Chris Henry and Tom Court need to get up to speed to keep pace with Dan!
Ireland have discarded the bulk of the team that took a pasting last Saturday and selected a whole new starting XV for the game against the New Zealand Maori on Friday morning.
The game should be memorable enough for us Nordies as I’m sure it’s been a while since five Ulstermen started any Ireland match of any description and even though one of them will be switching to Leinster at the end of the month I think we should celebrate the occasion anyway.
I for one am now looking forward to this game with a renewed sense of excitement as it gives us a great chance to benchmark our players on the international stage for the Maori team is certainly international standard.
We all know what Paddy can do but it’ll be great to see him play a substantial part of a game with Sexton. Providing Ireland get any sort of ball this could be one of the most exciting combinations for some time if both play to their strengths and read each others plays. If they gel it wil be great, if they don’t then they could just spend the game running into each other!
Huge game for Court, Tuohy and Henry who all must be aware that a big showing will mean involvement in the final game against Australia.
After his disappointing micro appearance on Saturday Court will need to make a big impact in the loose from the start and if he can get on top of his opposite number in the set piece then so much the better. There’s a good chace that we’ll see Tom in action for the full game as I reckon he’ll end up playing both sides of the scrum so that the management get a look at Hayes’ fitness.
Henry also has some work to do and he will need to show that he can make ground off the back of the scrum, pure and simple. He can do everything else but does consistently come up short when carrying from the base. I suspect Ireland will be having more than a few defensive scrums in their own 22 so he should get plenty of practice.
Dan the Man needs to show that his glittering cameo on Saturday past wasn’t a flash in the pan. He knows he’ll have Ed at his back doing the grunt work but he will need to prove that he can do the work at the coalface as well as showcase his pace. Two big games from Dan could see him pass a lot of other contenders.
It’ll also be interesting to see how Rhys Ruddock fares on the big stage. I’ve been watching the U20’s at the JWC in Argentina and while Ruddock was a very effective performer and obviously the only choice in the position required I thought that there were other young players capable of moving up ahead of Ruddock. It will be yet another interesting benchmarking opportunity to let us gauge how far away some of our junior stars are.
Ireland: (15-9) Geordan Murphy, Shane Horgan, Gavin Duffy, Paddy Wallace, Johne Murphy, Jonathan Sexton, Eoin Reddan. (1-8) Marcus Horan, John Fogarty, Tom Court, Ed O’Donoghue, Dan Tuohy, Rhys Ruddock, Niall Ronan, Chris Henry. (16-22) Sean Cronin, John Hayes, Donncha O’Callaghan, David Wallace, Peter Stringer, Ronan O’Gara, Rob Kearney.
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7 Responses to “Ireland team for NZ Maori”
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At least DK has not repeated the the EOS mistake of trying to play the same team in three matches .
My worry is the backline due to the fact the while Duffy has played rugby in the centre his experience in recent years has been at full back and the worry is that there are no centres on the bench thus any injury to one of the centres will bring Horgan infield and his defence as a centre is virtually non existant.
Thus while Duffy has played well in the ML this year and also for the “A”s it has been at full back thus IMO DKs mistake on this trip has been the omission of either Cave or Whitten in the squad ( unless they have minor injuries which require rest or other committments which made them unavailable)
It is in most inexperienced ( in International caps ) set of forwards that Ireland have put on a field for a long time and therefore in IMO a win would be an unexpected bonus
I just hope Ruddock makes good because D Wallace is really no longer an International 7 and Jennings has many ??? to answer and does not appear to able to raise his game to International standard
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Good to see “the mote” is still alive.
Whilst I still believe DK is EOS in disguise, you are completely correct in your worries about Duffy and Horgan and it is a disgrace Cave and Whitten have not been given a chance on this tour. Sadly Wallace’s form has started to go into reverse.
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Raging
EOS would have played the same team this friday as last Saturday and would never have played Ruddock
But while he may take a few risks DK falls into a similiar conservative trap as EOS
eg Duffy Horgan Hayes and truth be told but for injury neither Tuohy Ed or Henry would be near the squad and like you I think Wallace ( P) may not be the player he was last year
But then only games against top teams will convince some that Hayes Wallace and Horgan are no longer at International pace and that Buckley Duffy and Jennings can’t raise their game to that level
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Mote
Excellent we disagree on something ….EOS never played any matches with Ireland that were non cap like this one on Friday. If he had he might well have picked the same team. If the match effected Irelands ranking we would be looking at the same team which DK considers his best.
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Therefore DK at least has the sense to ensure that one match in three is a non cap and a two week break between Internationals
In the above list I forgot to include another second row MoD I have consistantly stated my view that experience counts for nothing if your a yard off the pace.
Based on DKs past selections his ranking of second rows would appear to be Po C Do’C Ryan Cullen MoD Tuohy and Ed IMO Cullen is a fine Line out 2nd row but his scummage presence is close to 0— Leinster have struggled at scrum time when he has played and MoD has never impressed at International level . Given Ireland’s ?? front row Cullen should never be considered for International duty because no front row can operate effectively with out the support of the second row
Then there is the alternative view point that would state a good scrum counts for little eg the English scrum is a great machine but their loose play is a shambles because the forwards are blubber without brains
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The reason there is a non cap match in NZ is because NZ had already agreed to play Wales this weekend and Ireland fuc**d up their date with Australia giving them a spare week in the Southern Hemisphere. Not good planning, piss poor management. The boys need a break.
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The way the referring of scrums are going I can certainly see them counting for less and less.
Only about one in three scrums actually goes to completion with free kicks or penalties being the norm after the front rows fail to engage or bind properly. In my day you sorted it out with a few well timed butts and things settled down after the third or fourth scrum anyway as it just took too much out of you to keep up the niggle.
With rucks now becoming the key opportunity to win or loose ball I’m afraid the days of the “hard scrumming but little else” props are numbered. A great shame that we are presiding over the extinction of such a wonderful beast !!
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