Ruckedtobits wrote:I'd prefer to see one of our three hard-nosed second-rows somewhere in the 23. Neither Nagle nor Kearney have shown any of that characteristic this season. Excellent backrow but they need a front-five with hardness against Benetton. Three out of five (McGrath, Porter & Molony) isn't enough.
Totally agree. They are going to have a go at our scrum (SR) and we've nothing on the bench to shore it up.
Hope none of our FR get injured early because a change out at 50 mins for all might be necessary.
Hopefully a calculated risk that pays off.
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall who's the greatest player of them all? It is Drico your majesty.
mildlyinterested wrote:really need to upgrade second row options.
Can you name a team, particularly in the Pro14, who has a better 5th and 6th choice pair of locks. Can you suggest two players who would be 'upgrades' who would be content to go to a club to be, at best, fourth choice?
Molony is our 4th choice, Nagle is our 6th choice (normally), Mick Kearney 5th choice. there are several European teams with notably better options than us. Racing 92 have some pretty handy 4th and 5th choice locks in Manuel Carizza and Patricio Albacete. Suta is 4th/5th choice at Toulon. After Iturria and Vahaamahina, two of Jedrasiak, Timani and Flip van der Merwe are 4th and 5th choice at Clermont. Glasgow have Alainu'uese and Peterson as their reserve choices, better than ours. In any case, depth at second row is one of the areas where we are at best on par with (often behind) our rivals, rather than better.
This will have direct implications for our set-pieces and tight work in this game, especially if Molony has to go off early.
"This is breathless stuff.....it's on again. Contepomi out to Hickie,D'Arcy,Hickie.......................HICKIE FOR THE CORNER! THAT IS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
mildlyinterested wrote:really need to upgrade second row options.
Can you name a team, particularly in the Pro14, who has a better 5th and 6th choice pair of locks. Can you suggest two players who would be 'upgrades' who would be content to go to a club to be, at best, fourth choice?
Molony is our 4th choice, Nagle is our 6th choice (normally), Mick Kearney 5th choice. there are several European teams with notably better options than us. Racing 92 have some pretty handy 4th and 5th choice locks in Manuel Carizza and Patricio Albacete. Suta is 4th/5th choice at Toulon. After Iturria and Vahaamahina, two of Jedrasiak, Timani and Flip van der Merwe are 4th and 5th choice at Clermont. Glasgow have Alainu'uese and Peterson as their reserve choices, better than ours. In any case, depth at second row is one of the areas where we are at best on par with (often behind) our rivals, rather than better.
This will have direct implications for our set-pieces and tight work in this game, especially if Molony has to go off early.
Can you see any common link between the majority of the players you’ve named?
Ruckedtobits wrote:I'd prefer to see one of our three hard-nosed second-rows somewhere in the 23. Neither Nagle nor Kearney have shown any of that characteristic this season. Excellent backrow but they need a front-five with hardness against Benetton. Three out of five (McGrath, Porter & Molony) isn't enough.
Totally agree. They are going to have a go at our scrum (SR) and we've nothing on the bench to shore it up.
Hope none of our FR get injured early because a change out at 50 mins for all might be necessary.
Hopefully a calculated risk that pays off.
Porter is a revelation but I don't think it is in any way clear that he has been stronger than Bent in the scrum.
At this stage, I wouldn't have thought there was much between Strauss and Tracy either, when it comes to scrummaging.
Ditto Kearney over Nagle.
carlow man wrote:Won't load. Doesn't sound like I'm missing much! How's sob and jordan getting on?
Not great - in fact overall its a very disjointed performance.....lot of possession but a little brain dead against a
decent defense.....SOB replaced at HT by Timmins.....JL mixed bag really.....12-10 Lein at 51 mins
“As you all know first prize is a Cadillac El Dorado. Anyone wanna see second prize? Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you're fired.”
