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Ireland get injury boost with return of key back

Kieran Marmion. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

Ultan Dillane, Caolin Blade, Jack Carty and Tom Farrell have all been named in the Connacht starting team for tomorrow’s Guinness PRO14 inter-conference clash with the Toyota Cheetahs at The Sportsground on Saturday.

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But it’s a name on the Connacht bench which will provide a welcome boost for Ireland with Kieran Marmion named among the replacements after recovering from injury.

The scrum half has not featured since undergoing an operation following the November internationals and it meant he missed Ireland’s opening two Six Nations fixtures against England and Scotland, with Ulster’s John Cooney deputising.

Marmion has been Joe Schmidt’s preferred option when Conor Murray has been absent and he played a key role in Ireland’s victory over New Zealand last Autumn.

Connacht meanwhile have named captain Jarrad Butler at number 8 in a back row that includes flankers Eoin McKeon and Colby Fainga’a. Ultan Dillane, who impressed off the bench against Scotland in the Six Nations last week, is partnered in the second row by James Cannon. Denis Buckley, Tom McCartney and Finlay Bealham complete the pack in the front row.

In the backs Caolin Blade and Jack Carty renew their half-back partnership while Tom Daly starts alongside Tom Farrell in midfield. In the back three there’s a first Connacht start for loan signing Stephen Fitzgerald on the wing, with Cian Kelleher on the opposite wing and Darragh Leader at full-back.

Having beaten the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein before Christmas, Head Coach Andy Friend is under no illusions as to the challenge his side face to complete a double over their Conference rivals.

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“Since we played them earlier in the season they have been improving steadily and have the results to show for it”,

Friend reflected. “They are real contenders in the conference now, so we know the important of this game in the context of the overall season”.

“They are a really hard team to play against and even trying to review them can be difficult. They seem to play so off the cuff that it can be difficult to predict what they are going to do next. We know the threat they pose in attack so we will face a huge challenge”.

CONNACHT TEAM & REPLACEMENTS (v Toyota Cheetahs, Guinness PRO14, The Sportsground, Saturday February 16th, kick-off 5.30pm):

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15. Darragh Leader 14. Cian Kelleher 13. Tom Farrell 12. Tom Daly 11. Stephen Fitzgerald 10. Jack Carty 9. Caolin Blade 1. Denis Buckley 2. Tom McCartney 3. Finlay Bealham 4. Ultan Dillane 5. James Cannon 6. Eoin McKeon 7. Colby Fainga’a 8. Jarrad Butler (Capt)

Replacements: 16. Dave Heffernan 17. Peter McCabe 18. Dominic Robertson-McCoy 19. Cillian Gallagher 20. Paul Boyle 21. Kieran Marmion 22. Conor Fitzgerald 23. Kyle Godwin

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Flankly 1 hour ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
N
Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
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LONG READ Are the All Blacks doomed to a 70% flatline? Are the All Blacks doomed to a 70% flatline?
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