6 Nations 2023 - Ireland

[cormac]

J Lowe back to Irish squad today according to the Indo.

Definitely at training today. Saw him briefly in an IRFU video tweet.

[suisse]

Across two squads, is that 69 players named and only 9 from Ulster? Good to see all those amazing players we regularly hear about getting international recognition.

[desperado]

https://twitter.com/IrishRugby/status/1 ... 7oZTQ&s=19

Good to see JLO in the clip...

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[desperado]

This one....

https://twitter.com/IrishRugby/status/1 ... XvzqA&s=19


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[wixfjord]

https://www.the42.ie/tom-stewart-irelan ... 2-Jan2023/

Tom Stewart set to be called up do to Kelleher injury worry.

Hope it's not bad.

[blockhead]

If Johnny plays next saturday, he'll be oldest player in Six Nations history, even older than Simon Shaw!
27 is what he needs to become the highest points scorer.
Still 78 points short of ROGs Ireland record.

[sunshiner1]

by wixfjord

Tom Stewart set to be called up do to Kelleher injury worry.

Rate Stewart highly. Also makes the Ulster representation look better than it was.

[RoboProp]

If Johnny plays next saturday, he'll be oldest player in Six Nations history, even older than Simon Shaw!
27 is what he needs to become the highest points scorer.
Still 78 points short of ROGs Ireland record.

He's good for one of those records, not certain about the other 2. Would be chuffed for him if did them all mind you

[riocard911]

Forget the acrimony, Irish rugby owes Warren Gatland a belated ‘thanks’

Before the fallout over dropping O’Driscoll and not picking Sexton, Ireland’s golden period started with the Kiwi coach

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/ ... ed-thanks/

I remember Gatland appearing on the Late Late a couple of months after the 2013 BIL tour to Oz and being impressed, firstly because he didn't have to do it, but did, and secondly because he came across very well.

[RoboProp]

Forget the acrimony, Irish rugby owes Warren Gatland a belated ‘thanks’

Before the fallout over dropping O’Driscoll and not picking Sexton, Ireland’s golden period started with the Kiwi coach

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/ ... ed-thanks/

I remember Gatland appearing on the Late Late a couple of months after the 2013 BIL tour to Oz and being impressed, firstly because he didn't have to do it, but did, and secondly because he came across very well.

I remember the 2001 game against New Zealand, I was in the old Havelock and we were up at half time. I was dreaming of the then impossible beating the All Blacks as we all know now the result didn't go our way, and due to that Warren was given his marching orders. We'll never know now what might have been if Warren wasn't dispatched when he was (in my opinion quite callously and prematurely) but, I do think we would have won a Slam or 2 with him.

[ronk]

Gatland is a very good coach who's had an absolutely brilliant career, in many different roles. He's one of the greats but he's also not for everyone, kinda like Eddie Jones. I'd stomach Gatland a lot more easily.

Flawed genius who has been essential to Wales success but probably also held them back from actually fixing some areas.

[jezzer]

Forget the acrimony, Irish rugby owes Warren Gatland a belated ‘thanks’

Before the fallout over dropping O’Driscoll and not picking Sexton, Ireland’s golden period started with the Kiwi coach

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/ ... ed-thanks/

I remember Gatland appearing on the Late Late a couple of months after the 2013 BIL tour to Oz and being impressed, firstly because he didn't have to do it, but did, and secondly because he came across very well.

I remember the 2001 game against New Zealand, I was in the old Havelock and we were up at half time. I was dreaming of the then impossible beating the All Blacks as we all know now the result didn't go our way, and due to that Warren was given his marching orders. We'll never know now what might have been if Warren wasn't dispatched when he was (in my opinion quite callously and prematurely) but, I do think we would have won a Slam or 2 with him.

I was convinced we were going to win that one.

[riocard911]

Forget the acrimony, Irish rugby owes Warren Gatland a belated ‘thanks’

Before the fallout over dropping O’Driscoll and not picking Sexton, Ireland’s golden period started with the Kiwi coach

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/ ... ed-thanks/

I remember Gatland appearing on the Late Late a couple of months after the 2013 BIL tour to Oz and being impressed, firstly because he didn't have to do it, but did, and secondly because he came across very well.

I remember the 2001 game against New Zealand, I was in the old Havelock and we were up at half time. I was dreaming of the then impossible beating the All Blacks as we all know now the result didn't go our way, and due to that Warren was given his marching orders. We'll never know now what might have been if Warren wasn't dispatched when he was (in my opinion quite callously and prematurely) but, I do think we would have won a Slam or 2 with him.

I was convinced we were going to win that one.

Mise freisin!

[MylesNaGapoleen]

Forget the acrimony, Irish rugby owes Warren Gatland a belated ‘thanks’

Before the fallout over dropping O’Driscoll and not picking Sexton, Ireland’s golden period started with the Kiwi coach

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/ ... ed-thanks/

I remember Gatland appearing on the Late Late a couple of months after the 2013 BIL tour to Oz and being impressed, firstly because he didn't have to do it, but did, and secondly because he came across very well.

