Tour to Japan

[simonokeeffe]

Earls is at his best at 11

I wonder if Zebo has overbulked his legs, hes not as spritely as he used to be and you can tell by looking at him hes worked on his leg muscles

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Whatever the reason is I would say that himself and Dev are the two players most at risk of losing their places in the team. Hope they come back strong next season, they're two guys who can make a huge difference. Just look at the impact they had in Chicago compared to the 6N.

[wixfjord]

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[simonokeeffe]

Whatever the reason is I would say that himself and Dev are the two players most at risk of losing their places in the team. Hope they come back strong next season, they're two guys who can make a huge difference. Just look at the impact they had in Chicago compared to the 6N.

with Ryan in exile Dev is safe as houses, Henderson not the most 80 minute of players, Dillane is injured a lot, no one else worthwhile has any experience

Would agree Zebo is at risk on left wing, through a combo of not starting there regularly for Munster, Earls (starting left wing for Munster), and Joe's love of Trimble

[the spoofer]

Whatever the reason is I would say that himself and Dev are the two players most at risk of losing their places in the team. Hope they come back strong next season, they're two guys who can make a huge difference. Just look at the impact they had in Chicago compared to the 6N.

Dev was excellent on Saturday. Zebo is not someone I would place any reliance on when the going gets tough.

[wixfjord]

Edit: Sorry wrong thread!

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Whatever the reason is I would say that himself and Dev are the two players most at risk of losing their places in the team. Hope they come back strong next season, they're two guys who can make a huge difference. Just look at the impact they had in Chicago compared to the 6N.

with Ryan in exile Dev is safe as houses, Henderson not the most 80 minute of players, Dillane is injured a lot, no one else worthwhile has any experience

Would agree Zebo is at risk on left wing, through a combo of not starting there regularly for Munster, Earls (starting left wing for Munster), and Joe's love of Trimble

I don't agree, being dropped by Ireland in the 6N and even Leinster for the Pro12 semi final means he's very vulnerable IMO. His dip in form hasn't been tolerated thus far so don't think it will be next season either regardless of the competition. Fingers crossed its not an issue, he's been really consistent for the last 5 years or so, a blip for 3/4 months doesn't mean that he can't recover from it.

[simonokeeffe]

Whatever the reason is I would say that himself and Dev are the two players most at risk of losing their places in the team. Hope they come back strong next season, they're two guys who can make a huge difference. Just look at the impact they had in Chicago compared to the 6N.

with Ryan in exile Dev is safe as houses, Henderson not the most 80 minute of players, Dillane is injured a lot, no one else worthwhile has any experience

Would agree Zebo is at risk on left wing, through a combo of not starting there regularly for Munster, Earls (starting left wing for Munster), and Joe's love of Trimble

I don't agree, being dropped by Ireland in the 6N and even Leinster for the Pro12 semi final means he's very vulnerable IMO. His dip in form hasn't been tolerated thus far so don't think it will be next season either regardless of the competition. Fingers crossed its not an issue, he's been really consistent for the last 5 years or so, a blip for 3/4 months doesn't mean that he can't recover from it.

But hes on a central so legally has to be picked
Thought he was good against Japan but hopefully the kick up the backside will do him wonders like with Mal

Slight aside but just watched Australia Scotland highlights, Scotland scored an intercept off a bad pass from the hooker from a bad pass by Genia, Genia got charged down kicking off a scrum, and Scotland got their 3rd when the Aussie centre took out the Aussie winger tacklign a Scot

[ronk]

Conan is some player. His overall game is excellent as expected but his party trick is his alertness on turnover or loose ball. He's so fast onto the ball and immediately causing problems. It was really evident against Japan and USA.

[Ruckedtobits]

Stockdale and Treadwell make it ahead of Zebo and Roux / Ryan. Looks like selection on form rather than pecking order.

