B O'Driscoll (Blackrock College), K Maggs (Bath), D Hickie (St Mary's College); D Humphreys (Dungannon), P Stringer (Shannon); P Clohessy (Young Munster), K Wood (Harlequins, capt), J Hayes (Shannon), M Galwey (Shannon), M O'Kelly (St Mary's College), E Miller (Terenure College), D Wallace (Garryowen), A Foley (Shannon).

Replacements: F Sheahan (Cork Constitution), E Byrne (St Mary's College), T Brennan (Barnhall), K Dawson (London Irish), G Easterby (Llanelli), R O'Gara (Cork Constitution), M Mullins (Young Munster).

England: I Balshaw (Bath); D Luger (Harlequins), W Greenwood (Harlequins), M Catt (Bath), J Robinson (Sale); J Wilkinson (Newcastle), M Dawson (Northampton, capt); J Leonard (Harlequins), P Greening (Wasps), J White (Bristol), S Shaw (Wasps), D Grewcock (Bath), M Corry (Leicester), N Back (Leicester), R Hill (Saracens).

Replacements: D West (Leicester), G Rowntree (Leicester), S Borthwick (Bath), L Moody (Leicester), K Bracken (Saracens), A Healey (Leicester), M Perry (Bath).

Referee: Paul Honiss (New Zealand).

There was nothing easy about that English team and they certainly didn't come quaking in their boots. But we got stuck into them. Yes, it was October, not March, because of foot and mouth I think, but we got stuck into them and never let up. Abiding memories are Balshaw dropping a skier from Humphreys and Strings getting a tap tackle after a huge break by Luger.

We don't need to forget all the technical planning we've done and all the hours of preparation. But we do need to be driven, fearful we've let down each other, our coaches, our families and ourselves, by not taking the opportunity we worked so hard for. Saturday is about ability...and pride. But we won't get a chance to show the first, unless we play with the second

After all the talk and planning, this one is about bottle and sticking it down Eddie J's throat!

It's all about kicking those penos over the bar and not into touch all the time.

[desperado]

Most on here are focused on proposing cerebral solutions for Saturday's game. That's probably also what Joe and his fellow Coaches are doing. However, one truism of rugby is that it's not all about the head. Sometimes it's as least as much about blind passion and fear.

Probably the only point that Shaggy and RO'G absolutely agreed on, prior to the game on Friday, was that the Welsh players would produce a performance out of fear of ridicule throughout the Principality, outside their front door, down the local Cafe and certainly in the pubs and clubs.

We do not have the same pervasive community involvement with rugby throughout the country. However, in every rugby community and on every social media outlet which covers rugby, there is a strong sense of disappointment, of being let down, of us never producing when it is expected.

This is different from 2011 or even 2001, but it is doable.

Remember 2001 in the old Lansdowne Road, with these teams:

Ireland: G Dempsey (Terenure College); S Horgan (Lansdowne), B O'Driscoll (Blackrock College), K Maggs (Bath), D Hickie (St Mary's College); D Humphreys (Dungannon), P Stringer (Shannon); P Clohessy (Young Munster), K Wood (Harlequins, capt), J Hayes (Shannon), M Galwey (Shannon), M O'Kelly (St Mary's College), E Miller (Terenure College), D Wallace (Garryowen), A Foley (Shannon).

Replacements: F Sheahan (Cork Constitution), E Byrne (St Mary's College), T Brennan (Barnhall), K Dawson (London Irish), G Easterby (Llanelli), R O'Gara (Cork Constitution), M Mullins (Young Munster).

England: I Balshaw (Bath); D Luger (Harlequins), W Greenwood (Harlequins), M Catt (Bath), J Robinson (Sale); J Wilkinson (Newcastle), M Dawson (Northampton, capt); J Leonard (Harlequins), P Greening (Wasps), J White (Bristol), S Shaw (Wasps), D Grewcock (Bath), M Corry (Leicester), N Back (Leicester), R Hill (Saracens).

Replacements: D West (Leicester), G Rowntree (Leicester), S Borthwick (Bath), L Moody (Leicester), K Bracken (Saracens), A Healey (Leicester), M Perry (Bath).

Referee: Paul Honiss (New Zealand).

There was nothing easy about that English team and they certainly didn't come quaking in their boots. But we got stuck into them. Yes, it was October, not March, because of foot and mouth I think, but we got stuck into them and never let up. Abiding memories are Balshaw dropping a skier from Humphreys and Strings getting a tap tackle after a huge break by Luger.

We don't need to forget all the technical planning we've done and all the hours of preparation. But we do need to be driven, fearful we've let down each other, our coaches, our families and ourselves, by not taking the opportunity we worked so hard for. Saturday is about ability...and pride. But we won't get a chance to show the first, unless we play with the second

After all the talk and planning, this one is about bottle and sticking it down Eddie J's throat!

Stringer was a great exponent of the tap tackle alright (is that a tackle or not ) ; recall one on Jason Robinson? if I'm right in Twickenham. Might need a few tap tackles on Joseph on Sat. Bring it on.....

[jezzer]

There's some sense of schadenfreude in reading posts by the same sort of folk who ridiculed "Kidenme's" provincial and overly conservative selection policies, now twisting themselves into pretzels to justify Joe's utterly bizarre selection of McFadden and retention of serial under-performers like SOB, Bowe and Kearney.

