Pro12: Leinster vs Ospreys, RDS, 23rd March, 7:05pm KO, RTÉ 2

leftleg

Lelantos wrote: »

Not a cats chance in Koreatown :rolleyes:

wtf are you on about?? cats and korea??

Podge_irl

I imagine his point is that McFadden/BOD is highly unlikely to be Ireland's partnership going forward as BOD only has a season or two left in him and Kidney clearly doesn't rate McFadden at 12.

Tox56

Podge_irl wrote: »

I imagine his point is that McFadden/BOD is highly unlikely to be Ireland's partnership going forward as BOD only has a season or two left in him and Kidney clearly doesn't rate McFadden at 12.

I can think of one way to solve the second problem.

.ak

Thankfully McFadden will be in the Irish setup longer than Kidney.

Hagz

I'm not sure I rate McFadden at 12, though I'd need to see more of him there to make a fair judgement. I reckon McSharry will overtake him in that position this time next year.

irishbucsfan

Who knows about McFadden outlasting Kidney. All it'd take is a young 12 (Marshall, Hanrahan, McSharry, Spence, Farrell, Reid) to come through before Kidney leaves. I'm not convinced by McFadden at 12 yet.

Also if Munster were to go and sign an Irish 12 (!) then I don't think Kidney.would find it very hard to reverse his position on that player...

Coburger

I wonder how this Leinster side would have performed against England last week. Just saying that certain players like Ruddock, McFadden, Ryan, Madigan will hopefully get some time in the summer tour. when can Strauss play for Ireland?

leftleg

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Who knows about McFadden outlasting Kidney. All it'd take is a young 12 (Marshall, Hanrahan, McSharry, Spence, Farrell, Reid) to come through before Kidney leaves. I'm not convinced by McFadden at 12 yet.

Also if Munster were to go and sign an Irish 12 (!) then I don't think Kidney.would find it very hard to reverse his position on that player...

Even if he didn't get his game for Munster, Kidney would probably play him:cool:

Podge_irl

Coburger wrote: »

when can Strauss play for Ireland?

The AIs.

Lelantos

Tox56 wrote: »

Lelantos wrote: »

Not a cats chance in Koreatown :rolleyes:

Why not?

Will he be able to shift Darcy from a starting spot at Leinster? If not, can he reasonably be expected to start for Ireland?
There are other options also, I think Earls has done very well so far, Darren Cave is pushing for a place if he returns well from injury, and even though I hate to say it, maybe a physical prescence like James Downey could come into the managements thinking

shuffol

I think that backline would look more dangerous with Luke at 12 and Mcfadden at 11. Surprised to see Boss back.

Superbus

Lelantos wrote: »

Will he be able to shift Darcy from a starting spot at Leinster? If not, can he reasonably be expected to start for Ireland?
There are other options also, I think Earls has done very well so far, Darren Cave is pushing for a place if he returns well from injury, and even though I hate to say it, maybe a physical prescence like James Downey could come into the managements thinking

Please, let us all forget about Ireland for the time being.

WeeBushy

Lelantos wrote: »

Will he be able to shift Darcy from a starting spot at Leinster? If not, can he reasonably be expected to start for Ireland?
There are other options also, I think Earls has done very well so far, Darren Cave is pushing for a place if he returns well from injury, and even though I hate to say it, maybe a physical prescence like James Downey could come into the managements thinking

Earls and Cave are both outside centres so are not in competition for the 12 spot with McFadden. An if you think BOD should move inside - he has probably one season of rugby left, we won't (and shouldn't) move our best ever 13 out of position when he only has a year left in the game.

Downey will not play for Ireland. He's far too one dimentional and old.

I'm not yet fully convinced that McFadden is an international standard 12, but we have precious few other options in the short term.

Bobby Baccala

Anybody know if cian healy will be playing?

irishbucsfan

P4DDY2K11 wrote: »

Anybody know if cian healy will be playing?

