A team to face France A announced

Post by **limecat** » February 7th, 2006, 12:59 pm

Player / Club / Caps

15. Gavin Duffy (Harlequins) 4

14. Ian Dowling (Shannon/Munster) 0

13. Barry Murphy (UL Bohemians/Munster) 0

12. Kieran Lewis (St. Mary's College/Leinster) 1

11. Conor McPhillips (St. Mary's College/Connacht) 0

10. Jeremy Staunton (Wasps) 3

9. Tomas O'Leary (Sundays Well/Munster) 0

1. Ray Hogan (Galwegians/Connacht) 0

2. John Fogarty (Buccaneers/Connacht) 0

3. Bryan Young ( Ballymena/Ulster) 0

4. Mick O'Driscoll (Capt.) (Cork Constitution/Munster) 3

5. Matt McCullough (Ballymena/Ulster) 4

6. Neil Best (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster) 2

7. Shane Jennings (Leicester) 0

8. Jamie Heaslip (Clontarf/Leinster) 0

Replacements
16. Brian Blaney (Terenure College/Leinster) 0

17. Ronan McCormack (UCD/Leinster) 0

18. Leo Cullen (Leicester) 18

19. Roger Wilson (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster) 1

20. Chris Keane (Buccaneers/Connacht) 0

21. Paddy Wallace (Ballymena/Ulster) 0

22. John Hearty (Galwegians/Connacht) 0

Not considered due to injury:

Robert Kearney (UCD/Leinster) {Back}

Alan Quinlan (Shannon/Munster) {knee}

Frankie Sheahan (Cork Constitution/Munster) {neck}

Not Considered:

Shane Byrne (Saracens)

Reggie Corrigan (Greystones/Leinster)

Girvan Dempsey (Terenure College/Leinster)

Guy Easterby (Blackrock College/Leinster)

Anthony Foley (Shannon/Munster)

Keith Gleeson (St.Mary’s College/Leinster)

Denis Hickie (St.Mary’s College/Leinster)

Anthony Horgan (Cork Constitution/Munster)

John Kelly (Cork Constitution/Munster)

Does anybody know why these players weren't considered at all?

CM · Post by CM » February 7th, 2006, 1:09 pm

Does anybody know why these players weren't considered at all?

A teams are for developement and seeing if the players are up to international standard. No point playing known entities.

Post by **limecat** » February 7th, 2006, 1:19 pm

CM wrote:A teams are for developement and seeing if the players are up to international standard. No point playing known entities.

That's what I thought, but I still would have thought that playing Hickie in this game to help him regain the match fitness that EOS seems to think he is lacking would have been worthwhile.

Anyhoo, far be it from me to try to understand the thinking of EOS.

CM · Post by CM » February 7th, 2006, 1:27 pm

but I still would have thought that playing Hickie in this game to help him regain the match fitness that EOS seems to think he is lacking would have been worthwhile.

I was thinking that too but it may just mean that Hickie's out of the picture for this 6N anyway.

TrueBlue · Post by **TrueBlue** » February 7th, 2006, 1:47 pm

Good looking team, and I reckon the back-row would give the Test back-row a good hidding!!!

Obvioulsy, these internationals are seen as developmental, and hence no Gleeson, Hickie etc.......

Flash Gordon · Post by **Flash Gordon** » February 8th, 2006, 11:54 am

So the best lock in the Guinness premiership can't make the bench of the Ireland A team......WTF???

We have a lightweight tight 5 where the guy on the bench is over 3 stones lighter than Bob Casey. Doc has been distinctly average all season - sure he was dropped against us! Bizarre.....

Duff Paddy · Post by **Duff Paddy** » February 8th, 2006, 11:56 am

The A team backrow and possibly even the half backs would take the test team.

Flash Gordon · Post by **Flash Gordon** » February 8th, 2006, 12:00 pm

Duff Paddy wrote:The A team backrow and possibly even the half backs would take the test team.

No possible on the half backs Duff. The ponderous and slow ball on Saturday was the reason Flash, Drico and Geordie were getting splattered within one nanosecond.

epaddy · Post by **epaddy** » February 8th, 2006, 12:06 pm

Duff Paddy wrote:The A team backrow and possibly even the half backs would take the test team.

Not the half backs, O'Leary cant pass and Stan is flakier the Charlie boy. Reddan or Boss inside O'Gara

is what we need

Flash Gordon · Post by **Flash Gordon** » February 8th, 2006, 12:14 pm

epaddy wrote:
Duff Paddy wrote:The A team backrow and possibly even the half backs would take the test team.
Not the half backs, O'Leary cant pass and Stan is flakier the Charlie boy. Reddan or Boss inside O'Gara is what we need

Reddan and Humph is the ticket. Even on one crutch and clutching his bus pass he's much more of an outhalf than Rog....

Duff Paddy · Post by **Duff Paddy** » February 8th, 2006, 12:17 pm

epaddy wrote:
Duff Paddy wrote:The A team backrow and possibly even the half backs would take the test team.
Not the half backs, O'Leary cant pass and Stan is flakier the Charlie boy. Reddan or Boss inside O'Gara is what we need

What and ROG isn't flakey? Opposition teams have Stringer and ROG completely worked out - neither will break so Ireland have become very easy to defend against. O'Leary and Staunton can both break. O'Leary's pass does need work though.

epaddy · Post by **epaddy** » February 8th, 2006, 12:34 pm

Duff Paddy wrote:
epaddy wrote:
Duff Paddy wrote:The A team backrow and possibly even the half backs would take the test team.
Not the half backs, O'Leary cant pass and Stan is flakier the Charlie boy. Reddan or Boss inside O'Gara is what we need
What and ROG isn't flakey? Opposition teams have Stringer and ROG completely worked out - neither will break so Ireland have become very easy to defend against. O'Leary and Staunton can both break. O'Leary's pass does need work though.

