Ireland Vs Italy
Ireland were beaten by 21-10 on Saturday by England at Twickenham and in the aftermath of that defeat much has been made of an incident between Mike Brown and Conor Murray where the English full back made contact with the eye area after trying to kick the ball free from the bottom of a ruck on the England line. People have called for Mike Brown to be cited for the incident but both he and coach Eddie Jones have come out and said that the referee and TMO dealt with the incident and there will no further action taken.
Moving to the game, England will be delighted with such a comprehensive win in Eddie Jones 1st game at Twickenham. The English scrum and line out in particular went really well and dominated the early exchanges. The Irish scrum has improved since the opening two games against Wales and France with the return of Mike Ross proving crucial to the upturn in fortune for the scrum.
Looking to his understudies’ one can see the reason that the loss of Martin Moore has had an effect even though his replacement at national and provincial level Tadgh Furlong has done a great job when called upon and he can also feel aggrieved at being dropped in favour of Nathan White. White spent his early years in Ireland with Leinster where he was understudy to Mike Ross who himself had just arrived home from time with Harlequins.
Furlong has proven at Provincial level that he is a quality tighthead and that when called upon he has done a great job filling in for Ross or Moore. With Martin Moore moving to Wasps for three years which I should mention should not be the end of his International career for the duration of his time in England.
Looking at the performance on Saturday, Ireland for the third game in succession were creating chances but failing to take any of the chances that they did create. This has become a real issue for the team. The driving maul that was a real weapon in John Plumtree’s time in charge of the Irish forwards has become a real problem with Ireland now kicking for the corner with no guarantee of retaining possession and scoring from the chances that are created.
Ireland played with a new sense of adventure on Saturday with a new centre partnership in the form of Stuart Mc Closkey and Robbie Henshaw , a glimpse of the future maybe ?? Add to that the introduction of Josh Van Der Flier and Ultan Dillane and we are beginning to see the slow addition of new talent with an eye to Japan in 2019. Other players that are in and around the squad like Finlay Bealham , Tadgh Furlong , Josh Van Der Flier and Gary Ringrose to name four new players that have either been in the Ireland squad or training squad in recent weeks.
One of the issues in the Ireland squad is the make up of the current squad that sees a number of inform players on the outside looking in namely Paddy Jackson and Matt Healy. With the Six Nations title now lost and two games against Scotland and Italy maybe it is time to blood more young talent and with three tests against South Africa this June Ireland will want to have more new players to choose from….
The 23 I would select for the Italy game would be :
15 Jared Payne
14 Keith Earls
13 Robbie Henshaw
12 Stuart Mc Closkey
11 Craig Gilroy
10 Jonathan Sexton
9 Conor Murray
8 Jamie Heaslip
7 Josh Van Der Flier
6 CJ Stander
5 Donnacha Ryan
4 Ultan Dillane
3 Tadgh Furlong
2 Sean Cronin
1 Jack Mc Grath
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16 Richardt Struass
17 James Cronin
18 Mike Ross
19 Dave Foley
20 Tommy O Donnell
21 Kieran Marmion
22 Paddy Jackson
23 Matt Healy
By
Cian Mc Gibney
29/02/2016
