Ireland Wolfhounds V England Saxons 25TH JANUARY

15 - Robbie Henshaw (Buccaneers/Connacht)*
14 - Andrew Trimble (Ballymena/Ulster/49)
13 - Darren Cave (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster/3)
12 - Dave McSharry (UCD/Connacht/)*
11 - Luke Fitzgerald (Blackrock College/Leinster/23)
10 - Paddy Jackson (Dungannon/Ulster)*
9 - Paul Marshall (Ballymena/Ulster/)*
1 - David Kilcoyne (UL Bohemians/Munster/2)
2 - Mike Sherry (Garryowen/Munster)*
3 - Michael Bent (Dublin University/Leinster/2)
4 - Lewis Stevenson (Malone/Ulster)*
5 - Devin Toner (Lansdowne/Leinster/3)
6 - Kevin McLaughlin (St.Mary's College/Leinster/5)
7 - Tommy O'Donnell (UL Bohemians/Munster)*
8 - James Coughlin (Dolphin/Munster)* Captain

Replacements:

16 - Damien Varley (Garryowen/Munster/2)
17 - Tom Court (Malone/Ulster/29)
18 - Declan Fitzpatrick (Dungannon /Ulster/2)
19 - Iain Henderson (Ballynahinch/Ulster/2)
20 - Rhys Ruddock (St. Mary's College/Leinster/1)
21 - Isaac Boss (Terenure College/Leinster/15)
22 - Ian Madigan (Blackrock College/Leinster)*
23 - Ian Keatley (Young Munster/Munster/2)

Just looked at the team again. I'm beginning to wonder what Robbie Diack has to do to get into this team. He's playing a hell of a lot better than Ruddock at the moment.

sea_point wrote: Was at Ireland v England Women ^N game at Esher RFC a couple seasons back, and the girls absolutely belted out IC, they even sang the second verse which caught all the Irish supporters out completely...

There's a second verse???

England Saxons XV to face Ireland Wolfhounds, The Sportsground, Galway, Friday 25 January, kick-off 7:35pm: E Daly (Wasps); C Wade (Wasps), J Tomkins (Saracens), J Turner-Hall (Harlequins), T Biggs (Bath); G Ford (Leicester), R Wigglesworth (Saracens); N Wood (Gloucester), J Gray (Harlequins), P Doran-Jones (Northampton), G Kitchener (Leicester), G Robson (Harlequins), G Kruis (Saracens), W Fraser (Saracens), J Crane (Leicester, capt).
Replacements: R Buchanan (Harlequins), M Mullan (Worcester), S Knight (Gloucester), E Slater (Leicester), J Gibson (London Irish), J Simpson (Wasps), G Lowe (Harlequins), K Eastmond (Bath).



I don't recognise a lot of those Saxon players, anyone familiar with them know who to watch out for?

menacethedenis wrote: There's a second verse???

There were originally 8 verses, when the intention was to flog it to Turkmenistan as their new national anthem. Then the IRFU doubled Phil Coulter's money to a tenner, and he cut it down to something more appropriate to a dictator-less country(-and-a-bit).

Seriously though, my kids love the song, though they have no grá for Amhrán na bhFiann. It's also been adopted by hockey and pretty much every cross border sporting body (GAA excepted, obviously). We're going to have to get used to it.

menacethedenis wrote: England Saxons XV to face Ireland Wolfhounds, The Sportsground, Galway, Friday 25 January, kick-off 7:35pm: E Daly (Wasps); C Wade (Wasps), J Tomkins (Saracens), J Turner-Hall (Harlequins), T Biggs (Bath); G Ford (Leicester), R Wigglesworth (Saracens); N Wood (Gloucester), J Gray (Harlequins), P Doran-Jones (Northampton), G Kitchener (Leicester), G Robson (Harlequins), G Kruis (Saracens), W Fraser (Saracens), J Crane (Leicester, capt).
Replacements: R Buchanan (Harlequins), M Mullan (Worcester), S Knight (Gloucester), E Slater (Leicester), J Gibson (London Irish), J Simpson (Wasps), G Lowe (Harlequins), K Eastmond (Bath).



I don't recognise a lot of those Saxon players, anyone familiar with them know who to watch out for?

I don't watch much premiership rugby, but I know that Wade lad from wasps is scoring tries for fun - serious gas as they say. The Biggs lad from Bath could be decent too, but all I really know is he's got ridiculous hair.

OK I'll sing it but I won't enjoy it

RonanL wrote:

menacethedenis wrote: England Saxons XV to face Ireland Wolfhounds, The Sportsground, Galway, Friday 25 January, kick-off 7:35pm: E Daly (Wasps); C Wade (Wasps), J Tomkins (Saracens), J Turner-Hall (Harlequins), T Biggs (Bath); G Ford (Leicester), R Wigglesworth (Saracens); N Wood (Gloucester), J Gray (Harlequins), P Doran-Jones (Northampton), G Kitchener (Leicester), G Robson (Harlequins), G Kruis (Saracens), W Fraser (Saracens), J Crane (Leicester, capt).
Replacements: R Buchanan (Harlequins), M Mullan (Worcester), S Knight (Gloucester), E Slater (Leicester), J Gibson (London Irish), J Simpson (Wasps), G Lowe (Harlequins), K Eastmond (Bath).



I don't recognise a lot of those Saxon players, anyone familiar with them know who to watch out for?

I don't watch much premiership rugby, but I know that Wade lad from wasps is scoring tries for fun - serious gas as they say. The Biggs lad from Bath could be decent too, but all I really know is he's got ridiculous hair.

Haha poor Tom Biggs, I think it's a rather fetching barnet myself but that's perhaps more indicative of my own sorry state of affairs! He is a very useful winger mind. Everytime i see Wade i get more impressed with him, has scored some scorching tries for wasps this year and last and for my money would be the form wing in england this season.

