Damn! I haven't seen any highlights or heard anything about the rest of his performance though.
Thought Munster used Downey more effectively on Saturday though, they're a different side when they do that.
I believe it was Albert Camus who said when you have a one trick pony you may as well get it to do its trick
No doubt you'll be as philosophical when the Clermont pack arrive into the Capital Comedy Club (on a team bonding session no less!) and chase you around the stage Benny Hill style.
we can play the Cudmore montage of dismissals on the big screen
I tried to flyer Joe Van Niekirk last summer, the guy is frightening in person
Retired from babbling. Can be found on twittter @okeeffesimon
I was at Munster's match v Nottingham. Unfortunately I am not at liberty to disclose the initial results (highly classified) of the Hurley at 12 experiment though some say he might be growing a beard.
Decent crowd there, well over a thousand I'd say, all sworn to secrecy.
Delighted for hurley, over the last few years, moving hurley to 12 has been the only thing I have whole heartedly agree on with Oldschool on.
He has reinvented himself, and has become a very good, solid 12 with great vision. It is very rare that you see him make the wrong decision in attack. He knows when to crash and when an offload is on. If he had played last season at 12 along with this, then we may well be talking about his chances for the rwc squad.
But given that we are likely to see henshaw and Madigan selected, I can't see another 12 going in the first draft.
Just because a post upsets you, that doesn’t mean that it is wrong. People have different views in all aspects of life, this is a key ingredient to an interesting conversation.
Lets not get carried away. He's much better than I thought he'd be at simply trucking the ball up and particularly in terms of making his tackles and having a really big workrate in defence/at the breakdown. He's a real warrior in there to be fair to him.
However, his positioning/feet in defence are poor, no back line moves go through him because his hands aren't up to it, and in a game like yesterday when Keatley isn't playing well he's not a good enough footballer to take the pressure off him. He's totally reliant on others giving him the ball and just trucking it up. That's not a bad thing in itself and Munster are well coached so its been working well but that still doesn't make him a particularly good 12.
LeRouxIsPHat wrote:Lets not get carried away. He's much better than I thought he'd be at simply trucking the ball up and particularly in terms of making his tackles and having a really big workrate in defence/at the breakdown. He's a real warrior in there to be fair to him.
However, his positioning/feet in defence are poor, no back line moves go through him because his hands aren't up to it, and in a game like yesterday when Keatley isn't playing well he's not a good enough footballer to take the pressure off him. He's totally reliant on others giving him the ball and just trucking it up. That's not a bad thing in itself and Munster are well coached so its been working well but that still doesn't make him a particularly good 12.
Its definitely been his best ever season with Munster - he is far from a weak link that he had been at wing/fb in recent years and is in a particularly good form for the past couple of months (4 tries in his last 10 games - given that he has only ever scored 15 in 150 odd games) and generally top tackler etc. He always lacked the ability to be really top class, but I don't think positioning is an issue for him (he is a very intelligent player - tahts always been his strength- with speed his big deficiency). The idea that he isn't a good enough footballer to take pressure off Keatley is bit of a red herring - 12's are generally ballplayers (a la Madigan) or crash ball merchants (a la Roberts/McCloskey etc) - you lose something when you go with one option over the other - there are very few big 12's who are also really good footballers(Henshaw for example although he has stuff to work on as well) He is reliant on others giving him the ball (not sure what backs aren@:t!)
He is not going to be in the running nor should he be for the WC squad - that said I'd take him over Darcy all day everyday at the minute (who will be in the running).
LeRouxIsPHat wrote:Lets not get carried away. He's much better than I thought he'd be at simply trucking the ball up and particularly in terms of making his tackles and having a really big workrate in defence/at the breakdown. He's a real warrior in there to be fair to him.
However, his positioning/feet in defence are poor, no back line moves go through him because his hands aren't up to it, and in a game like yesterday when Keatley isn't playing well he's not a good enough footballer to take the pressure off him. He's totally reliant on others giving him the ball and just trucking it up. That's not a bad thing in itself and Munster are well coached so its been working well but that still doesn't make him a particularly good 12.
Its definitely been his best ever season with Munster - he is far from a weak link that he had been at wing/fb in recent years and is in a particularly good form for the past couple of months (4 tries in his last 10 games - given that he has only ever scored 15 in 150 odd games) and generally top tackler etc. He always lacked the ability to be really top class, but I don't think positioning is an issue for him (he is a very intelligent player - tahts always been his strength- with speed his big deficiency). The idea that he isn't a good enough footballer to take pressure off Keatley is bit of a red herring - 12's are generally ballplayers (a la Madigan) or crash ball merchants (a la Roberts/McCloskey etc) - you lose something when you go with one option over the other - there are very few big 12's who are also really good footballers(Henshaw for example although he has stuff to work on as well) He is reliant on others giving him the ball (not sure what backs aren@:t!)
He is not going to be in the running nor should he be for the WC squad - that said I'd take him over Darcy all day everyday at the minute (who will be in the running).
Don't think he is
Well, the thing he has going for him is that he has one big match left. Joe wont be watching any of the other candidates next weekend
Not a red herring at all. I don't just mean in terms of him stepping in at first receiver but organising things defensively and being vocal about options he can see that are on for Keatley and which ones he should take. Dan Biggar was talking recently about how much he could hear Darce talking when playing against him, looking at Hurley you can tell he's unsure of himself and looking for guidance from his ten and I would imagine that weighed heavily on Keatley's shoulders the other day when he was playing so poorly.
His positioning is ropey because he tends to keep looking inside and loses track of what's going on outside him and where his centre partner is. He gets caught square a lot and can't adjust his feet. Part of the problem is that Smith is a poor defender himself.
I don't mean to be too harsh on him because as I said he's been very good at taking the ball up (his support play is also better than I thought) and despite the flaws I mentioned above he works really hard in defence and brings tremendous physicality to to their game on both sides of the ball, but think the praise is OTT based on him being in a new position rather than his performances actually justifying it.