Sorry Duff but Stan is total shite, he isn’t even a GP class goal kicker. He cost Quins relegation in the last match of the season, he runs around like a headless chicken. He has a decent break and can produce moments of Magic but he is not consistent enough. Like it or not ROG is our only option. We need a scrummie that will relieve the pressure

Duff Paddy · Post by **Duff Paddy** » February 8th, 2006, 12:45 pm

epaddy wrote: Sorry Duff but Stan is total shite, he isn’t even a GP class goal kicker. He cost Quins relegation in the last match of the season, he runs around like a headless chicken. He has a decent break and can produce moments of Magic but he is not consistent enough. Like it or not ROG is our only option. We need a scrummie that will relieve the pressure

That's complete b*%&!x epaddy - missing a reasonable difficult kick in the last game of the season hardly cost Quins relegation. They were complete and utter shite all season and it is ridiculous to blame Stan for them going down.

JoseFantastique · Post by **JoseFantastique** » February 8th, 2006, 12:47 pm

Harlequins were a sh!t team last year, name one player they had that was anything other than average? Still Staunton nearly kept them up with his kicking, ended up a top 5 kicker in the league I think (and this from a player who rarely kicked for Munster). Anyhow Ireland need him or someone to come through.

epaddy · Post by **epaddy** » February 8th, 2006, 12:50 pm

Duff Paddy wrote:
epaddy wrote: Sorry Duff but Stan is total shite, he isn’t even a GP class goal kicker. He cost Quins relegation in the last match of the season, he runs around like a headless chicken. He has a decent break and can produce moments of Magic but he is not consistent enough. Like it or not ROG is our only option. We need a scrummie that will relieve the pressure
That's complete b*%&!x epaddy - missing a reasonable difficult kick in the last game of the season hardly cost Quins relegation. They were complete and utter shite all season and it is ridiculous to blame Stan for them going down.

Ok its unfair to blame him for going down but he did miss a fairly easy kick from the 10m line in front of the posts. A kick that he could conceivably have for Ireland to beat England in Twicks or to seal the Triple Crown etc. Your also ignoring the rest of my post, his kicking isn’t up to international standard, neither is his general play. I have always though he could make a could inside centre in the New Zealand 1st 5/8 role that Mauger and even Henson plays for Wales

Flash Gordon · Post by **Flash Gordon** » February 8th, 2006, 12:57 pm

JoseFantastique wrote:Harlequins were a sh!t team last year, name one player they had that was anything other than average? Still Staunton nearly kept them up with his kicking, ended up a top 5 kicker in the league I think (and this from a player who rarely kicked for Munster). Anyhow Ireland need him or someone to come through.

Fock, you here too Jose?

Agree on Quins generally. Though I thought Gav Duffy was alright last year....

CM · Post by CM » February 8th, 2006, 1:38 pm

DP

There were at least two or three games where Staunton's kicking cost Quins a victory. Any one of those wins would have done.

JoseFantastique · Post by **JoseFantastique** » February 8th, 2006, 2:10 pm

Flash Gordon wrote:
JoseFantastique wrote:Harlequins were a sh!t team last year, name one player they had that was anything other than average? Still Staunton nearly kept them up with his kicking, ended up a top 5 kicker in the league I think (and this from a player who rarely kicked for Munster). Anyhow Ireland need him or someone to come through.

Agree on Quins generally. Though I thought Gav Duffy was alright last year....

Exactly, alright is the highest praise anyone can give one of their better backs. Just a sh!t team. I'm not saying Staunton was anything other than average, but he certainly didn't cost them their GP place

CM, true he could have kicked better, but O'Gara could have won 2 HEC for Munster if he could kick in finals, Holwell getting sent off may have cost Leinster the Celtic Cup, etc. Every outhalf can be accused of costing games, it's the nature of the position, sure Humphreys missed pressure kicks for Ireland against France that cost us wins but doesn't mean he wasn't a great servant of Irish rugby.

CM · Post by CM » February 8th, 2006, 2:15 pm

Jose

If we were just having a discussion over kicking then fine but I just don't rate Staunton at FH on so many levels and until he proves otherwise I'll continue not to rate him.

I don't get any pleasure out of it, believe me, I'd much prefer if he was challenging the two incumbents but he's never produced a masterclass display while ROG and Humphreys have, on many occasions. Put it this way ROG and Humphs have won and lost matches before but I've rarely, if ever, heard of Staunton winning matches - just losing them.

JoseFantastique · Post by **JoseFantastique** » February 8th, 2006, 2:21 pm

Ah but ROG has played outhalf at pro level for 8 or so years (?), Humphreys even longer, this is effectively Staunton's second season as a pro outhalf. Personally, I think we'll have to look to the newer generations like Steenson, even Sexton to find Ireland's next outhalf (I don't rate Manning too highly). Staunton and Wallace's careers were badly damaged by the IRFU (just my opinion).