psychic duck
International
- Joined
- Mar 7, 2011
- Messages
- 5,094
I was just thinking about Mike Ross. I know that Ireland are pretty happy about him, but I feel worldwide he's a really under appreciated player. He hasn't had the glory of Lions tours or Grand Slams like say Adam Jones had, nor is he particularly crowd pleasing player in terms of doing a great deal in the loose and is very much in the mould of the scrummaging is the priority prop.
He may not get it for the reasons above, but I think he ought to start getting appreciated by a wider audience. His form has been very solid for a good 4 or so years now, and he really was very good and instrumental in giving a solid reliable platform in the last 6 Nations even though he didn't get many man of the match awards of headlines. When he got taken off against France the scrum nearly went from helping them win the game to nearly making them lose the game.
I would be interested to know from Irish fans how he rates in terms of all time Irish tightheads? I feel Hayes may have the better stats in terms of caps, but I saw him taken apart far more in his career than I've seen Ross struggle in the green jersey.
Also where does he rate right now in terms of European tightheads?
Final question, who was responsible for the massive cock up that was ignoring him whilst he was at Quins whilst continually picking Buckley for about 30 caps before finally altering the plan?
He may not get it for the reasons above, but I think he ought to start getting appreciated by a wider audience. His form has been very solid for a good 4 or so years now, and he really was very good and instrumental in giving a solid reliable platform in the last 6 Nations even though he didn't get many man of the match awards of headlines. When he got taken off against France the scrum nearly went from helping them win the game to nearly making them lose the game.
I would be interested to know from Irish fans how he rates in terms of all time Irish tightheads? I feel Hayes may have the better stats in terms of caps, but I saw him taken apart far more in his career than I've seen Ross struggle in the green jersey.
Also where does he rate right now in terms of European tightheads?
Final question, who was responsible for the massive cock up that was ignoring him whilst he was at Quins whilst continually picking Buckley for about 30 caps before finally altering the plan?