The above would lead me to believe the opposite, that Earls was the cover for FB although still being utilised at centre. So from my angle I believe hes there as cover for Kearney and the you will only see him in with a shout if RK gets injured. Don't think he will have any role at centre.

I really hope your right. Someone should also point out to non-Connacht supporters that Gave can be a hell of winger as well. As for Earls at FB :sick:

I'm still thinking this was a wasted opportunity not to have brought the likes of a very physical 12 like Downey along. He might not score alot but defensively he packs a hell of a punch and wouldn't have a problem stopping big guys like Williams.

www.breakingnews.ie/sport/rugby/duffy-in...uled-out-554859.html

The above would lead me to believe the opposite, that Earls was the cover for FB although still being utilised at centre. So from my angle I believe hes there as cover for Kearney and the you will only see him in with a shout if RK gets injured. Don't think he will have any role at centre.

sea_point wrote:

sligsup wrote: Just reading on "The Score" twitter page that Gav has being called up as cover for Earls.

Don't know whether to congratulate Gav for the call-up or commiserate for the wasted trip..

www.irishrugby.ie/ireland/26670.php

I'd call you a cynic, but I'm wondering the same thing.

Ireland went to NZ with one single FB, so it's finally a sensible call. Having said that if he's being called up to cover Earls then he's being effectively called out as a centre. This does him no favours at all. He has had a great season at FB, but he has never shone at centre.

It's hard to think who would be a good choice for someone who can cover wing, centre & FB, but if McFadden is moved inside then the likes of Gilroy or Kearney could also have staked claims for the call. I think Duffy is being called out for his ability to cover centre, but I don't think that's the right attitude.

In the end, though, it'll be one week of holding a bag.

I avoided a twitter rant last night as others started going on about how Duffy isn't good enough. He is, at FB, just not at centre. And the majority of people who moan about this pick will have seen sod all Connacht matches this year, so their opinions mean even sodder all to me.

Kidney is again getting stick for not preparing for the RWC, which is unfair. I think he is making plenty of mistakes without people scapegoating him on the basis of very shallow analysis. The IRFU is entirely to blame for the lack of early development of the next generation of internationals.

If they want the coach to start developing for the RWC then they need to give the coach a contract that goes all the way to the RWC, otherwise the coaches focus will be entirely on short term results, which means very little experimentation.

"it is a pity that we have to be using the Irish team to give them experience"

Yoda, as quoted in the Indo: www.independent.ie/sport/rugby/kidney-po...ovinces-3134115.html

Of course the fact that one game against the All Blacks is probably worth 10 against the likes of Edinburgh and that one of his inexperienced debutants has 100 caps for his province seems to have excaped him.

What won't have excaped (3 of) the provinces is that by "experienced" he actually means "plays for Munster".

God help us in Christchurch.

sligsup wrote: Just reading on "The Score" twitter page that Gav has being called up as cover for Earls.

Don't know whether to congratulate Gav for the call-up or commiserate for the wasted trip..

www.irishrugby.ie/ireland/26670.php

www.irishrugby.ie/news/26670.php

Best of luck to Gavin

Just reading on "The Score" twitter page that Gav has being called up as cover for Earls.

Why in gods name was O'Gara brought on, what difference was he going to make for crying out loud. Sexton needs to have Reddan at scrumhalf to be effective, not a ponderous lump of a lad who takes a step practically EVERY time he passes.

Pretty sure Sexton took a knock and had to come off otherwise I don't think O'Gara would have come on. Murray was horrendously slow though.

I think Murray really hamstrung us with his utterly slow delivery the NZ we're basically already on our players by the time the ball reached them. For me the most impressive part of the NZ performance was the way they swarmed over the ball at breakdown they were at least half a pace faster than our guys. I think are guys need to copy their tactic off overloading the other team with huge amounts of players get the ball then start whipping it along the line or have one of the big guys rumble up front. What I wouldn't give to have Kurt McQuilkin back in the Irish fold.

As much as I hate the AB's Dagg, Read and Williams were immense as for Carter he still strikes me as over-rated though I'm sure I in minority there.Don't get me wrong he's very good just not the best player in the world.

