Gearzbox2 wrote:Big Dev and Ringrose huge losses going into this one
Dev for his marshaling of the lineout and kick off send/receive and Ringrose for, well everything, especially his defensive leadership
Lot of players need huge games in my opinion
No need to panic just yet but another loss will send a few waves that this team could be in trouble in a few areas and on the wane at pretty much the worst time possible with WC year
Like one poster on here said, uncle joe has no plan B imo...his lack of use of the bench is mind boggling especially when starters were going so badly
Cronin on at 68, SOB on at 65 etc were mystifying decisions
I’d be going with
Healy
Cronin(on form top hooker in country, I’ve had enough of Bests “leadership”)
Furlong
Ryan
Roux
POM
SOB
Conan
Murray
Sexton
Stockdale
Aki
Henshaw
Earls/Larmour
RK
Kilcoyne, Scannell, Porter, Dillane, JVDF, Cooney, Carbery, Addison
On the wane is the fear.
Age - Best is the biggest worry, we have a replacement, the real ssue as pointed out is captaincy.
Ageish and Injury history - RK and Sexton, RK would be the harder to replace and that is perhaps why Joe picked Henshaw at 15, we should be worried because Joe doesn't do punts.
Injury history recent - Murray, POM and Henshaw .
Murray hasn't looked right since he returned from injury, no point in speculating but if we can beat NZ without him then there shouldn't be any reluctance to try options.
Cooney has been the form SH this season.
Added to that JGP has developed really well and comes on stream in June. And that's ignoring Marmion and McGrath.
Henshaw has had a number of injuries in recent times, hopefully it's a blip, Aki is very good cover, however if Henshaw is injury prone then perhaps he shouldn't be cover for RK.
Critical players - Ringrose.- enough said, losing him is Joe's worst nightmare.
POM - Left him until last because he is the front runner for the captaincy, however he is injury prone and struggles with the physical stuff when up against power packs.
Ruddock is the dark horse for captaincy and would be my choice. Like POM he can be injury prone.
So Joe you're back might be against the wall sooner than you think but on the bright side you have time to do something about it.
In the meantime don't forget Plan B.