No he won't. Team is on a previous page

Big Nelly

P4DDY2K11 wrote: »

Anybody know if cian healy will be playing?

He will be rested for a week or 2 after the 6N

accensi0n

shuffol wrote: »

I think that backline would look more dangerous with Luke at 12 and Mcfadden at 11. Surprised to see Boss back.

Ditto.

dregin

.ak wrote: »

That's a good looking team, except a few things - I think Boss is still with an ill family member in NZ, so we might see Cooney start with McGrath on the bench or maybe Reddan might start (he hasn't played THAT much rugby after all).

Boss was in Ballymun with the Heineken cup on Tuesday, so he's about.

Podge_irl

It's a great looking team considering all the internationals (effectively) are rested. Some serious strength in depth there.

Would have liked to see Toner start with Thorn. I understand that Cullen is captain is in invariably going to play the close of the season if fit, but I think Thorn/Toner is a better partnership then Thorn/Cullen. While I reserve the right to change my opinion over the coming weeks, Cullen has looked on the decline this season. Hopefully his operation will have given him a new lease of life. Thorn in a lot of ways is simply a bigger, stronger version of Cullen in terms of his work at ruck and maul. I would like to see him partnered with a big rangy lock.

dregin

Podge_irl wrote: »

It's a great looking team considering all the internationals (effectively) are rested. Some serious strength in depth there.

Would have liked to see Toner start with Thorn. I understand that Cullen is captain is in invariably going to play the close of the season if fit, but I think Thorn/Toner is a better partnership then Thorn/Cullen. While I reserve the right to change my opinion over the coming weeks, Cullen has looked on the decline this season. Hopefully his operation will have given him a new lease of life. Thorn in a lot of ways is simply a bigger, stronger version of Cullen in terms of his work at ruck and maul. I would like to see him partnered with a big rangy lock.

I really think Toner needs to be given the opportunity to learn from Thorn and he's not going to get that if he's not getting proper game time with the guy

durkadurka

I wouldn't over analyse based on one game. Maybe toner has a minor injury. Maybe they really need to get Leo and thorn on the pitch.

Bobby Baccala

irishbucsfan wrote: »

No he won't. Team is on a previous page

Big Nelly wrote: »

He will be rested for a week or 2 after the 6N

Thanks lads, it's a pity, he's my favourite rugby player by a considerable distance, will there be many from the irish squad playing?

Tox56

P4DDY2K11 wrote: »

Thanks lads, it's a pity, he's my favourite rugby player by a considerable distance, will there be many from the irish squad playing?

None of the starters from Twickers, Cronin on the bench, McFadden at 12.

durkadurka

I wonder how many will be ready for the Munster game after four tests in a row.

wouldn't surprise to see the props get another week off, maybe darce and sexton too.

ray jay

durkadurka wrote: »

I wouldn't over analyse based on one game. Maybe toner has a minor injury. Maybe they really need to get Leo and thorn on the pitch.

Exactly. Toner has played a lot of rugby this season, it's no harm to give him some recovery time. On top of that, we'll undoubtedly see him rotated into the starting 15 in line with Schmidt's selection policy thus far this season.

JustinDee

durkadurka wrote: »

I wouldn't over analyse based on one game. Maybe toner has a minor injury

He doesn't. Is fit and game-ready.

irishbucsfan

Toner has played more than any other IQ leinster player this season so its not a huge surprise to see him getting a rest.

fitz

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Toner has played more than any other IQ leinster player this season so its not a huge surprise to see him getting a rest.

It's going to take everyone a couple of weeks to re-acclimatise to proper squad management after watching the national side for the last month.

CatFromHue

It's misty but dry with little wind here in South Dublin so should be a good night for a game if it stays the same.

The Ospreys recent record in the Rabo is a bit middling P7 W3 L4. Though they do have Wyn Jones, Ryan Jones, and Adam Jones back in the squad who wouldn't have been around too much in their last few games. Ian Evans is on the bench too but sometimes it's hard to keep track of which Jones, Williams, or Evans is in the Welsh squad as so many of em have the same name!