Ireland were bloody awful this morning. Murray was brutal, which had a knock on effect on the rest of the backs. Why in gods name was O'Gara brought on, what difference was he going to make for crying out loud. Sexton needs to have Reddan at scrumhalf to be effective, not a ponderous lump of a lad who takes a step practically EVERY time he passes.

Line out went well, scrum was ok until Loughs came on - but in mitigation Healy got injured at the same time and it was his side that was in more trouble.

NZ playing at a different level to everyone else at the moment, having seen the other matches. Only BOD has the offloading ability of nearly every Kiwi player.

They were in control of the contact area both in defense and attack, we never put them under any pressure, there was no dog in our play, 8th in the world appears to be a bit above how we are playing.

Depressed

Congrats Ronan on your first Irish cap, not easy coming into a test game cold when your opponent is at full tilt.

The rest? A load of hairy aul b*ll*cks not least the un-contested scrums after Healy went off (didn't think Fitzpatrick looked injured before or as he went off but it's crazy that the IRB haven't implemented the extra front row in replacements). Savea must be laughing his hole off at how easy he pocked up a hat-trick, two tries coming from Kearney going for the wrong man...

Absolutely criminal the amount of times we were in their 22 in the first half and failed to come away with anything at all. All very well putting in the work for a turnover, but then to fail to make any advantage at all. Ireland played like Connacht have too often, tunnel vision in the red zone and ending up going a phase or two too far and turning over the ball instead of grabbing a cheap three pointer and keeping the scoreboard ticking forward.

We could have been out on the pitch for a month and not constructed a try against them once we got in their half. We got lucky with McFadden's try which he took well but our use of the ball for 79 minutes was absolute toilet.

Kearney shown up again for his defence. If teams don't hoof the ball up into the air he looks very average, very ponderous coming onto the ball and absolutely passive in the tackle.

Zebo? Shown up for the rookie he is I'm afraid defence and attack. He needs to learn fast or this trip could destroy him if Kidney continues to pick him as a starter.

Murray was guilty of aimless kicking to often just gifting hard earned possession away, if we were going after the AB's ball in hand then Reddan should have started with Sexton plain and simple and if Kidney doesn't understand why then he should be fired..

God help us if Mike Ross is fit for the next game, because Kidney will definitely pick him. And he is neither a carrier nor mobile enough to play against the AB's. The AB's as they do will just keep the ball in play as much as possible to keep the tempo up and pressure on, and they'll be targeting big static lumps like Ross all day.

I just don't see this tour getting better in any way for Ireland unless the AB's start taking the p*ss and lose focus, and unfortunately history would tend to agree with that..

apart from the first 30 mins i thought it was a disaster.
old heads didnt want to be there but newer players wanted to prove a point excl best bod healy

we all heard that kidney picked this team to play it safe and get ranking points.
we wont get any points and we wont blood much players unless injurys.

international rugby is getting boring for me now,a big clearout needs before next world cup.
if things dont change in the squad the irfu wont be able to rob people with ticket prices for much longer.

cant wait for proper rugby to start with connacht.

N-Z 42 Ireland 10.. It was not a disaster at all, but nothing to do against them...

Lough came in around the 65th minute, to be honnest, he seems a bit lost on the field, and was shaked in scrum, in this match Fitzpatrick is ahead..
Meanwhile, Healy is injured, Ryan didn't impress, good news for Wilko and Macca

Ireland team to play New Zealand: Rob Kearney; Fergus McFadden, Brian O'Driscoll (Captain), Keith Earls, Simon Zebo; Jonathan Sexton, Conor Murray; Cian Healy, Rory Best, Declan Fitzpatrick; Dan Tuohy, Donnacha Ryan; Peter O'Mahony, Sean O'Brien, Jamie Heaslip.