To hear Joe say people are wrong to question Bowe's inclusion, since they haven't seen him ripping it up in training, simply reflects a coach completely out of touch with reality. Bowe is one of the greatest wingers Ireland has ever produced. A powerful 6'3 unit with real pace and a sidestep, who always seemed to find the try line. Those days are long by gone though, as demonstrated this season in Bordeaux when Mads did him with a mere swivel and left him for dead ambling over the line. I'm sure it was noted here at the time...

Ire V Eng will always be the apex of the 6N, and yet a part of me wonders does a big performance & victory just paper over the cracks of two poor championships and that debacle against the Pumas in the RWC.

A lot of truth in this post. The Ferg selection is nothing less than a farce, no matter what his role is.

We're not playing with great tactics and the tactics we are playing with are being ruined by low intensity and unforced errors. The coach had a hand in changing all of that if he wants to. It doesn't look like he wants to. His answer is to politely insist that the same players using the same tactics please stop making those errors.

[Oldschool]

There's some sense of schadenfreude in reading posts by the same sort of folk who ridiculed "Kidenme's" provincial and overly conservative selection policies, now twisting themselves into pretzels to justify Joe's utterly bizarre selection of McFadden and retention of serial under-performers like SOB, Bowe and Kearney.

To hear Joe say people are wrong to question Bowe's inclusion, since they haven't seen him ripping it up in training, simply reflects a coach completely out of touch with reality. Bowe is one of the greatest wingers Ireland has ever produced. A powerful 6'3 unit with real pace and a sidestep, who always seemed to find the try line. Those days are long by gone though, as demonstrated this season in Bordeaux when Mads did him with a mere swivel and left him for dead ambling over the line. I'm sure it was noted here at the time...

Ire V Eng will always be the apex of the 6N, and yet a part of me wonders does a big performance & victory just paper over the cracks of two poor championships and that debacle against the Pumas in the RWC.

A lot of truth in this post. The Ferg selection is nothing less than a farce, no matter what his role is.

We're not playing with great tactics and the tactics we are playing with are being ruined by low intensity and unforced errors. The coach had a hand in changing all of that if he wants to. It doesn't look like he wants to. His answer is to politely insist that the same players using the same tactics please stop making those errors.

Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad.
Make it not so Joe.

[Oldschoolsocks]

I definitely think that the best way to take on an English backrow consisting of some of Haskell, Hughes, Vunipola, Itoje and Wood is to try to run through them. I can't see how that could go wrong.

Tongue firmly in cheek, right?

[Oldschool]

Keith Earls sat out training on Tuesday with a groin injury.
Don't do it Joe, don't select him for Saturday.
We don't need to start with two dodgy wingers.

[sunshiner1]

Looking at the way England destroyed Scotland with set-piece moves through the middle I can see Payne being brought in at 13 as our defensive lynch-pin with maybe Ringrose moved to the bench.

[Golf Man]

Looking at the way England destroyed Scotland with set-piece moves through the middle I can see Payne being brought in at 13 as our defensive lynch-pin with maybe Ringrose moved to the bench.

Seems to be the way its going alright. Think Murray Kinsella is suggesting Payne for Ringrose (with the latter going to the bench in place of Bowe) and POM for Stander. Payne will add defensively without a doubt and won't diminish us offensively (from what we have seen to date), but would prefer more faith in Ringrose and doesn't address the back 3. If Earls is out I'm going to assuem Gilroy straight in to start, but wouldn't bet on that

Stander will be incredibly harshly dropped if this is the case - and expect meltdown - its a more balanced backrow though

[paddyor]

Looking at the way England destroyed Scotland with set-piece moves through the middle I can see Payne being brought in at 13 as our defensive lynch-pin with maybe Ringrose moved to the bench.

Our defense against eet pieces has been pretty bad (4 of 7 tries conceded). But if you look at each one
Dunbar (Scotland) - Payne wouldn't have seen it weasn't covered
Italy PT - Payne no impact
North (Wales) - Jackson just on the pitch shoots up out of the line
North (wales) - Down to 14, left the short side open, maybe

He might have made a difference in the first 40 minutes against Scotland for the other tries or he might not we started so poorly. Can see why he'd do it but would much rather he left Ringrose in situ and put Payne in for Kearney.

[sunshiner1]

Can see why he'd do it but would much rather he left Ringrose in situ and put Payne in for Kearney.

So would I but I don't think Schmidt agrees with us.

[fourthirtythree]

But Ringrose has been a weakness whereas Kearney actually hasn't. See the Wales game as an example. Our midfield was thoroughly outshone by the Welsh, our fullback quite the opposite.

I know there is an unstoppable narrative to deal with, but reality completely contradicts it. Payne to 13 is a sensible choice. If we had two Payne's I'd play him at 15 also.

[paddyor]

But Ringrose has been a weakness whereas Kearney actually hasn't. See the Wales game as an example. Our midfield was thoroughly outshone by the Welsh, our fullback quite the opposite.

I know there is an unstoppable narrative to deal with, but reality completely contradicts it. Payne to 13 is a sensible choice. If we had two Payne's I'd play him at 15 also.

Kearney was on of the 6 players who got caught on the short side facing 3 defenders but yeah not indiviually at fault. As i said no guartee that Payne would have risen above the bad start we made.

Its more that our backs are lacking a bit of pace and creativity , bit harsh on Kearney bit there is a proven replacement in Payne.