Ireland v South Africa AI 2017.

[tingman]

Composite team:

1.Healy 2.Marx 3.Furlong 16.Best 17.Beast 18.Oosthuizen

4.Etzebeth 5.Henderson 19.de Jager

6.Du Toit 8.Stander 7.SOB 20.Kolisi

9.Murray 10.Sexton 12.De Allende 13.Henshaw 14.Lleyds 21.Cronje 22.Pollard 23.Kriel

11.Skosan 15.Coetzee

De Allende hasn't been good for a while.

agree - and behind jan serfontain who himself has only been okay.

[CiaranIrl]

As for the game, I saw someone mention 4/6 for a yellow. Absolutely. I think it is 7/4 on both teams to get a yellow. Can't believe Ireland are 5/1 to beat Denmark and 11/4 draw no bet!! Denmark are a far better team than a lot of the media guys are saying (Kilbane, Giles) but one or both of those bets has to be seriously considered.

Under 4.5 tries is 5/6. I'm double that and the 4/6 yellow in 80 minutes. Seems a decent bet to me given the rain.

It'll be a dog of a game I think. Cold, wet, knocks ons - lots of scrums & lineouts. Kearney is 100% the right choice for a game like this.

[Oldschool]

As for the game, I saw someone mention 4/6 for a yellow. Absolutely. I think it is 7/4 on both teams to get a yellow. Can't believe Ireland are 5/1 to beat Denmark and 11/4 draw no bet!! Denmark are a far better team than a lot of the media guys are saying (Kilbane, Giles) but one or both of those bets has to be seriously considered.

Under 4.5 tries is 5/6. I'm double that and the 4/6 yellow in 80 minutes. Seems a decent bet to me given the rain.

It'll be a dog of a game I think. Cold, wet, knocks ons - lots of scrums & lineouts. Kearney is 100% the right choice for a game like this.

JS probably had the weather forecast in his hand when Rob got the call.
Jack has been quiet this season. Having a good ball carrier coming on at 60 minutes could prove a game changer.
Here's hoping.
Good luck to the newbies hope they all get on the pitch.

[Ruckedtobits]

The more one looks at the teams, the more concern exists that we may not have enough sources to get enough ball to put pace on the game. If this turns out to be a series of set-pieces, we may not have the ammunition to put enough points on the board to beat this team of 'beeg stroong meen'.

The referee will be key. The sod will be wet but no wind. How quickly will he blow the tackle / breakdown? Will he have a very technical approach to the maul? How will he handle competition in the air?

Sexton's kicking will be better than Janties and Murray wil overshadow his opponent but will that be enough? Not to my way of thinking.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Don't think Kearney should be in the team, but predictably he is on the receiving end of most of the abuse. Absolutely no analysis whatsoever of POM's form. Anyone brave enough to question his place in the team is shot down as "a clown" or a "joke." I think a lot of this has to do with the mainstream media's inability or unwillingness to use stats. If we laid out POM's season in numbers, there would be very little debate. But we're left with "leadership" and "passion" now.

I fully agree that POM is in poor form, but what you've done there is not use stats and then slagged off his supporters for going back to the leadership and passion arguments, which is just as bad as what you're arguing against and keeps the whole nonsense going.

I didn't slag off his supporters. If I did, I would have referred to them as turnips or tea slurpers etc.

Stats have been used on this site all season. I don't come here often but regularly this season, especially from the Leinster game and 2 European ties, I have seen plenty of posters break down POM's performances into numbers or at least provide a link to where you can see more. I think some people here have done an extremely good job at seeing through the progeganda.

And back to point 1. Who said I was talking about his fans? I specifically mentioned the mainstream media in my post. It is them who use terms like that for POM. It is also their job to look these things up. Not mine. DOC (who is a far better pundit than I expected), Wood and BOD have all jumped on this recently. Murray Kinsella aswell. I said nothing about his fans.

Who was doling out the abuse you're talking about then?