Replacements: Sean Cronin, Ronan Loughney, Donncha O'Callaghan, Kevin McLaughlin, Eoin Reddan, Ronan O'Gara, Darren Cave

This game fills me with dread, there will be at least one unmerciful hammering for us in this three game series (similar to the 2010 tour when they'd 38 points up on us after about 25 mins) (whoever organised this, after such a long season, lets just say he should be slipped out the back door, ok its financially important in the short run but Ireland's standing as reputable opposition will take a serious blow with the results of these three tests)

Earls at Centre :sick:, just because he wants to play there doesn't mean he's any good there. Why not try Cave at 13, BOD at 12. Zebo is a good prospect but for me lacks the maturity in his play at this early stage in his development to step into a big game like this but at least its a rare bold decision from Kidney,

Trimble would be a safe choice but really isn't an international standard winger. Glad to see Tuohy getting a run, his form has been good and he deserved more of an opportunity before now, he did well in a bad position on the last tour and has done consistently well for Ulster alongside Muller.

Fitzpatrick is the big call but probably the best one, lets pray he can hold things together for us tomorrow.

Best of luck to Ronan Loughney, its been a long hard journey for him and it looked like he wouldn't make it a few years back but he's got an injury free few seasons and turned things around, hopefully he will get his chance tomorrow and not coming into a side that 40-50 points behind with the scrunm retreating at a rate of knots. However I only see Kidney bringing him on if NZ have us out of sight or if there is an injury so he may have to wait for his first cap

Congratulations to Rolocks! A well deserved honour. I'm sure he will acquit himself quite well provided the AB aren't smashing the Irish scrum back at a rate of knots before he gets on. I would hate to see his confidence shot because he was thrown into an untenable position.

Zebo is a surprise, but as Rossie has pointed out he has a bit of a nose for the try line though he's not quite the monster that Visser, Cuthbert and North are. If he's not overwhelmed by the prospect of starting against the world champions he could stake his claim here with a strong performance.

By Munsters high standards its been a season to forget but by everyone elses(leinster excluded) it has been a decent season. Qtr finalists in HEC, Third in Pro 12, unbeaten in pool stages and seeded 1 for qtrs and retained tier 1 ranking for next seasons HEC. Not bad when you take the injury list and forced retirements into consideration.
I dont think many will argue against the selection of Ryan, O mahoney, Murray and Earls although earls at 12 is strange. I agree with other comments here that he will either feature at 13 or wing. Zebos selection is the one which appears to be suprising people.However the stats show he has got the position on merit.
Zebo has started 14 pro12 games and subbed on 4 other occasions this season scoring 8 tries.
He has started 5 Hec games this season and scored 4 tries.
His critics say he isnt good enough defensively but munster conceded 27 tries in Pro12 last season compared to 28 for Leinster, 36 for Connacht and 41 for Ulster.
His main rivals Trimble- pro12 8 starts/2 tries, Hec 9 starts/4tries and Gilroy - pro 12 18 starts+2 subs/ 3 tries, HEC 9/ 3 tries. while ulster conceded 41 tries in Pro12.
Just for the record T. O Halloran pro12- 21/5 tries and Hec 6/ 2 tries.
Zebos selection shows that Kidney is reacting to the Trend of International wingers who are big men who run hard and fast ala North/cuthbert in wales and score tries.

Loughney gets his place on merit and will make his Debut on Saturday. Congrats to him and his family. I have been championing his cause here all season so its no surprise to me. It will be the first of many.

connachtexile wrote: It's an alright team very happy for Loughney though good to see a Connacht lad getting a senior cap. That said I do have some reservations. For a start I wouldn't have either Zebo or O'Mahony in the squad let alone on the first XV. Gilroy scored 2 tries against the BaaBaa's surely he should have got it on form? Zebo on the other hand managed to tackle one of his own players in the same game letting the Baabaa's score a try. The other is O'Mahony who I just don't rate that highly. Would rather have McLaughlin there in a heartbeat. Firstly he's give us another option in the line-out and secondly himself and SOB and Heaslip know each other inside out which makes more sense to me. O'Mahony also has a temper and if NZ target him for sledging he's liable to do something dumb. Enough has been said about the Earls at 12 thing for me not to comment.

Agreed, in every respect McLaughlin is ahead of O'Mahony. Not convinced about Zebo either, I'd probably have Trimble in ahead of either Gilroy or Zebo from an experience and power perspective but then we'd effectively have four centres in our backline.

The fact and it is a fact is that Kidney is prepared to give Munster lads chances that he isn't prepared to give players from other provinces. The sooner he goes the sooner we might actually teams picked on form and then potential....