Ireland and Wolfhounds

Tom Court pointedly absent from the list of injured/not fully fit players...

Not an area Ireland are too weak in, but thought Muldoon could have been close to a call up.

Not too long ago, a Connacht player wouldnt get a look in, for the Irish squad.

Well done to the three lads

Diom wrote: Muldoon and Griffin are the Connacht lads who would also have been justified with a call up to the squad. I am guessing that our league form hurts our chances of getting players into Irish jerseys.

Muldoon's in a very crowded position and Griffin has been played out of position much of the season. Plus he was pretty much our worst player against Zebre, bad time to have his only stinker of the season. I'm happy enough with the 3 that are named.

Yes, particularly happy for Rodney, and fair play to the coaches too, for helping him along the way. Dan McFarland is some man it seems! I didn't see the Rodney selection coming, but I'd be quietly confident he'll give a good account of himself.

If Big Rod is capped, does that mean that he isntantly ceases to be a "Project Player" and there may be another gap to fill there?

Both Rodney and Nathan will be off the non-Irish list next year. If Parks doesn't re-sign then we have only Poolman, Heenan, and George who are NIQ/NIE, so dollars pending (thanks Pat) we should be able to sign a few from abroad.

salmson wrote: Both Rodney and Nathan will be off the non-Irish list next year. If Parks doesn't re-sign then we have only Poolman, Heenan, and George who are NIQ/NIE, so dollars pending (thanks Pat) we should be able to sign a few from abroad.

Do you know something we don't about Craig Clarke

ummm, wrote:

Sol_ie wrote: IRELAND Extended 2014 RBS 6 Nations Championship Squad
Rodney Ah You (Buccaneers/Connacht)*

Called it

Er... not quite right. I think you said he'd be in the Wolfhounds. I'm sure he'll drop into that team - but let's celebrate his current call up for the Full squad.

just to echo what has been said about Dan Mcfarland, year after year he's coached our pack to punch above it's weight, the setpiece this year has been imperious and a lot of the credit for that goes to Dan.

swift4prez wrote:

salmson wrote: Both Rodney and Nathan will be off the non-Irish list next year. If Parks doesn't re-sign then we have only Poolman, Heenan, and George who are NIQ/NIE, so dollars pending (thanks Pat) we should be able to sign a few from abroad.

Do you know something we don't about Craig Clarke

Muller is retiring and Humphries is stamping his ickle foot, I believe... Nah, just me being dumb.

No Zebo (just barely back from injury), so the only notable absentees are Gilroy, Court, Fitzpatrick and McLaughlin I think (and Paddy Wallace, obviously). Cue Nordie outrage.

Oh, and Herring is the Ulster no. 2 hooker.

Gilroy (concussion & broken nose)
Court (signing for L.I so is essentially retired)
Fitzpatrick (concussion)
McLaughlin (overtaken by Ruddock at Leinster who got a call-up)
Paddy Wallace (re-injured the same leg again. I think unfortunately that will be the end of his career and he'll retire in the summer).

Rob Herring is a fantastic Hooker who played for the Emerging Ireland squad last summer and gave a good account of himself. Nothing flashy but those all the basics well.

As for Rodney, Schmidt gave a presentation about the type of rugby he wants Ireland to play a week or two again at a coach's seminar. He emphasized at one point the need for Ireland to carry ball more to create space. Regardless of Rodney's other faults he's a very good carrier of the ball and with SOB out injured, Ferris on long-term injury and Healy just back that leaves Ireland with very few ball-carriers. It makes sense for Schmidt to want to look at Rodney and see if he could be utilized as one.

P.S. I could see Heaslip doing a lot more carries this 6N than he's done in a few years.