Transformer Boks v Irish Projects - Ireland's SA Tour 2016 - Series Decider

pooler fan

A few Connacht players proved a point in yesterday's final. Healey was superb.

Derm McCrum

Boks squad for the Irish incoming tour named: 
 
Forwards: Pieter-Steph du Toit, Eben Etzebeth, Siya Kolisi, Frans Malherbe, Bongi Mbonambi, Sikhumbuzo Notshe, Scarra Ntubeni, Jaco Kriel, Julian Redelinghuys, Warren Whiteley, Trevor Nyakane, Adriaan Strauss, Lood de Jager, Steven Kitshoff, Francois Louw, Tendai Mtawarira, Duane Vermeulen

Backs: Garth April, Patrick Lambie, Lwazi Mvovo, JP Pietersen, Wille le Roux, Ruan Combrinck, Faf de Klerk, Elton Jantjies, Lionel Mapoe, Jesse Kriel, Rudy Paige, Jan Serfontein, Damian de Allende, Nic Groom

Derm McCrum

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="pooler fan" data-cid="583773" data-time="1464512050">A few Connacht players proved a point in yesterday's final. Healy was superb.</blockquote> And Matt Healy may get his rewards. Luke Fitzgerald picked up yet another knee injury and is ruled out of the tour - unfortunate for him - his last tour in SA didn't last too long either with the Lions. Schmidt said: "Due to Luke picking up the knee injury one of those Connacht players is likely to be in the frame to be his replacement." â€‹They are full-back Tiernan O'Halloran, 14 Nidi Adeolokun and 11 Matt Healy. Munster's Simon Zebo is also in the running as he appears to have recovered sufficiently from an injury lay-off. "One of the advantages with Matt is that he's a left-footed left winger and like for like with Luke. He's certainly a guy who's in contention." Schmidt explained that Tommy Oâ€™Donnell was not selected as he is getting married this summer. And he explained Rouxâ€™s 124 kilogram frame might prove an essential weapon against the Springboks. Roux failed to make the Connacht squad for the Pro 12 semi and final as Pat Lam preferred Aly Muldowney, Ultan Dillane and Andrew Browne. â€œQuinn has been in and out with Connacht. One of the things with the four other secondrows we have is they all tend to play on the loosehead side of the scrum. Quinn is the sole tighthead side of the scrum player that is fully fit and available. And he has shown potential. He is a very strong scrummager and very strong in the lineout. If you go to South Africa you have got to be very, very good in your set piece."

Derm McCrum

Latest injury update today before irish squad gets on plane is that Sexton is out, with likely Madigan to replace him. 
One or both of the Kearney brothers may also be out. 
Press conference later this morning.

antipodean

Calls for aligned seasons must be getting louder to help prevent touring sides not be beset by injury.

Derm McCrum

Confirmed that Sexton won't be touring, neither will Rob Kearney, Dave Kearney or Luke Fitzgerald. Join that up with O'Brien, O'Mahony, Healy, Zebo also absent, then Schmidt has more of a development tour on his hands. It may not be the worst outcome. Revised squad now includes Connacht's uncapped Matt Healy and Tiernan O'Halloran, and Ulster's winder, Craig Gilroy. Certainly reduces the age and cap profile for Ireland.

Billy Tell

Once again injury proves to be Schmidts greatest selector...

Derm McCrum

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Billy Tell" data-cid="584843" data-time="1464887185">Once again injury proves to be Schmidts greatest selector...</blockquote> Not in the France or Argentina RWC matches, it wasn't. And I'd prefer if O'Brien, van der Flier, O'Mahony and Sexton were available and in the squad.

Provincial Stalwart

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="antipodean" data-cid="584827" data-time="1464868594">
<div>
Calls for aligned seasons must be getting louder to help prevent touring sides not be beset by injury.
</div>
</blockquote>
 
The subject of a global season is worth a massive thread of its own...I've been reading / posting on the fern since 2013 and I dont recall seeing such a thread.
 
Any thoughts? A key stumbling block is the 6N window in Feb / Mar - the most lucrative competiton other than RWC itself. Talk about moving it back a month is good, as it opens up the possibility of starting the NH year in September and making the June tests the July tests to get rid of the super rugby break. But that is perhaps selfish from a SH perspective, and it means the RWC would have to move to Oct & Nov. A mighty mess.
 
I'd like to see the 6N and Rugby Championship played in roughly the same window (Aug-Oct) and the game have a global offseason from 1 Dec to 28 Feb.

