Italy v Ireland Sun 24/02/19 3pm

[matt]

Would expect something like 1. Kilcoyne 2. Cronin 3 Porter 4. Dillane 5 Roux 6 Ruddock (c) 7 VDF 8 Conan 9 Cooney 10 Carbury 11 Stockdale 12 Henshaw 13 Ringrose 14 Larmour 15 Addison 16 N.Scannell 17 J.McGrath 18 John Ryan 19 Henderson 20 O'Brien 21 Marmion 22 Carty 23 Conway. Some of them will be important in Japan. Italy next week represents a chance for players who are not first choice now but most of whom have a good chance of being in the 31 for Japan.


The front rowers, James Ryan, POM. Murray, Sexton, Earls, R.Kearney would also benefit from conditioning rather than another physical game after England & Scotland and it kind of mirrors the World Cup where we have tough opening games then easier before the real business gets underway.

[betty swallocks]

Ringrose won't be risked, so with Chris Farrell likely out as well we could see a midfield of Aki/Henshaw or Henshaw/Tom Farrell.

[ronk]

Risking Farrell was a surprise. He wasn't needed for Munster, he had played and there were lots of injuries in his position. And he has a patchy injury record.

If that had happened to England we'd be laughing at their player management.

[dburns199]

I'd have Conway in for Ringrose with Adam Byrne into 23 and likely Addison to 13 and Conway 15 but personally wouldn't mind seeing Larmour at 13 and Conway at 14.

[Ruckedtobits]

Pick the team who are going to play Russia in RWC with a strong bench. We'll travel with our strongest 31 to RWC, so none of that combination will be weak.

[suisse]

Make changes and don't worry about pundits claiming we're disrespecting Italy. Schmidt has more than 23 players at his disposal. Until Italy start being decent, we have no obligation to select our best 15

[sunshiner1]

I'd have Tom Farell in. He's going gangbusters at the moment and him and Aki know each other pretty well. He's also seriously attack minded if he has failings as a player its defensive but against a team like Italy I don't think it matters.

I'd also drop Murray and Sexton. I know they have being struggling with injury/form so giving them a mental kick up the ass might be a good thing.

[ronk]

Pick the team who are going to play Russia in RWC with a strong bench. We'll travel with our strongest 31 to RWC, so none of that combination will be weak.

I can see that. Strong but alternate. And the motivation doesn’t slip; if you don’t wanna perform now you won’t perform then but there are others who would love that chance.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

I'm a bit torn about the selection. I'd like to see us make a few changes and don't think a win will be in doubt regardless of who we pick but given that we've had two poor performances I think it might be an idea to pick a lot of the first choice players. There aren't that many games left before the World Cup and we have enough injuries that there'll be quite a few changes from the first choice side anyway, but I can see how others would say that that should mean we experiment.

It might seem unnecessary but I'd like to see how Best does for example. If he doesn't react to two very average performances against a team that he should be able to dominate then I'd have no qualms about dropping him for the the last two games.

[Xanthippe]

If Joe does select Farrell, Carty or Blade (or any other uncaped player) this weekend then whichever is named first will be the 100th player Joe has selected since he became Irish coach

[Peg Leg]

If Joe does select Farrell, Carty or Blade (or any other uncaped player) this weekend then whichever is named first will be the 100th player Joe has selected since he became Irish coach

[blockhead]

Hendo cited

[neill_m]

Chris Farrell has been reviewed by the Ireland medical team and is fit to train today. Garry Ringrose and Rhys Ruddock will continue their respective hamstring rehab at Leinster this week. Will Addison has some lower back stiffness that is being managed at Ulster this week. Iain Henderson and Tadhg Beirne, who were named in the initial Six Nations squad, have joined up the group at Carton House this week.

Ireland Squad (Round 3, Guinness Six Nations Championship, v Italy, Stadio Olimpico, Sunday, February 24)

Forwards (18)

Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster) 115 caps (c)
Tadhg Beirne (Lansdowne/Munster) 4 caps
Jack Conan (Old Belvedere/Leinster) 12 caps
Sean Cronin (St Mary’s College/Leinster) 67 caps
Ultan Dillane (Corinthians/Connacht) 12 caps
Tadhg Furlong (Clontarf/Leinster) 30 caps
Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster) 86 caps
Iain Henderson (Queens University/Ulster) 42 caps
Dave Kilcoyne (UL Bohemians/Munster) 26 caps
Jack McGrath (St Marys College/Leinster) 53 caps
Jordi Murphy (Lansdowne/Ulster) 26 caps
Sean O’Brien (UCD/Leinster) 54 caps
Peter O’Mahony (Cork Constitution/Munster) 54 caps (vc)
Quinn Roux (Galwegians/Connacht) 10 caps
James Ryan (UCD/Leinster) 15 caps
John Ryan (Cork Constitution/Munster) 16 caps
Niall Scannell (Dolphin/Munster) 11 caps
Josh van der Flier (UCD/Leinster) 15 caps

Backs (16)

Bundee Aki (Galwegians/Connacht) 14 caps
Caolin Blade (Galwegians/Connacht) 0 caps
Adam Byrne (UCD/Leinster) 1 cap
Joey Carbery (Clontarf/Munster) 18 caps
Jack Carty (Buccaneers/Connacht) 0 caps
Andrew Conway (Garryowen/Munster) 10 caps
John Cooney (Terenure College/Ulster) 6 caps
Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster) 74 caps
Chris Farrell (Young Munster/Munster) 4 caps
Tom Farrell (Coolmine/Connacht) 0 caps
Robbie Henshaw (Buccaneers/Leinster) 37 caps
Rob Kearney (UCD/Leinster/) 88 caps
Jordan Larmour (St Mary’s College/Leinster) 11 caps
Conor Murray (Garryowen/Munster) 69 caps
Jonathan Sexton (St Marys College/Leinster) 80 caps (vc)
Jacob Stockdale (Lurgan/Ulster) 16 caps

[neill_m]

Parisse out of the game due to suffering concussion playing for Stade at the weekend.

[wixfjord]

A shame for Porter but fair enough I think.

The LH selection will be interesting. I'd go with Kilcoyne to start and McGrath to bench.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

I hope the Porter call is just to give Ryan some game time and for Porter to benefit from a start against the Kings. One of the big things that we've learned from the first two games is that we really need power in our pack and Porter definitely offers that so I'm hoping that we see Italy as a weaker side that we can get by with some rotation. I know he needs to work on his scrummaging but I think think the rest of his game outweighs that and he's proven to be the best backup TH over the last year so I want him involved against France and Wales.

[Flash Gordon]

A shame for Porter but fair enough I think.

The LH selection will be interesting. I'd go with Kilcoyne to start and McGrath to bench.

He was poor last weekend as was Jack. Not called out as injured so assume it's a form call.

[ronk]

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/ ... -1.3799428

Henderson available. Hope he plays

[Ruckedtobits]

Jungle drums out west tonight and lots of last-minute booking of flights to Rome. Eric Elwood may have been the last Connacht man to play this position for Ireland, but the Stadio Olympico may welcome another man from the West on Sunday.

[johng]

If Johnny needs the game time then Joey needs whatever is left