Coup dur pour Adam Beard avant sa visite à Montpellier

James Tracy said when he trained with Prendergast it always looked like he had an extra 5 seconds on the ball and it shows in how he plays, with a few years experience he could pick up where sexton left off which is why a lot of us in Ireland including Farrell are so excited.

Having Crowley there as well with both of them competing should help make them both reach their full potential.

The big national league structure was fine for England and France when the Celts had the same structure, but the Celtic League was a huge game changer. Ended a twenty year duopoly and Wales and Ireland have both won more titles than France and England since 2005. Of course only Ireland built a sustainable structure underneath.

As for scrums, you cannot use channel one ball all the time, esp near your own GL.

But yes, they would have to make a serious attempt at moving games around to stimulate support and they would have to create true sense of identity over time.

Part of the problem we have with the current four. Nobody ever really beleived the Dragons were anything but Newport, or the Blues anything but Cardiff, so it left too many catchment areas out in the cold.

If Schmidt is a Kiwi saboteur he would never have shown Ireland how to beat the ABs.

Ergo he will prob in time do the same for Aussie.

[And P.S. don't piggyback Wales into your absurd theories along the way!]

Whty didn't they realize they could become such good players? Hansen became a Test start barely 12 months after leaving Aussie, so that one was not just the result of good Irish fast-tracking.

And beating the ABs for the first time in their history - no fit there for the Kiwi 'plant' theory!

But just for the record:

“He’s brought us really, really close together, particularly on this northern tour, we’ve seen a lot of fun in our time here. Absolutely the right man for the job.” Tom Wright

“Joe is definitely our man. And I can confidently say most of the rugby public back home are very confident he is the man to take us forward.” James Slipper

Doesn't sound like bloke who has lost the sheds does it?

Schmidt was responsible for the start of the Irish renaissance, and incidentally for Ireland starting to beat the ABs.

If you're a saboteur you would not do that. Psychology 101.

It feels like our defensive patterns rely more heavily on connection than others and chopping and changing personnel hurts disproportionately.

Great comment. It takes time for understandings to build, esp in the centres.

I would have liked the same back five forwards as against Wales play v. Scotland with Frost, Uru and McReight.

With Skelton unavailable, it was much more natural to go back to Williams-Frost-Wilson-Valetini/Tizzano/FMR for Ireland.

You gain momentum through winning. If you won unexpectedly [England, the margin v Wales] you double down on it - so the plan should have been adjusted after the Wales win.

Nobody has yet come up with adequate explannation for that selection in the back five forwards, prob because it doesn't exist.