[ronk]

Ireland: A Conway; K Earls, G Ringrose, L Marshall, J Stockdale; P Jackson, K Marmion; C Healy, J Tracy, John Ryan; K Treadwell, D Toner; R Ruddock, J van der Flier, J Conan.
Replacements: N Scannell, D Kilcoyne, A Porter, James Ryan, S Reidy, J Cooney, R Scannell, T O’Halloran.

[ronk]

Zebo has a knock and wasn't risked, same with Leavy and McGrath.

Ryan made the bench which makes it look like the USA game wasn't a token cap

[Dave Cahill]

Zebo was wearing a large strapping on his leg for the test against the yanks, so...

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Kind of happy to hear that about Zebo, hopefully that's why he's out of sorts and can recover over the summer.

I'd say Conway is being given a shot and staking a claim for the 23 shirt in November. TOH probably expected to start but Joe just doesn't seem to be his biggest fan.

Josh needs a big game, feels like the forgotten man right now because of now well everyone else is playing. Great to see the young lads back in as well, certainly wouldn't worry about Porter coming on after how bad the Japanese scrum was last week, don't know why people were worried about it.

[Ruckedtobits]

Kind of happy to hear that about Zebo, hopefully that's why he's out of sorts and can recover over the summer.

....... Great to see the young lads back in as well, certainly wouldn't worry about Porter coming on after how bad the Japanese scrum was last week, don't know why people were worried about it.

The worry about Porter is that he can lose concentration at scrum time and end up getting a flying lesson (it happened in an AIL game this year). He is not yet comfortable, mentally, at THP and like many golfers is ticking off his check list every time he sets up to scrum. If he gets a game with few scrums and plenty of carrying, we will certainly see his strong points. The Japs in particular are technically good at scrum time, even if they are not England or SA in size.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Honestly have no idea where you're getting that from about the Japanese scrum. People bigged it up on here but from watching the Wales game in November I thought it was brutal and last Saturday backed that up. Not claiming Porter is the finished article but (famous last words) the Japanese scrum is piss poor.

[sunshiner1]

Can anyone one tell me what Porter's contract situation is? A twice capped Irish TH Prop would make him a valuable target not just for the other provinces but other teams abroad.

[ronk]

He's on a senior Leinster contract.

He's probably not of that much interest right now. He's still a work in progress. Moving could be expensive in the long run.

Will Ross gone and Furlong guaranteed to be rested he's in a super position depth wise.

[the spoofer]

Kind of happy to hear that about Zebo, hopefully that's why he's out of sorts and can recover over the summer.

....... Great to see the young lads back in as well, certainly wouldn't worry about Porter coming on after how bad the Japanese scrum was last week, don't know why people were worried about it.

The worry about Porter is that he can lose concentration at scrum time and end up getting a flying lesson (it happened in an AIL game this year). He is not yet comfortable, mentally, at THP and like many golfers is ticking off his check list every time he sets up to scrum. If he gets a game with few scrums and plenty of carrying, we will certainly see his strong points. The Japs in particular are technically good at scrum time, even if they are not England or SA in size.

That's a little unfair on Porter. As someone who tried playing both sides and failed miserably, switching is incredibly hard. He had just started playing 3 when he got done in the AIL. I doubt that after a number of months top quality coaching that it would ever happen again at that level and expect him to see plenty of time as a sub for Bent in the Pro 12.

[ronk]

Bent is someone who switched (quietly) from a dual sided prop to a specialist tighthead.

It took time and didn't immediately pay off. Porter is on tour with John Ryan who did the same.

He's learning but it will take time. One his strengths and weaknesses is his overall game. Picking up scrumming technique will take a bit longer. Loose heads can rely on pure strength more.

For a while he's likely to be a tighthead who has a few bad days but does lots of other work. He should probably be judged on that standard. That's fair though, it took years for Healy to develop as a destructive scrummager and the excitement was around the rest of his game.

I thought Furlong was world class at U20s but it's really only in the last year or two that he's put senior props under pressure.