Ireland Team Talk/Gossip/Rumour Thread

Fireball07

I just can't imagine Kidney screaming tbqh...

jm08

Fireball07 wrote: »

I just can't imagine Kidney screaming tbqh...

agree. I can imagine foley maybe, but not kidney or kiss. just not their style.

touts

desertcircus wrote: »

Heard from a friend who was in Carton House last week that Kidney was constantly screaming at Murray to speed up the ball. Why he then picked him again after the Italy game, I have no idea.

Ah yes the famous all informed "friend"

"I have a friend who" saw Declan Kidney screaming at Sexton to kick straight.

"I have a friend who" saw Ronan O'Gara in a major sulk over not being picked.

"I have a friend who" sat Brian O'Driscoll in talks with the IRFU about taking over from Kidney short term.

"I have a friend who" saw Conor O'Shea going into IRFU HQ via the back door.

"I have a friend who" doesn't exist but is a handy bit of proof for some brain fart idea that just popped into my mind.

phog

durkadurka wrote: »

It might and it mightn't. No one will ever prove it one way or another unless a player mentions it or something . A photo will prove nothing.to prove it categorically you would need to show several incidents of deccie repeating same instruction to Murray, which is frankly ludicrous.


Accept it for the gossip that it is, and chill.

Never said a photo would prove anything but I'd love to see a few of them as it would make a great photo, maybe even a caption competition

totallegend

Fireball07 wrote: »

I just can't imagine Kidney screaming tbqh...

Maybe that's what the team needs.

phog

totallegend wrote: »

Maybe that's what the team needs.

I serioulsy doubt that you really beleive that.

totallegend

phog wrote: »

I serioulsy doubt that you really beleive that.

No, I don't, but I do believe that the team needs to up its intensity on the pitch. If DK berating them at training achieves that end, then great. They're big boys, they can take it.

phog

totallegend wrote: »

No, I don't, but I do believe that the team needs to up its intensity on the pitch. If DK berating them at training achieves that end, then great. They're big boys, they can take it.

TBH, I think dropping a few of them might have a better effect.

Foxtrol

phog wrote: »

TBH, I think dropping a few of them might have a better effect.

Getting rid of the the inept coach would have the best effect.

leftleg

phog wrote: »

TBH, I think dropping a few of them might have a better effect.

dropping who per say?

leftleg

Fireball07 wrote: »

I just can't imagine Kidney screaming tbqh...

or picking a decent team

CatFromHue

Earls aiming to grasp his opportunity


JOHNNY WATTERSON finds the Limerick native in confident mood as he signals his determination to hold on to the coveted number 13 shirt

KEITH EARLS has come to know early in life what perspective and balance is all about. The illness of his new daughter Ella-Maye over the past number of weeks removed the Irish outside centre from the heat of the international team. Now firmly back with family well and his mind focused, Earls is probably hardened and wiser from the whole unwanted experience.

He will need that strength over the next few weeks as his burgeoning partnership with Gordon D’Arcy further cements. While Brian O’Driscoll’s shoulder will ensure Earls will have a long enough run in the 13 jersey to possibly make his passage back to the team more difficult, it has always been the Munster players plan to secure a position he might one day call his own.

He has not fortuitously fallen into the shirt as a makeshift because O’Driscoll isn’t around. The position has always been Earls’s business because since arriving home from New Zealand he has made it that way.

“You know I’ve been playing there (13) all my life,” he says. “Obviously I’ve played on the wing a couple of times in the last few years, which was down to my versatility – playing on the wing and going in to fullback at times. So I spoke to Tony McGahan when I came back from the World Cup and said that I wanted to be a 13. I feel more comfortable. I want to be in the mix defensive-wise and get confidence.”

Earls knows the dimensions of O’Driscoll’s ability but he has set his mind on it and is intent on not just coughing it up when the captain is fit again.

While the French pair of Rougerie and Fofana will provide different challenges and more demanding attention next week in Paris, he’s pleasantly satisfied how the relationship with D’Arcy is progressing.

“He is a good guy to run off and he is a fella I trust loads in defence. We’re starting to gel together,” he says.

