[2021 Six Nations] Ireland vs France (14/02/21)

[TRF_Olyy]

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[Leonormous Boozer]

 

[Biiga90]

I reckon an absolute mauling is on the cards...

 

[Oliver Madden]

despite how well Ireland did with 14 men against Wales I don't see them getting that close to France in this one. I think there's a sizeable gulf between the teams. France by 13 or more.

 

[big ginger 8]

'He has been a real bonus for the coaches' - Keenan impresses at 15 for Ireland

The Leinster man’s performance was discussed on today’s episode of The42 Rugby Weekly Extra.

www.the42.ie

Certainly didn't think this time last year I'd be so happy to see Keenan starting 15 for Ireland. Really delighted how he's come on and the solidity he provides. If he can improve his kicking he should rack up the caps.

According to the Irish Times we won 7/9 of our lineouts and stole 4/15 of Wales'.

Don't think we have much chance of winning this weekend bar the weather/French implosion giving us a hand. Their defensive structures and discipline are exploitable but we're struggling with our discipline as well and they just have so much firepower. Not expecting a thrashing though.

 

[Leinster Fan]

Team for this week? (within reason, no extra players to the squad except for injury). Much and all as it's tempting to just call for all the young lads, France might not be the game for it, easier to wait until Italy and work from there.

1. Healy (Healy is nearly finished but he put himself around well today and Kilcoyne had a decent cameo but didn't look at his best yet)
2. Kelleher (Herring going for 70 doesn't make me optimistic about this one, not to mention that Kelleher was more memorable in his 10 minutes)
3. Porter (self explanatory)
4. Beirne (I'd actually be wary of moving him after playing so well at 4)
5. Ryan/Henderson (Henderson was good but not so good that I think he should start no matter what, especially given his previous inconsistency)
6. Ruddock (Has he ever started a 6N game? Long overdue)
7. Van der Flier
8. Stander
9. Murray
10. Ross Byrne? (I don't know, this has turned into a disaster)
11. Lowe (I'd like to see Daly and would be worried about Lowe's defence against the French, but he'll probably start and there are other things we need to look at more)
12. Henshaw (duh)
13. Ringrose
14. Larmour (this is the one change I'm pretty sure Andy will make, he dropped Conway after some poor performances in the Autumn, Earls shouldn't stay)
15. Keenan (duh, taken a firm hold on this shirt over the last while)

16. Herring (Heffernan didn't look up to it)
17. Kilcoyne
18. Furlong
19. Henderson/Dillane/Baird
20. Coombes
21. Casey (Be surprised if Andy changes here)
22. Again, who knows
23. Daly (assuming Lowe starts)

I'm not as pessimistic about this as some, think France have a loss in them and there is reason for optimism. Do think we're making too many mistakes though, won't have a chance unless we cut them out. Having no options at 10 won't help either.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

14. Larmour (this is the one change I'm pretty sure Andy will make, he dropped Conway after some poor performances in the Autumn, Earls shouldn't stay)

Hope you're right here, don't think you will be though.

Ryan's fitness.is huge this weekend, we're underdogs with a puncher's chance with him, stuffed without. I also worry that Murray will go back to mediocrity when he has to run the show a bit without Johnny. I'd want Connors ahead of Flier too, the former has been treated very harshly since debut in my opinion.

 

[big ginger 8]

I'd be optimistic of Larmour getting the nod ahead of Earls. Earls was taken off very quickly after his **** ups.

Connors and VDF seem to be seen as horses for course by both Leinster and Ireland coaches and I suspect France are considered more of Connors team.

Ruddock has apparently been involved in 5 Six Nations matchday squads, all as a sub.

 

[Welsh Exile]

This will be a close game. Will be surprised if there's more than 10 points in it. I expect a France win by 3-7 but won't be shocked to see Ireland nick it either. I was quite impressed by Ireland's rucking and intensity at the breakdown and if the French aren't super disciplined you're great at suffocating teams and playing in the right areas. Should be a great game. Shame there's no supporters in the stadium as those Irish fans are worth 5 points on their own.