[LeRouxIsPHat]

That kind of liberal false equivalence, like a three handed economist, is seriously one of the most egregious errors in argument prevalent in the world right now. Kearney has poor to no form. O'Mahony has poor form. And Suisse is capable of seeing that and seeing arguments against either player playing. He wouldn't have either in the team I think (personally I think I'd have both with Kearney being closer to the cut than O'Mahony). His argument is that O'Mahony's inclusion is perceived as beyond argument and that any criticism is immediately a sign of someone's opinion being worthless. Whereas Kearney's is a lightning rod for hate. Not the same thing. People are foaming with fury at Kearney being included and go mental if the concept that O'Mahony's place being contentious is mentioned. Conflating rational dispute with crazy is not doing anyone any favours. Don't make the crazies argument for them, you'll make one they didn't make, don't have, and will validate their irrationality.



That doesn't in any way mean that the echo chamber around Kearney's inclusion being a travesty and any criticism of O'Mahony being a sign of clownishness isn't utterly and entirely risable. They are both up for debate but the discourse is completely skewed and liberal equivocation normalises the f%~king crazy shit. It's not normal. It's crazy. Suisse is right.

I get that that's partly where suisse was coming from, but my point was that by having a go at the people supporting POM (and specifically by mentioning the leadership and passion thing which is now a common slag of Munster fans) he's just perpetuating the whole thing. Now maybe I took it up wrong, but I'm struggling to see who else the abuse of Kearney came from and was assuming that the abuse of Rob and support of POM both came from the same place, Munster fans. It's not that he was wrong in what he said, it's just that it keeps the tit for tat stuff going.

[ronk]

POM is a player picked in a position of strength. There are 3 form Leinster backrows who might have been on the team. We have enough experience in the backrow that we could manage.

He’s been a regular and maybe his form has been building for this game.

Kearney is one of Ireland’s most experienced and long serving elite players who’s had a bad run of injuries that has disrupted his form. He might be in good shape, we don’t fully know.

He’s coming into an otherwise inexperienced back 3 and there isn’t the same level of competition for his place. Carbery is still learning and is needed to cover Sexton.

In both cases the simple low risk call has been made. Both players divide fans as to their merits and are either essential elite players or bad selections that weaken the team

[FLIP]

Oosthuizen is a bit of CJ.

Turned out to be utterly true that.

[Fan with smartphone]

Rob Kearney really needs to relax a bit more out there.

Comfortable so far. Aki bringing a hitting power we haven’t often had. Henderson superb in the loose and rucks are pretty good. We are box kicking much better than them.....and there’s s try off a box kick.

[fourthirtythree]

Delighted for Conway. Fantastic,

That off the ball hit was stupid by Sexton, Really stupid.

[Oldschool]

Can someone tell Lenihan to shut up when the ref is talking to either captain.

[IanD]

AssHole of the Day Award goes to



The medic who lifted Oosthuizens left foot to pick up his bag off the medical cart. Gobshite lifted his hurt leg. The look Oosthuizen gave him was pure fury.

[ronk]

AssHole of the Day Award goes to



The medic who lifted Oosthuizens left foot to pick up his bag off the medical cart. Gobshite lifted his hurt leg. The look Oosthuizen gave him was pure fury.

So that wasnt just my imagination. Unbelievable

[wwed]

God Lenihan is the most appalling commentator

[ronk]

Nice try by Ruddock

[Oldschool]

Stockdale just made an eejit of Lenihan and his MOM.

[FLIP]

So Joey Carbery now has a 100% record against the big three SH sides.

[Oldschool]

So Joey Carbery now has a 100% record against the big three SH sides.

Great to see someone like Carberry coming on late in the and putting thru a kick like the one for Sweetnam.
Making the two kicks t goal was great stuff too.

[Ruckedtobits]

Composite team:

1.Healy 2.Marx 3.Furlong 16.Best 17.Beast 18.Oosthuizen

4.Etzebeth 5.Henderson 19.de Jager

6.Du Toit 8.Stander 7.SOB 20.Kolisi

9.Murray 10.Sexton 12.De Allende 13.Henshaw 14.Lleyds 21.Cronje 22.Pollard 23.Kriel

11.Skosan 15.Coetzee

Do you want to have another go?

[Oldschool]

Composite team:

1.Healy 2.Marx 3.Furlong 16.Best 17.Beast 18.Oosthuizen

4.Etzebeth 5.Henderson 19.de Jager

6.Du Toit 8.Stander 7.SOB 20.Kolisi

9.Murray 10.Sexton 12.De Allende 13.Henshaw 14.Lleyds 21.Cronje 22.Pollard 23.Kriel

11.Skosan 15.Coetzee

Do you want to have another go?

Worthy of post of the AIs so far.