Ireland v Fiji

[Oldschool]

Interesting and accurate discussion on our centre selection.
On that basis it's fair to say that Joe sees the same skills etc issues.
For this AI series Joe has selected a lot of youngsters.
So why and what are the issues he wants to address.
Building squads for RWC 2019 and 2023 would be the obvious goal/target.
But to achieve this Joe needs the right players with the right skills.
Perhaps having identified a group of possible players he's not happy with their progress at the various provinces and wants to imprint his own etc.
A player like Farrell would be included so that Joe can have a good look close up and decide if he's worth investing in.

[TerenureJim]

Our opposition hasn't been great this AI series that's fair to say but I like how Joe is resting players, bringing in new caps, building a squad, having a look at lads, making sure that next level can come in and play the system. Gone are the days of 90+ cap John Hayes togging out v Samoa

[ronk]

.

EDIT - It was Jack O'Connell, a fine loosehead at the time. Not McGrath. It was November. It was 2012. Several senior posters on here referred to it (e.g. Ronk, Dave Cahill, etc.) and it's pure hearsay from me as I definitely wasn't there.

Archer was getting badly twisted in scrums and the ref stepped in to tell the Leinster props to go easy on him, basically they could have their penalties but the didnt need to maim him to prove it.

I think everyone was grateful.

JOC was hit by changes in the game. A lot of the guys who could double up as tightheads had to be full time looseheads and the tall tightheads were forced out of rugby.

With the loosehead quality we had i think he made a cracking decision and took the money at the best possible time. I havent seen much of him but heard hes done okay.

Hes still young and could easily end up back in Ireland.

[TerenureJim]

Just looking at some of the coverage of the Captain's Run in Aviva and sincerely hoping that we don't see anything like the sh*£e jerseys that they are wearing and that, for the game, we are kitted out in Irish Jerseys of green, not some marketing rubbish designed by Canterbury and marketed by the IRFU for another Christmas "killing for the kids".

They were training jerseys at captains run, there are only two match day shirts the traditional green and the not so traditional grey thing (remember when we used to have white)

[cormac]

Did I just hear Andrew Conway describe himself as a Lunster when he was growing up?

[wixfjord]

He did. What a prat.

[RoboProp]

Big Stu enjoy this; I don't see him being back in green any time soon. Not good enough

[Raydollard]

Some brainless play. Hope it doesn’t bite us in the ass. Will if we don’t do better. Thank God lunsters are few and far between and not worth giving a toss about.

[RoboProp]

Did I just hear Andrew Conway describe himself as a Lunster when he was growing up?

Kinda glad he f%~ked off now. They can keep him

[RoboProp]

Keep it tight FFS
Don't do a Wales on them

[Raydollard]

Truly brainless. What’s wrong with 3 points and a lead again.

[IanD]

Big Stu enjoy this; I don't see him being back in green any time soon. Not good enough

Just asked the other half what McCloskey has over Henshaw at 12. Her answer 'Nothing'.

Hard to disagree with that.

[CiaranIrl]

Is Nadolo playing? I'd fear for Carberry a small bit, but confident otherwise.

Carberry looked in a lot of pain there. Dislocation or break I'd say.

[wixfjord]

How the hell is Marmion still on? Has been awful.

[FLIP]

Healy very hard done by there. Ref giving anything he can to Fiji.

[RoboProp]

Healy very hard done by there. Ref giving anything he can to Fiji.

Healy MOTM for me. So what he was only on for 20 mins. Only one playing with any kind of dedication

[Twist]

Honestly didn’t think Healy was held. Would’ve been a try of the year contender


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[betty swallocks]

Porter didn't look out of place. Church (in particular) and Furlong upped it a gear when they came on. Marmion I thought played very well. He really is quick around the park. Carbery wonderful in spots. Back five seriously average

[artaneboy]

Porter didn't look out of place. Church (in particular) and Furlong upped it a gear when they came on. Marmion I thought played very well. He really is quick around the park. Carbery wonderful in spots. Back five seriously average

Yeah- Porter was okay, but the standard definitely upped when Furlong came on. Good run out for both our tight heads.

But I’d say McGrath is less happy; not so much on his own performance- he was good, but Healy was outstanding. Was that the pairing with Tadgh or just part of Cian’s renaissance this season? Either way he seems to have the upper hand on Jack at the moment.



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[LeRouxIsPHat]

Thank God for Cian Healy! Thought he was incredible, a real throwback to when he was the best LH in the world in 2012. It was as if he decided that he was going to win us the game on his own and then had the confidence to go out and do it. Great to see and so unlucky that his try wasn't given, really delighted for him after the last few years he's had and hope it continues.

The pack just looked weak a lot of the time. Rhys did pretty well but everyone else drifted in and out of the game. Porter was pretty solid too actually and that's all I want from him at this stage. I was thinking the other day how he's not just getting used to playing tighthead but also to playing pro rugby, it's not like he's had a tonne of games to get used to pro rugby in the first place, so considering that he's really doing an amazing job.

Not a whole lot of other positives. The breakdown was poor, we kept turning the ball over, poor discipline at times, and very little control from the halfbacks. Thought Joey was pretty good overall but Marmion kept making poor decisions that contributed to us losing our shape. McCloskey had a couple of errors but thought he played well and would like to see him in a better team. Conway very confident again at the back and Sweetnam was good but could have done with more ball. I was delighted for Dave as he went over for his "second" but once that was disallowed it all went south for him. His positioning was poor (something I noticed in pre season but put down to rustiness), the intercept was woeful in lots of different ways (an international winger should not look so uncomfortable and unwilling to run in open space), and he really went into his shell after that. Farrell was similar, started well but drifted badly.

At least it was an interesting game to watch and I'm looking forward to a strong reaction next week.