 

[westernforce]

I think Ireland will try to keep it tight in this game and not allow the french too much space to get their free flowing game going. Possession is a must, I really hope i dont see murray or any of the back 3 aimlessly kicking to the french. That will end badly for ireland.
Would love to see carty drafted in if sexton cannot make the matchday squad. At this stage he deserves a crack as much as any of the others.

Poor decision making and bad execution lost us the welch game. Very frustrating so I hope we will see a response from Ireland on sunday.

My XV for sunday

1.Healy 2.Kelleher 3.Porter
4.Henderson 5.Ryan
6.Beirne 7.Van Der Flier 8.Stander
9.Murray 10. Carty (very unlikely)
12.Henshaw 13.Ringrose
11.Lowe 15.Keenan 14. Larmour

 

[Reiser99]

11. Lowe (I'd like to see Daly and would be worried about Lowe's defence against the French, but he'll probably start and there are other things we need to look at more)

For an instant part of me believed you were taking Daly off our hands...why do you guys have to keep copying our names?! First Farrell, now Daly. Never going to get anywhere copying England, trust me.

 

[Groundhog]

I don't think we will have massive changes this week. I would seriously hope Farrell will have the sense to at least bring in Kelleher and a replacement for Earls. I could very easily see him backing Burns with Byrne at 22. What I would like to see is another 10 at least brought in to compete. Ideally that would be Harold Byrne but I imagine it will be the guy who already has caps; Carty. I would maybe leave Beirne where he is and bring in Ruddock at 6. Coombes to bench pleeaaase. Pretty sure JGP will stay at 21.

I think we'd have a pretty good shot if only we had a 10 I trusted. Burns/Byrne will need to play the game of their life to give us a really good shot.

 

[Groundhog]

For an instant part of me believed you were taking Daly off our hands...why do you guys have to keep copying our names?! First Farrell, now Daly. Never going to get anywhere copying England, trust me.

We have a Byrne, a Burns and a Beirne and we all want to call up another Byrne. Originality is not our strong point. Don't get me started on how worryingly related the Munster team are to each other.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

We have a Byrne, a Burns and a Beirne and we all want to call up another Byrne. Originality is not our strong point. Don't get me started on how worryingly related the Munster team are to each other.

Don't forget that we're all devastated that a Byrne's career on the wing was ruined by injury and the the twin Byrne's didn't make the step up. There was also the short-lived McGrath dynasty.

 

[Reiser99]

We have a Byrne, a Burns and a Beirne and we all want to call up another Byrne. Originality is not our strong point. Don't get me started on how worryingly related the Munster team are to each other.

and we gave you Burns. Just to be clear there are no returns, even if you did keep the receipt.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Conan into squad, Coombes out.

 

[Groundhog]

Yeah no Farrell can get to ****.

 

[big ginger 8]

Coombes was never 'officially' in the squad. Him and Baird were both announced as 'training' with the squad. Weirdly Ed Byrne also trained with the squad last week but wasn't announced. Now according to Kinsella's update Byrne and Baird are being announced as training with the squad while Conan is officially a call up and seems to be considered a swap for POM more than Coombes.

I'm an unabashed Conan fan so I'm not massively disappointed. I think Coombes is a future international but I don't see it right now against the likes of France. Conan has had a long road back but he has the dynamism so many of us want.

If they had no plans of involving Coombes in the 23 then I don't really care, tbh this decision isn't likely to be the making or breaking of anything. I'd rather Coombes gets involved against Edinburgh than be a reserve for France. (I know it's technically possible he could do both but it doesn't seem to be the way things are operating at the moment).

 

[Leinster Fan]

I'm another Conan fan but I'm disappointed with this. He's not in the kind of form that you'd want from an international. He'd be better off trying to get into form with Leinster. I genuinely think Coombes is the better choice right now.

 

[jcahill1]

I'm another Conan fan but I'm disappointed with this. He's not in the kind of form that you'd want from an international. He'd be better off trying to get into form with Leinster. I genuinely think Coombes is the better choice right now.

In fairness he did get motm in his last game.