Robbie not in 23. Jennings named as 24th man so Robbie gets to sit in stand.

Team is Healy, best, Ross, toner, poc, pom, sob, heaslip. Murray, sexton, d Kearney, Darcy, bod, bows, r Kearney

Good to have you on board Westisbest. I'd say Darcy go the nod to help out Jackson who will most likely play or at least start the game. Having an experienced 12 outside should help him out and take some of the pressure off.

First time poster, long time lurker!

As they would say in GAA parlance, Dev isn't the first cousin of an international second row. Not his fault and he wasn't the worst the last two days, but in my opinion he aint up to international level. It looks like Gordon Darcy is getting the nod at 12. Odd decision in light of JS comments in terms of squad building etc. Such a pity that McSharry got injured when he did last season. He was flying it and has all the attributes to be an excellent inside centre.

I'd hate to think I made anybody feel unwelcome in any way shape or form let alone on here. I accept maybe it was my interpretation of your post and apologise if I was wide of the mark.

There was no Munster v Leinster bias in my post. If that's what you took from it then I that's your problem. I don't believe that toner is an international player. Archer, who I never mentioned, has, like rodney , benefitted from the rule change and is having a decent season for Munster in both the Heineken and pro12.

If you have a problem with me posting here say so and I'll leave you to it.

rossie wrote: I think too much is being made of this th lock/ lh lock thing. It was never an issue when I played and was merely a preference thing nothing more. I spoke to a friend of mine recently who currently is a player/ forwards coach and he confirms that nothing much in that regard has changed. The exception being where extra weight may support a lighter prop on a given Saturday.

Ross is struggling with the new rules. That and the lack of competitive games has diminished his scrum aging ability from his heightsat harlequins.
Toner is a pro12 level player at best. That is a pity because of his size but he just doesn't use himself with any conviction. Also his size must be difficult on terms of a tightly bound front 5 at scrum time.
Poc is just back from a series of serious injury and will take time to find form. When every one is fit he may be on the bench.
Heaslips form is very worrying. He seems to have surrendered ball carrying to sob and there appears to be very little else to his game.
Pom and sob tried hard but were outplayed by the Aussie backrow.

Redd in just shouldn't be there at this time. It must be Murray + mar ion backed up by Marshall and cooney/ mcgrath going into 6ns and beyond.
Likewise it has to be sexton and Jackson backed up by madigan and keatley/ hanrahan at 10.
I like Marshall at 12 backed up by mcsharry with the back up 10s and holding as cover.
13 is a huge problem but we need to move on from bod and trying to replace like with like is futile at this time. I personally would play McFadden there for his work rate and experience with cave and griffin in support.
The wings are in fine fettle but for me the best two ATM are bowe and zebo backed up by earls, gilroy and Kearney.
I really think that Robbie's future lies at full back both with Ireland and club. He never once IMO looked out of his debt at fb. He regularly does at 13 particularly defensively. Playing 13 for Marist college is a world apart from pro12 not to mind

If Toner is a pro 12 player at best god help Archer! Even for a munster fan that's a very lop sided analysis of Saturday's events! How can someone be so keen to rip Heasilp to shreds and then say POM tried hard?

This whole Munster v Leinster thing is just embarrassing at this stage, especially when it's on a Connacht fans forum!

Twitter machine reporting that McFadden has broken a bone in his hand.

Oh good the only player who any form is out.

Twitter machine reporting that McFadden has broken a bone in his hand.

makes the result even worse when the Wallabies were out tuesday night on the beer.

SIX Wallabies players have been suspended and a further nine have been officially warned after a boozy night out in Dublin last week.

www.foxsports.com.au/rugby/wallabeers-si...frf4pu-1226762846500

Lost post on Fone and can't get to end on edit to finish.

Last post should finish ' not to mind international level'.

Attitude and intensity were wrong last Saturday and were highlighted early on the game when Ashley cooper nearly got on a cross field kick deep in our 22 with our winger jogging back 20m off the pace. A big improvement in both will improve performance but unfortunately not the result.

Better wash my All Blacks jersey this evening

I think too much is being made of this th lock/ lh lock thing. It was never an issue when I played and was merely a preference thing nothing more. I spoke to a friend of mine recently who currently is a player/ forwards coach and he confirms that nothing much in that regard has changed. The exception being where extra weight may support a lighter prop on a given Saturday.

Ross is struggling with the new rules. That and the lack of competitive games has diminished his scrum aging ability from his heightsat harlequins.
Toner is a pro12 level player at best. That is a pity because of his size but he just doesn't use himself with any conviction. Also his size must be difficult on terms of a tightly bound front 5 at scrum time.
Poc is just back from a series of serious injury and will take time to find form. When every one is fit he may be on the bench.
Heaslips form is very worrying. He seems to have surrendered ball carrying to sob and there appears to be very little else to his game.
Pom and sob tried hard but were outplayed by the Aussie backrow.