Derm McCrum

The suggestion is the Six Nations be moved forward into April. 
Some of the English & French clubs have said they don't care when comps happen as long as they are in discrete segments for each comp type. e.g., club league season in 28 weeks, European cup in 8 weeks, test matches in 14 weeks, etc. 
The difficulty for the Six Nations company is that if they shift to say April and they lose crowds/income/tv with the comp up against other sports, particularly soccer, they won't get it back easily, and they can't shift again. Test income is still the bedrock of the game for all unions. Mess with it at your peril. 
For all that, the current international windows are less than satisfactory - with June ones being a complete waste of time in my view. Could the June ones move to February and shift start of Super Rugby and Six Nations forward a month? That would mean test matches to start the SH season though and not all players would be involved. 
I sometimes wonder if you started with a blank sheet, where nothing was sacrosanct, how would you lay the global season out?

ulsterman

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Pot Hale" data-cid="582384" data-time="1464139098">
<div>
Yes. Although I'd be fairly sure that none of those players would describe their nationality as Irish per se. Northern Irish or British more likely. ;)
 
I put the list together especially for Jegga. :)
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</blockquote>
 
This listing of players as "British" is incredibly ignorant. Not one of those players grew up wanting to play for a national rugby team other than Ireland - ergo, they're Irish. (Unless you want to make this a religion thing?)

Provincial Stalwart

Pot Hale, your points are good. The big disconnect is the clubs. In the NH, you have one club, say Leinster, which plays 22 league games plus 2 playoffs plus 6 European games plus 3 playoffs. That's maybe 33 club games to shoehorn in alongside tests. No wonder there is no room. In the SH we get a 20 week super rugby competition. There is no feasible way to reduce the NH club season without dismantling the current domestic and euro competition system and moving to a three tiered euro wide league for example with promotion and relegation. NH Fans would hate a "franchise"style system because if the history of their clubs and domestic leagues. And its very arbitrary to initially assign 16 clubs to the first division say, and all the rest to lower divisions.

Derm McCrum

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="ulsterman" data-cid="584991" data-time="1464951427">This listing of players as "British" is incredibly ignorant. Not one of those players grew up wanting to play for a national rugby team other than Ireland - ergo, they're Irish. (Unless you want to make this a religion thing?)</blockquote> Leaving aside the intended levity of the piece as I indicated, I don't think you saying they're Irish because they want to play for an all-island Ireland team, is accurate.

Derm McCrum

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Provincial Stalwart" data-cid="585006" data-time="1464984607">Pot Hale, your points are good. The big disconnect is the clubs. In the NH, you have one club, say Leinster, which plays 22 league games plus 2 playoffs plus 6 European games plus 3 playoffs. That's maybe 33 club games to shoehorn in alongside tests. No wonder there is no room. In the SH we get a 20 week super rugby competition. There is no feasible way to reduce the NH club season without dismantling the current domestic and euro competition system and moving to a three tiered euro wide league for example with promotion and relegation. NH Fans would hate a "franchise"style system because if the history of their clubs and domestic leagues. And its very arbitrary to initially assign 16 clubs to the first division say, and all the rest to lower divisions.</blockquote> Yep agreed with you on that. the PRO 12 is currently considering changes to its format/structure - similar to Super Rugby with its 4 countries, 12 teams, and no relegation - to move from a home and away league to a conference/pool structure. The PRO12 chiefs want to cut out matches being played during international windows so that fans/tv sees more of the high profile players. Local derbies such as Irish interpros would happen more often, and perhaps more "Event" weekends as occur at Xmas and season end, that gets in bigger crowds to make up for a reduction in the current 22 regular season games. A conference/pool structure also leaves the door open for further expansion with other teams such as London Welsh, London Scottish or further afield. The proposed changes would happen earliest from the 2017/18 season.

Derm McCrum

Whilst we're waiting for players to get on planes and head to southern climes, I thought this article about Ireland's performance manager, David Nucifora, was interesting in the story it tells about the only recent compiling of a national database of qualified players for the IRFU. <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.independent.ie/sport/rugby/grand-master-strengthens-his-ability-to-make-the-right-moves-34773102.html'>http://www.independent.ie/sport/rugby/grand-master-strengthens-his-ability-to-make-the-right-moves-34773102.html</a> As the journalist writes it, the starting point for the IRFU to any foreign player acquisition request from the provinces - Non-Irish Eligible - is why can't you use someone domestic in the game? Nucifora's objective has to been to put in a structured player management and movement programme linking the national test team and the players in the provinces. The switching of a Leinster academy player to Connacht for next season is the most notable example of that. It isn't always successful either, particularly with more established, high-profile players such as Marty Moore (joining Wasps next season) and Ian Madigan (off to Bordeaux Begles after the SA tour). Nucifora also questions whether the current 4+1 restrictions (3 foreign-players + 1 non-Irish project player are tight enough, or whether they need to be reduced further on financial grounds. They could decide to say that it would become 3+1, or decide provincial quotas individually.