“Without having watched it I think we worked well together. In attack, even a few line breaks. In defence there were no issues.

“We haven’t played with each other that much and he is used to Drico, so it will take a while. We’re confident with each other and we know each other well.

“I don’t think we did anything bad and our confidence will only build.

“Of course Rougerie and Fofana are good players. But we’re getting confident. The Italian backline, they have been improving, they’re not like years ago and you have to respect everyone. Benvenuti, he’s a great player – he’s young, he’s got good feet.

“I know it is a different test with Rougerie next week. We’ll enjoy this victory and have a look at the video on Monday.”

It helps too if D’Arcy is on song as he was on Saturday. Work ethic aside, an aspect of his game never in question, D’Arcy had one of his better matches in a green jersey for some time, while the match was Earls’s first in five weeks.

“He is happy, he is buzzing around the dressing room,” said Earls. “For a fella with his standards, I don’t think he has had a bad game – maybe the last one or two he has made a few mistakes – but you know Darce, he has high expectations of himself. He is a world-class player and he just showed it again.”

The try will have helped his progress and is well-timed too. After his last match for Ireland in the fraught World Cup quarter-final against Wales, Earls became his own biggest critic and questioned the quality of his defending.

“I just made a couple of mistakes in defence in the World Cup. No excuses but I should have gone off that time when I got hit by Jamie Roberts,” he says.

“It would have been easier for me to go off but I wanted to stay on and help the lads and I made a couple of silly decisions,” he says.

“But that happens in rugby. I just wanted to get out there and prove everyone wrong and show everyone I am capable of taking over from Brian and 13 is my position. I felt good in my defence today and it is something I have been working on since I got back from the World Cup. I know my attack is there but I’ve been using Donnacha Ryan as a battering ram for me during training so it is all about defence from here on in for me.”

In many ways the last few weeks and the match was the beginning of a new chapter for Earls in life and career.

Having a baby daughter and now acquiring the shirt might encourage some people to stop and pause. But that’s not the way with professional rugby. There is little room for halting with the French challenge now looming.

“Yeah, we’re happy,” he says. “That (Italy) was a big scoreline for us. After the Welsh game fellas wanted to get out and prove themselves.

“There were a lot of bruised bodies at the end with the physicality. But we’re happy, it’s a good note on which to be going into the Stade de France next week.”

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2012/0227/1224312436927.html

---

Interesting revelations from Earls. For some reason I thought he wanted to play on the wing more than centre. Not sure when exactly he spoke to McGahan as for his first two games back he started on the wing and then he got injured until the home Lanelli game in the HEC where he started at 13.

Otacon

CatFromHue wrote: »

Article

All I can say is I hope it works out for him. He is young enough, and talented enough, to be a top class 13. He needs proper coaching there though.

fitz

Otacon wrote: »

CatFromHue wrote: »

Article

All I can say is I hope it works out for him. He is young enough, and talented enough, to be a top class 13. He needs proper coaching there though.

Seems completely unaware of where his real talent lies. Bizarre interview.

Teferi

I'd imagine he realises that BOD will be gone within 18 months or so and could make a good go at owning the 13 shirt, especially if Kidney stays on...We have good depth at wing, maybe he doesn't feel like duking it out for a spot.

CatFromHue

He'll have some stiff competition from Lualala at 13 for Munster from next season on. That's something he's never had before.

fitz

CatFromHue wrote: »

He'll have some stiff competition from Lualala at 13 for Munster from next season on. That's something he's never had before.

With a new coach at Munster, and hopefully soon for Ireland, he may find himself down the pecking order in terms of who they see at 13.

leftleg

CatFromHue wrote: »

He'll have some stiff competition from Lualala at 13 for Munster from next season on. That's something he's never had before.

Or a good defence

jm08

leftleg wrote: »

dropping who per say?

the ones you seem to think who are not getting a chance

Henry for sean o'brian
andrew conway for kearney
kearney Jn for trimble
tommy bowe is lucky you don't rate zebo
sexton for ian humphreys
ROG for Ian Keatley (alright - we don't need to play him - just have him on the bench)
Paul marshall for Murray (so we can have humphs & marshall starting together)
boss for reddan (boss has played a bit with humphreys as well)
poc/doc/ryan for tuohy & toner

you wouldn't want too many changes - so i'd leave healy, best, ferris & heislip.