I remember the 2001 game against New Zealand, I was in the old Havelock and we were up at half time. I was dreaming of the then impossible beating the All Blacks as we all know now the result didn't go our way, and due to that Warren was given his marching orders. We'll never know now what might have been if Warren wasn't dispatched when he was (in my opinion quite callously and prematurely) but, I do think we would have won a Slam or 2 with him.

Gatland was good at getting results in a given situation but lacks the vision to develop rugby long term. He was at Wales for thirteen years and won a lot of silverware but when you look at where Irish rugby is now and where the Welsh regions & academies are, I think we were a little lucky.

Late late clip of him discussing BOD not being selected for the 3rd BIL test against australia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjqnZ2CvePs

[ronk]

It ultimately wasn't his job to fix the regions and to do so he would have had to go against the wishes of his employers, who are sufficiently ambivalent about the regions that factions are fully opposed to them.

Ireland team success was built on provincial success. It's not a coincidence that Leinster won Heineken Cups in the same year as grand slams were won.

Gatland could have done more to support the regions, but let's be entirely clear that the first time a regional coach won the URC they got Gatland's job (it was announced a year after the trophy and they had topped their pool in the HC).

One reason for Pivac's success was the policy of bringing stars back to Wales that Gatland was a part of.

You can't sack a guy through internal backstabbing and expect them to not be selfish if they come back stronger.

[wixfjord]

I'd imagine the starting 15 for next weekend is pretty set barring any late injuries:

Porter, Sheehan, Furlong, Beirne, Ryan, POM, VDF, Doris, JGP, Sexton, Lowe, McCloskey, Ringer, Hansen, Keenan

Could be quite a few different variations on the bench based on injury & selection choices:

Herring, Kilcoyne/Healy, Bealham, Hendo/Baird, Conan, Murray/Casey, Byrne/Crowley, Aki/JOB

[hugonaut]

I'd imagine the starting 15 for next weekend is pretty set barring any late injuries:

Porter, Sheehan, Furlong, Beirne, Ryan, POM, VDF, Doris, JGP, Sexton, Lowe, McCloskey, Ringer, Hansen, Keenan

Could be quite a few different variations on the bench based on injury & selection choices:

Herring, Kilcoyne/Healy, Bealham, Hendo/Baird, Conan, Murray/Casey, Byrne/Crowley, Aki/JOB

Sexton, Furlong and Lowe are all very short of gametime this season, Furlong desperately so.

Furlong
76 mins for Leinster
151 mins for Ireland
Last played: 03/12/22

Sexton
258 mins for Leinster
77mins for Ireland
Last game: 01/01/23

Lowe
320 mins for Leinster
0 mins for Ireland
Last game: 26/12/22

Bealham is in a really odd position. He has beaten the All Blacks four times [November 2016 - 23mins @ No18, November 2021 - 16 mins @ No18, July 2022 x 2 - 16 mins @ No18, 11 mins @ No18 ] and has never started a Six Nations game. He's got 27 test caps, played international rugby over seven seasons and is 31 years old ... and outside of Connacht you get the feeling that, amongst Irish fans, he is either not rated or the absolute afterthought of the matchday squad.

He's having a good season: he has started 11 games for Connacht and has bagged a whopping six tries, scoring against Munster, Treviso, Brive and Newcastle [3]. I'm interested in how much of a look-in he gets this Six Nations, whether he starts against Italy or not.

[Ruckedtobits]

Just to clarify the record, Whelan may have made the phone call but the "Big Five" had taken the decision to sack the Coach and bring in an All Black player who had revolutionised Connacht rugby in a few short months, having previously had the same effect in Galwegians.

It was a big call at the time but Ireland didn't have a lot of options. In Leinster there was Ruddock & Murphy. In Munster, there was Jerry Holland who it was thought would not be available for a full time post. Up North was Brian McGloughlin, still double-jobbing with teaching before he next brought Ulster through to win the European Cup in 1999 or Jimmy Davidson, probably a more sensible choice but boats had been burned.

Not too many people saw Irish Coach as career advancement, so fair dos to Gatland for accepting the challenge.

Players liked him but not all of them trusted him initially. Too many 'off the cuff' comments which players didn't understand.

A lot of water under the bridge, but very, very few ever come back - in any sport.

[wixfjord]

Darce calling for Osborne to start against Wales.

Says he 'deserves his spot based just purely on his last two rounds of matches'.

That's the sort of thing that if Quinlan said about a Munster player we'd go mad.

Osborne is a brilliant player and will be a test starter. But McCloskey more than deserves the 12 jersey.

[StopTheLights]

Agreed, I think the calls for Osbourne to start are a little premature. His time will come no doubt, but McCloskey has the upper hand for the moment. Although I wonder is D’arcy playing the role of media personality a bit better these days, saying certain things just to illicit comment!