Sorry Mary but...

Kidney does not pick on form (except Conor Murray who was, ahem, on his own Munster team). Fionn couldn't get a run last season when in flying form and Cronin was called into a game for eight minutes to see if he could beat the best line-out jumper in the game.

Deccie picks on loyalty, and returns same to honest performers. Hence Donncha and, prior to the medico's intervention, Leo Cullen. Not the way to go 42 (or so) months before a world cup. Time to blood some of the youngsters but instead he goes back to D'Arcy and Wallace, neither of whom rank as the best prospects for their provinces.

I didn't see the game, so I can't say who deserves what. But Ruddock, Tuohy and Henry will be holding tackle bags and missing out on the matchday 22 while our players will be lining out for us against Cardiff.

I'm sure they're upset they missed out, but I'm happy we'll have them available.

The guys have played so much rugby recently they were up against it with one more effort to impress enough to make the Ireland squad, they must be dead on their feet. And as a team our 14 match losing streak was hardly good publicity for the lads, so it's not hard to see why they didn't make the cut.

Onwards and upwards. At least Eric didn't make them all play a full game at the weekend.

From the starting back 5 from the pack, Ruddock, Tuohy, and Henry all called up from the Saxons game while McCarthy and Muldoon left out. Did our two lads play that poorly?
And Kidney is a guy who picks on form?
I'm surprised he hasn't picked Mick O'Driscoll while he's at it!!!

For those who haven't seen it, here's the squad that was announced today:

IRELAND Training Squad (v Wales, 2012 RBS 6 Nations):

Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster)
Tommy Bowe (Ospreys)
Tom Court (Malone/Ulster)
Sean Cronin (St. Mary's College/Leinster)
Gordon D'Arcy (Lansdowne/Leinster)
Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster)
Stephen Ferris (Dungannon/Ulster)
Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster)
Jamie Heaslip (Naas/Leinster)
Chris Henry (Ballymena/Ulster)
Denis Hurley (Cork Constitution/Munster)
Shane Jennings (St. Mary's College/Leinster)
Rob Kearney (UCD/Leinster)
David Kearney (Lansdowne/Leinster) *
Fergus McFadden (Old Belvedere/Leinster)
Conor Murray (Garryowen/Munster)
Sean O'Brien (Clontarf/Leinster)
Donncha O'Callaghan (Cork Constitution/Munster)
Paul O'Connell (Young Munster/Munster)
Ronan O'Gara (Cork Constitution/Munster)
Peter O'Mahony (Cork Constitution/Munster) *
Eoin O'Malley (Old Belvedere/Leinster) *
Eoin Reddan (Lansdowne/Leinster)
Mike Ross (Clontarf/Leinster)
Donnacha Ryan (Shannon/Munster)
Rhys Ruddock (St. Mary's College/Leinster)
Jonathan Sexton (St. Mary's College/Leinster)
Andrew Trimble (Ballymena/Ulster)
Dan Tuohy (Ballymena/Ulster)
Paddy Wallace (Ballymena/Ulster)
Brett Wilkinson (Galwegians/Connacht) *Simon Zebo (Cork Constitution/Munster) *

I had a feeling one or two of our forwards might make it, but expected Mike to get the nod. Brett is definitely deserving, and hopefully he will push on from here.

Congratulations to Brett on being included in the 32 man Ireland Squad. Well deserved, hope he gets a bit of game time.

Keatley always struck me as a lad that needed constant gametime to get the best out of him something he got with us. He'll do well at Munster but he won't impress anyone without a string of games.

Keatley hasn't really kicked on, or in fact looked an even more immature player than when he was with us.

There was always an element of mystery as to what he would do next, but today he looked extremely loose, one good thing followed by 2 bad things. Feel sorry for him in a way because he needs big game exposure on a regular basis and he won't get that til ROG is gone.

Porterbelly wrote: Thought Muldoon had a very good game, Wilkinson impressed, McCarthy ok, Duffy not his best and Loughney did fine

Completely agree. I was hoping Loughney might come on in place of Archer, but he did well at loose head when he came on.

Apart from our own lads, I thought Madigan showed he is a better player than Keatley, and O'Leary looked decent (even though I've never really rated him).

Thought Muldoon had a very good game, Wilkinson impressed, McCarthy ok, Duffy not his best and Loughney did fine

Those Sky Sports commentators are woeful...

Coughlan's a squad player at best. Don't get me wrong he's a very good squad player but better than Macca? No way. As for Loughney/Archer yes it's an odd one but again not surprising given managements past choices. I hope that Loughney at least gets 20/30 mins.

IMO Macca has more chance of making Mondays 30 from playing against Saxons than not. Loughney vs archer? Loughney covers both sides so is the obvious back up. I expect he will see plenty of action.

i am a fan of kidney in general and applaud what munster and ireland have achieved under his management. I dont agree with some opinions expressed here that imply that kidney being manager for these successes was just a coincidence and would have been achieved anyway. fact is they werent.

However i have to agree with connacht exile here on mccarthy over coughlan. both are playing very well but macca gives squad more options and has been consistantly good over a long period of time and now in hec aswell and deserved the call up. this was a bad call by kidney.

i dont know if kidney picks the wolfhounds team or not but assume he definately has a big say. how archer can be picked before loughney at th baffles me. loughney has shown in hec that he is a battler and can do the job at th on a consistant basis in top level rugby and archer got shown up in pro12 against ulster time and time again and to my knowledge has hardly played since. again a bad call.

Yeah bit far from london and evening kick off.

would have liked to go.

home we hammer them and the lads play well.

chris henry captain?!!!

Good to see some representation. That said I read that James Coughlan got drafted into the Ireland Senior squad instead of the injured Leo Cullen. You gotta think McCarthy with his versatility would have make a better choice than Coughlan. Oh that Kidney.

Exeter is a bloody awkward place to get to, roads are crap considering the volume of traffic that head to the South West from Greater London area on the weekend and the train option is not cheap otherwise I'd head down on Saturday.