It appears the taint of Ulster still lingers on Isaac!
The Ireland team to play Scotland in the first RBS 6 Nations Championship game at Murrayfield, Edinburgh has been named.
There are three changes to the side from the team’s last outing and all of those changes are in the backline. Tommy Bowe has recovered from his knee injury that ruled him out of the first two games of the championship and is named on the right wing in place of Fergus McFadden.
There is a change at out half with Ronan O’Gara coming into the team to win his 106th cap for Ireland and Jonathan Sexton moving to the replacements.
Tomas O’Leary has been ruled out due to a back injury, so Eoin Reddan comes into the team to start and Peter Stringer is named on the bench.
Donncha O’Callaghan is named in the second row where he will win his 70th cap for Ireland while Brian O’Driscoll will captain the team for the 73rd time.
I was really hoping that Ireland would make some attempt to develop the squad ahead of the World Cup but it looks as though there are other priorities – though what they are I do not know.
After the defeat against France there is really not that much to play for – at least nothing we haven’t won several times before in recent history – so it’s disappointing that a few more of the fringe players weren’t given an extended chance.
Wallace or McFadden in the centre instead of Darcy, Trimble on instead of Earls and Boss benching ahead of Stringer would have shown at least an attempt at development. It’s doubly disappointing that O’Gara and Stringer are the men he turns to – I just don’t know what more Kidney has to learn about them in any given game situation. Surely they have done it all?
On the plus side it looks as though we’ll be getting Mr Trimble back for the Cardiff game though.
IRELAND Team & Replacements (v Scotland, 2011 RBS 6 Nations Championship, Murrayfield, Sunday, February 27, kick-off 3.00pm):
15 – Luke Fitzgerald (Blackrock College/Leinster)
14 – Tommy Bowe (Ospreys)
13 – Brian O’Driscoll (UCD/Leinster) (capt)
12 – Gordon D’Arcy (Lansdowne/Leinster)
11 – Keith Earls (Thomond/Munster)
10 – Ronan O’Gara (Cork Constitution/Munster)
9 – Eoin Reddan (Lansdowne/Leinster)
1 – Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster)
2 – Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster)
3 – Mike Ross (Clontarf/Leinster)
4 – Donncha O’Callaghan (Cork Constitution/Munster)
5 – Paul O’Connell (Young Munster/Munster)
6 – Sean O’Brien (Clontarf/Leinster)
7 – David Wallace (Garryowen/Munster)
8 – Jamie Heaslip (Naas/Leinster)
Replacements:
16 – Sean Cronin (Buccaneers/Connacht)
17 – Tom Court (Malone/Ulster)
18 – Leo Cullen (Blackrock College/Leinster)
19 – Denis Leamy (Cork Constitution/Munster)
20 – Peter Stringer (Shannon/Munster)
21 – Jonathan Sexton (St. Mary’s College/Leinster)
22 – Paddy Wallace (Ballymena/Ulster)
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2 Responses to “Ireland team for Scotland.”
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DK knows exactly what P Wallace can do I stated before that DK places importance on defence ( and bar the one miss against France ) D’arcy was a high count tackler in that game.
Paddy is a rush defence player D’Arcy is a drift BoD is a drift and Kidney prefers the a drift defence where players a shepherded towards the touchline.
McFadden is really about a year/ two years off International standard and is not a natural 12 and in my opinion Cave is a better 13
Only Earls ( who suffers tunnel vision ) and Wallace at 7 ( losing pace and stamina) are my major concerns in the selected 15 I would like to see a change of face on the bench .
who and why I have previously identified and my reasons still stand.
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