Immenso Rapido

Good Rticle PH. 
But what has drawn me to comment is another article on the site with a picture of Keith Earls dressed like an emerald green vicar. WTF, hope that's just an unflattering angle of the tinkered with kit. 
Unlike CCC to make teams look ridiculous.... I mean at least they don't look like they are wearing bras. 
<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://m.independent.ie/sport/rugby/international-rugby/you-can-see-it-in-cj-stander-theyre-angry-men-physical-men-we-are-going-to-get-a-bit-of-abuse-34773101.html'>http://m.independent.ie/sport/rugby/international-rugby/you-can-see-it-in-cj-stander-theyre-angry-men-physical-men-we-are-going-to-get-a-bit-of-abuse-34773101.html</a>

Derm McCrum

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Immenso Rapido" data-cid="585253" data-time="1465160467">Good Rticle PH. But what has drawn me to comment is another article on the site with a picture of Keith Earls dressed like an emerald green vicar. WTF, hope that's just an unflattering angle of the tinkered with kit. Unlike CCC to make teams look ridiculous.... I mean at least they don't look like they are wearing bras. <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://m.independent.ie/sport/rugby/international-rugby/you-can-see-it-in-cj-stander-theyre-angry-men-physical-men-we-are-going-to-get-a-bit-of-abuse-34773101.html'>http://m.independent.ie/sport/rugby/international-rugby/you-can-see-it-in-cj-stander-theyre-angry-men-physical-men-we-are-going-to-get-a-bit-of-abuse-34773101.html</a></blockquote> Don't get too fussed about those kind of things to be honest. They got a new 4-year sponsorship deal with Vodafone so no doubt every angle possible was taken.

ACT Crusader

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Provincial Stalwart" data-cid="584890" data-time="1464915126">
<div>
The subject of a global season is worth a massive thread of its own...I've been reading / posting on the fern since 2013 and I dont recall seeing such a thread.
 
Any thoughts? A key stumbling block is the 6N window in Feb / Mar - the most lucrative competiton other than RWC itself. Talk about moving it back a month is good, as it opens up the possibility of starting the NH year in September and making the June tests the July tests to get rid of the super rugby break. But that is perhaps selfish from a SH perspective, and it means the RWC would have to move to Oct & Nov. A mighty mess.
 
I'd like to see the 6N and Rugby Championship played in roughly the same window (Aug-Oct) and the game have a global offseason from 1 Dec to 28 Feb. 
</div>
</blockquote>
 
It has been dealt with at length on the Fern over a number of years. I guess it gets pretty tiring flogging the dead horse....
 
There were discussions on here when Super rugby was expanded and the fact we now have tests at the pointy end of the competition. Whilst I welcome any test footy and the opportunity to see the ABs and all the other test nations play, Super rugby was just starting to get interesting with a logjam near the top of NZ teams and a couple of others and we now just put that on hold. 
 
I'm glad there has been a move to three test series plus a provincial game.

Derm McCrum

Schmidt and Coetzee announce their teams later today 1pm IST, SA at 2.30pm. Early indications from Irish camp is that Payne will shift to his provincial position at 15, with Henshaw moving out to 13, and Ulster's Olding or Marshall to take 12. Craig Gilroy is also being tipped for a spot, but it may be at 23, rather than starting. Dilane or Henderson to partner Toner in second row. Jackson to take Sexton's mantle.

Derm McCrum

Ireland team announced: 15 Jared Payne (Ulster); 14 Andrew Trimble (Ballymena/Ulster), 13 Robbie Henshaw (Buccaneers/Leinster), 12 Luke Marshall (Ballymena/Ulster), 11 Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster); 10 Paddy Jackson (Dungannon/Ulster), 9 Conor Murray (Garryowen/Munster); 1 Jack McGrath (St Maryâ€™s/Leinster), 2 Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster, capt), 3 Mike Ross (Clontarf/Leinster), 4. Iain Henderson (Ballynahinch/Ulster), 5. Devin Toner (Lansdowne/Leinster), 6. CJ Stander (Munster), 7. Jordi Murphy (Lansdowne/Leinster), 8. Jamie Heaslip (Dublin University/Leinster). Replacements: Sean Cronin (St Maryâ€™s/Leinster), Finlay Bealham (Corinthians/Connacht), Ultan Dillane (Corinthians/Connacht), Rhys Ruddock (St Maryâ€™s/Leinster), Kieran Marmion (Corinthians/Connacht), Ian Madigan (Blackrock/Leinster), Craig Gilroy (Dungannon/Ulster).

The Silver Fern

Transformer Boks v Irish Projects - Ireland&#39;s SA Tour 2016 - Series Decider

Transformer Boks v Irish Projects - Ireland's SA Tour 2016 - Series Decider