Their standout player for me though is Eliot Daly - If i won the euromillions tomorrow he would be my first signing for us and can't say much more than that really, he is honestly that good. He normally plays for wasps at 13 and has been known on more than a few occasions to slot over pens from well inside his own half. The boy just oozes class (look out for his out the backdoor offloads he normally gets a couple in per game) and he is still only 19 / 20.

Would love to put a speculative double on him and Henshaw playing for the same Lions team one day.

rossie wrote:
its lookin like a back 3 of gilroy, zebo and kearney for 1st 6ntns game based on this selection with earl on bench. a blinder ala fiji could change that though.

That's quite possible and normally I'd be ok with that but after the performance Trimble had against the Scarlets and the child-giant North I'd prefer to have him on the field rather than Gilroy who wasn't bad but wasn't excessively great that game I thought. If fitz had been fitter sooner I'd have him ahead of Zebo or Gilroy for the same reasons but I think Zeebs has worked on his defence to some extent this season and hopefully regardless of the final selections it will work out.

Also, getting pretty excited about this Wolfhounds game now, which is not something you usually expect with the A games, but both teams have some exciting young players coming through and we have Henshaw and McSharry getting the chance to show what they can do, I hope one or both of them might get a start against Scotland or Italy but that's probably a bit too fanciful.

phatguerilla wrote: Also, getting pretty excited about this Wolfhounds game now, which is not something you usually expect with the A games, but both teams have some exciting young players coming through and we have Henshaw and McSharry getting the chance to show what they can do, I hope one or both of them might get a start against Scotland or Italy but that's probably a bit too fanciful.

Looking forward to it too, but this weather is manky. That, combined with two groups of players who are only getting to grips with each other, and I fear we are in for an error riddled game. Really hope I'm wrong though. Come on Connacht Ireland!

if anyone finds a link I'd be much obliged!

Enjoyable evening. Result didn't go the way we wanted but was a worthwhile exercise all the same. Bit dissapointed with the Irish performance after the first 15 minutes or so. Like watching Connacht with some of the aimless kicking at times.

From an Irish perspective my take was:
Dave Kilcoyne and Michael Bent aren't credible international options at this stage. Both struggling at scrum time and neither prominent in the loose.
We are going back into the 6 nations again hoping that Mike Ross can churn out 5 80 minutes performances

Coughlan lead the side well and has to be regarded as at least a genuine backup option. Even if it would be a late international callup, age shouldn't be a barrier. Thought Toner did quite well but also had a couple of brain farts.

Marshall did quite well at scrum half I felt.

Fitzgerald was the pick of the backs and he'd be in my 23 for next weekend.

Henshaw performed quite well, couple of errors but overall I think he advanced his reputation this evening. McSharry had a decent outing also but neither Cave nor Trimble advanced their claims.

Varley's darts are getting worse with every game I see him. Like his workrate but your basics can't be that inaccurate if you hope to move up the pecking order.

Pretty much agree with all of that. Think we were lucky not to get Varley if that's the height of his performances. I thought that McSharry was anonymous to be honest but the backs we're fed on scraps the whole night. I think Fitzpatrick is the better option than Bent at this moment in time so fingers crossed he stays fit. An for a horrendous day in Galway it was actually a nice evening for rugby. The only down point was the ghoul in the Clan stand who kept screaming during the kicks if I'd been closer to her someone would have got a smack in the back of the head.

Fair play to to Trimble, Jackson and Hemshaw for stopping and signing autographs for the kids outside the dressing rooms it showed class. And S. Knight of England to a nice lad. Coughlan looked devastated going into the dressing room and you can tell he gave it everything. He's someone DK should think about promoting.

connachtexile wrote: Pretty much agree with all of that. Think we were lucky not to get Varley if that's the height of his performances. I thought that McSharry was anonymous to be honest but the backs we're fed on scraps the whole night. I think Fitzpatrick is the better option than Bent at this moment in time so fingers crossed he stays fit. An for a horrendous day in Galway it was actually a nice evening for rugby. The only down point was the ghoul in the Clan stand who kept screaming during the kicks if I'd been closer to her someone would have got a smack in the back of the head.

Fair play to to Trimble, Jackson and Hemshaw for stopping and signing autographs for the kids outside the dressing rooms it showed class. And S. Knight of England to a nice lad. Coughlan looked devastated going into the dressing room and you can tell he gave it everything. He's someone DK should think about promoting.

Have to agree with all of this,

that annoying woman caused a fight, someone told her to shut up, she attacked the man and then her husband also attacked him with an innocent friend of mine getting a punch (she told me after the game) imo they should be barred from the sportsground

I was fairly close to her and from what she was saying throughout the game I dont think that she has ever watched a game of rugby before, love to see new people coming in but not if they are going to start trouble,

enjoyable night, I met a lot of people from work that had brought their kids for the first time and it seemed to be more of a family night out than the usual games,

I hope to see more A games played in Galway

thought that bent had a big 2nd half in the loose but he was destroyed in the scrum all night which is what counts. he clearly snt the messiah we were promised in that regard. then again how could he be? he has hardly played afaik.

killer scrummed well imo but i agree he was quiet in loose. he has been huge for munster in that regard though so i wudnt be worried there.
varley has been burdened with a poor throwing arm throughut his career and imo its stopped him from being the top hooker in ireland. he does everything else so well but he is a hooker!

cant understand how jackson played 80min. i thought he had a poor 2nd half and the change for me was keatley or madigan for him not mcshaz of robbie. thought the scrumhalf selection was wrong too. boss off the bench doesnt give a team impact. marshall does.

coughlan has been doing that for years at munster. great and extremely underated player whos had to fight for everything hes gotten from the game.