They also have a pretty good record against us and the games in Dublin are always tight. They've also beaten Munster and Connacht in Ireland and only lost by a point in Belfast (though I think there was a dodgy call from the TMO that helped them).

Should be a full house or very close to it, interesting to see the handicap for Leinster has come down a bit to -10.

It'll also be interesting to see how Madigan gets on. While he did start against Montpellier this will be a different game, in theory anyway.

durkadurka

Leinster are saying this is almost a sellout - 100 tickets remaining.

I get the vibe that all the STHs wil turn up too.

Really looking forward to this.

clsmooth

durkadurka wrote: »

Leinster are saying this is almost a sellout - 100 tickets remaining.

I get the vibe that all the STHs wil turn up too.

Really looking forward to this.

Is this on tv??

durkadurka

rte2

LEIN

RTE2

Big Nelly

durkadurka wrote: »

Leinster are saying this is almost a sellout - 100 tickets remaining.

I get the vibe that all the STHs wil turn up too.

Really looking forward to this.

After watching the few weeks of muck that Ireland was playing it will be a packed house to see some proper rugby!!!!

dougieruggie

Suprised everyone's so confident.

Ryan, BOD, Fitzgerald, Cullen and Thorn won't be match fit and will be severely rusty.

Mr.SlumDuck

Yeh cant believe the levels of confidence with an unfit team against a really good Ospreys side.

Also will there be tickets available at the turnstiles? Sorry mods if this is in the wrong place. Havent been to a game in over a year at the RDS

molloyjh

Nothing wrong with a bit of optimism lads. It's been sorely lacking of late. The game is sold out though as far as I know I'm afraid.

lologram

dougieruggie wrote: »

Suprised everyone's so confident.

I think you're mistaking confidence for arrogance.

irishbucsfan

Mr.SlumDuck wrote: »

Yeh cant believe the levels of confidence with an unfit team against a really good Ospreys side.

Also will there be tickets available at the turnstiles? Sorry mods if this is in the wrong place. Havent been to a game in over a year at the RDS

Game is sold out.

dougieruggie

Let the Thornamania begin

badbeatcentral

Madigan going to show once again that madigan is godigan.

badbeatcentral

badbeatcentral wrote: »

Madigan going to show once again that madigan is godigan.

this sentence hurt my brain


igan

durkadurka

Well it's a glorious evening here in ballsbridge for a game of rugby.

Footlong hot dog on order ....

MungBean

OHhhhh Madigan is on agin and went and scored a try agin, cos Madigan is Godigan and has a lovely cardigan...... All together now !!!

Big Nelly

MungBean wrote: »

OHhhhh Madigan is on agin and went and scored a try agin, cos Madigan is Godigan and has a lovely cardigan...... All together now !!!

Started the beer early??????

MungBean

Big Nelly wrote: »

Started the beer early??????

No I dont drink, the previous post sounded like a song so I though I'd throw in a verse. Or perhaps taking all those painkillers wasnt the best of ideas.

Big Nelly

MungBean wrote: »

No I dont drink, the previous post sounded like a song so I though I'd throw in a verse. Or perhaps taking all those painkillers wasnt the best of ideas.

haha, it was only when I read it about the 5th time I started to get it, still crap!!! back to drawing board:p

Tox56

Jaysus thought the match had started already and I'd missed it, panic over!

.ak

Traffic is a mare! Abandoned my ride for the dart, but missed that too... Hoping I don't miss kick off ...

Big Nelly

Tox56 wrote: »

Jaysus thought the match had started already and I'd missed it, panic over!

F**k f**k f**k god I wish I was in for this game...................

Sickened!!!!! season ticket and all, and to not deny someone else I transfered it off....enjoy who ever got it!!!!!! wish I was there