Heislip could captain the team.

fitz

jm08 wrote: »

leftleg wrote: »

dropping who per say?

the ones you seem to think who are not getting a chance

Henry for sean o'brian
andrew conway for kearney
kearney Jn for trimble
tommy bowe is lucky you don't rate zebo
sexton for ian humphreys
ROG for Ian Keatley (alright - we don't need to play him - just have him on the bench)
Paul marshall for Murray (so we can have humphs & marshall starting together)
boss for reddan (boss has played a bit with humphreys as well)
poc/doc/ryan for tuohy & toner

you wouldn't want too many changes - so i'd leave healy, best, ferris & heislip.

Heislip could captain the team.

What the jaysus are you even talking about?
Complete gibberish.

jm08

CatFromHue wrote: »

He'll have some stiff competition from Lualala at 13 for Munster from next season on. That's something he's never had before.

Competition will be good for him, but i can't see him not making a first xv anyway, whether its on the wing, fullback or centre.

He started off playing on the wing and ended up in the centre the season that de villiers was at munster putting both mafi and de villiers on the bench at one stage.

leftleg

jm08 wrote: »

Competition will be good for him, but i can't see him not making a first xv anyway, whether its on the wing, fullback or centre.

He started off playing on the wing and ended up in the centre the season that de villiers was at munster putting both mafi and de villiers on the bench at one stage.

Yeah i remember; that was a great season for Munster; everyone always talks about it

jm08

leftleg wrote: »

Yeah i remember; that was a great season for Munster; everyone always talks about it

Yes, most people outside munster would have thought it a great season. Semi-final of a heineken cup (losing to the winners), playoffs of the magners. Great performance and win against Perpignam down there (and they were the french champs and top of the table at the time).

jm08

fitz wrote: »

What the jaysus are you even talking about?
Complete gibberish.

who should be dropped to get all the people who deserve a change get a chance. Only way to do it is drop someone or if you prefer rotate them.

leftleg

jm08 wrote: »

Yes, most people outside munster would have thought it a great season. Semi-final of a heineken cup (losing to the winners), playoffs of the magners. Great performance and win against Perpignam down there (and they were the french champs and top of the table at the time).

Not good enough for a great team like Munster; but whatever keep you warm at night :cool:

leftleg

jm08 wrote: »

who should be dropped to get all the people who deserve a change get a chance. Only way to do it is drop someone or if you prefer rotate them.

jm08

leftleg wrote: »

Not good enough for a great team like Munster; but whatever keep you warm at night :cool:

Only one team can win the Heineken Cup every year. Only one of the 8 quarter finalists can win it. Not many would think they had a poor season if they made the semis of it. You must be a munster fan then to have such high expectations.

leftleg

jm08 wrote: »

Only one team can win the Heineken Cup every year. Only one of the 8 quarter finalists can win it. Not many would think they had a poor season if they made the semis of it. You must be a munster fan then to have such high expectations.

I used to be an Irish Rugby fan once......

.ak

jm08 wrote: »

the ones you seem to think who are not getting a chance

Henry for sean o'brian
andrew conway for kearney
kearney Jn for trimble
tommy bowe is lucky you don't rate zebo
sexton for ian humphreys
ROG for Ian Keatley (alright - we don't need to play him - just have him on the bench)
Paul marshall for Murray (so we can have humphs & marshall starting together)
boss for reddan (boss has played a bit with humphreys as well)
poc/doc/ryan for tuohy & toner

you wouldn't want too many changes - so i'd leave healy, best, ferris & heislip.

Heislip could captain the team.

Don't do drugs kids...

phog

leftleg wrote: »

dropping who per say?

Well between the French & Scottish games I'd go with dropping some or all of DOC, Murray, Darcy and drop one from either Heaslip or SOB and try and freshen things up.