Redd in just shouldn't be there at this time. It must be Murray + mar ion backed up by Marshall and cooney/ mcgrath going into 6ns and beyond.
Likewise it has to be sexton and Jackson backed up by madigan and keatley/ hanrahan at 10.
I like Marshall at 12 backed up by mcsharry with the back up 10s and holding as cover.
13 is a huge problem but we need to move on from bod and trying to replace like with like is futile at this time. I personally would play McFadden there for his work rate and experience with cave and griffin in support.
The wings are in fine fettle but for me the best two ATM are bowe and zebo backed up by earls, gilroy and Kearney.
I really think that Robbie's future lies at full back both with Ireland and club. He never once IMO looked out of his debt at fb. He regularly does at 13 particularly defensively. Playing 13 for Marist college is a world apart from pro12 not to mind

salmson wrote:

phatguerilla wrote: ...I also thought that POC normally scrummages behind the LH but yesterday appeared to be behind the TH, maybe I've picked that up wrong but if it was the case it was probably because Toner wasn't trusted to do his job. If that's the case then he is a liability and shouldn't be playing international again until he has improved on this...

...Everyone's crying out to see olding involved for Ireland...

POC can theoretically scrummage on either side of the scrum. Theoretically. Toner wasn't the problem lock at scrum time, POC was. When Archer came on he seemed to be getting no support whatsoever from behind him.

If you play POC behind the loosehead, you can't play either of our next-best locks (Ryan and Toner) and indeed you can argue you can't even have them on the bench as you need someone who can cover the TH side.

The choice of "genuine" TH locks comes down to McCarthy, who doesn't look particularly fit, and Touhy, whom no-one in this or the last coaching teams seems to trust. Your next choice, when fit, is Henderson, but he can't even dislodge Tuohy at Ulster.

This is a longwinded way of saying we don't have the sort of options we used to at lock.

As for Olding, let me out it this way: I'm worried we're as bad as Scotland, but if parachuting Olding from the Ulster Ravens to a test against the All Blacks is genuinely our best option for next weekend, we're down in the Fiji/Georgia/USA bracket.

Thanks for that confirmed some of my suspicions. I didn't understand why POC and McCarthy didn't swap when Macca came on, I expected McCarthy to scrummage behind Archer.

On Olding, specifically didn't mention next weeks game as it would be too soon, but in the medium term I would have liked to see him involved in some capacity. Fullback needs the competition and he won motm a few weeks ago there, could have been something to look at. Alas if he's injured then that won't be an option this six nations.

Sadly Olding damaged his knee in the game against the Eagles and seemingly is out for the rest of the season, he won't be playing for Ireland anytime soon.

What shocked me was how much space the Ozzie's found between our 13 and 14. That's O'Driscoll and Bowe two guys who played together quite a lot but the Wallabies obviously saw something because they exploited that channel hugely. Henshaw and POM were very poor and I think regardless of who was binding or not behind him Ross is having a lot of trouble with the new scrum laws. A huge amount of work to be done but what irritated me the most was the decision making. The Wallabies have in Folau the best fullback in the world at the moment and how many times did we kick the ball to him to counter-attack? The lack of brains there was irritating.

phatguerilla wrote: ...I also thought that POC normally scrummages behind the LH but yesterday appeared to be behind the TH, maybe I've picked that up wrong but if it was the case it was probably because Toner wasn't trusted to do his job. If that's the case then he is a liability and shouldn't be playing international again until he has improved on this...

...Everyone's crying out to see olding involved for Ireland...

POC can theoretically scrummage on either side of the scrum. Theoretically. Toner wasn't the problem lock at scrum time, POC was. When Archer came on he seemed to be getting no support whatsoever from behind him.

If you play POC behind the loosehead, you can't play either of our next-best locks (Ryan and Toner) and indeed you can argue you can't even have them on the bench as you need someone who can cover the TH side.

The choice of "genuine" TH locks comes down to McCarthy, who doesn't look particularly fit, and Touhy, whom no-one in this or the last coaching teams seems to trust. Your next choice, when fit, is Henderson, but he can't even dislodge Tuohy at Ulster.

This is a longwinded way of saying we don't have the sort of options we used to at lock.

As for Olding, let me out it this way: I'm worried we're as bad as Scotland, but if parachuting Olding from the Ulster Ravens to a test against the All Blacks is genuinely our best option for next weekend, we're down in the Fiji/Georgia/USA bracket.