I heard the same show, ummm, and noted the time spent on each, and was pretty annoyed too. But hard as it may be to accept for us, I suppose it's just down to demand. It's a commercial national radio station, they have to give the listeners what they want to some degree, and I'd say the time alloted to each is probably close enough to repesentative of the proportion of supporters per province in their listenership. It still rankles, though.

Fact is, if we had won we would have received far more media coverage. The 'Connacht beaten narrowly after encouraging performance against rich opposition' story has gottten old; time to feed them a new narrative.

For what it's worth, I like the show, good buzz between presenters, interesting slots on stuff I know nothing about. But anyhoo...

I'm amazed they didn't get cut off, talking about Connacht is a distinct no-no on that podcast.

After week one in the HEC they had a long rugby segment. 12 minutes on Munster, 12:30 on Leinster, 90 seconds on Ulster and 30 seconds on Connacht.

I can't believe people think that's a good sports show. They show only the most passing knowledge of their topics and bring no depth or anything new to the table. It passes the time, but after the uproar when they left their old jobs I thought they must be an absolute must have for any sports fan.

Marmion should feel hard done by, allright. I hate to think how the 'exile' list might increase in the coming years.

Was listening to the Second Captains podcast there, both Shane Horgan and Eddie O'Sullivan seemed to be talking up Robbie as a successor to BOD.

I think boss has been very good this season and most/all of last season so if he takes the bench spot I'm not too bothered but don't feel reddan has done much since coming back from injury to merit selection. Also a little surprised Trimble wasn't called up purely because he was given a central contract last time around, makes the cc system appear even more silly imo.

The week before the AIs we play a very depleted Glasgow with 18 players preparing with Scotland, then a Scarlets with their dangermen missing during the AIs, then Edinburgh straight after with in all likelihood their internationals being on an enforced rest break.

We should be looking for 3 out of 3 from that, especially with only a single player in the Ireland squad. No excuses.

Marmion can count himself very unlucky

just henshaw

The Ireland coaching staff have announced a squad of 34 players for the forthcoming Guinness Series against Samoa, Australia and New Zealand in the Aviva Stadium this November.
The make up of the squad is consistent with recent years. The sole exile included is British and Irish Lions outhalf Johnny Sexton.
There are three uncapped players included in the squad. David Kearney who was on the bench for Ireland back in 2012, is included alongside Jack McGrath and James Coughlan.

Those unavailable through injury, including Stephen Ferris, Richardt Strauss, Tommy O'Donnell, Jordi Murphy and Simon Zebo have unfortunately been added to over the weekend with Donnacha Ryan (knee) and Iain Henderson (toe) also ruled out.

Ireland Head Coach, Joe Schmidt, commented: "The squad combines players who have shown form in the domestic season mixed with those who have a proven record at international level.

"As always there were some very difficult decisions. Some players have had limited opportunity to impress due to injury and others have performed very well and it was difficult to leave them out.

"The Guinness Series will demand plenty from the squad and I know they'll be motivated by the challenge."

The game against New Zealand is already sold out with tickets for Australia and Samoa selling fast.

Ireland Squad (Guinness Series 2013)

Backs
Isaac Boss (Terenure College/Leinster)
Tommy Bowe (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster)
Gordon D'Arcy (Lansdowne/Leinster)
Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster)
Robbie Henshaw (Buccaneers/Connacht)
Paddy Jackson (Dungannon/Ulster)
David Kearney (Lansdowne/Leinster)*
Rob Kearney (UCD/Leinster)
Ian Madigan (Blackrock College/Leinster)
Luke Marshall (Ballymena/Ulster)
Fergus McFadden (Old Belvedere/Leinster)
Conor Murray (Garryowen/Munster)
Brian O'Driscoll (UCD/Leinster)
Eoin Reddan (Lansdowne/Leinster)
Jonathan Sexton (Racing Metro 92)

Forwards
Stephen Archer (Cork Constitution/Munster)
Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster)
James Coughlan (Dolphin/Munster)*
Tom Court (Ulster)
Sean Cronin (St. Mary's College/Leinster)
Declan Fitzpatrick (Dungannon/Ulster)
Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster)
Jamie Heaslip (Dublin University/Leinster)
Chris Henry (Malone/Ulster)
Mike McCarthy (Leinster)
Jack McGrath (St. Mary's College/Leinster)*
Kevin McLaughlin (St. Mary's College/Leinster)
Sean O'Brien (UCD/Leinster)
Paul O'Connell (Young Munster/Munster)
Peter O'Mahony (Cork Constitution/Munster)
Mike Ross (Clontarf/Leinster)
Mike Sherry (Garryowen/Munster)
Devin Toner (Lansdowne/Leinster)
Dan Tuohy (Ballymena/Ulster)

*denotes uncapped player

My heart sank when I saw only 1 Connacht name on the list/injury list of 45 odd Irish players in preference with Schmidt....

Marmion can definitely feel hard done by, Paul Marshall hasnt made it either (is he still at Ulster??? wasnt he making soundings about going abroad with Ruan Pienaar staying on again?)

I wonder would a fit McSharry have made it? Surely..

mary hinge wrote: One controversial pick? How about four?

Boss (hardly the future), Sherry (can't hit a cow's arse with a banjo in the lineout), "Killer" Kilcoyne (barely Rabo standard prop), and Jennings (not so much a has-been as a never-was).

Maybe with you on first three (two), but Jennings imo is a class act, a pure 7, who does loads of unseen dirty work, never complains, honest as the day is long. Ditto Boss, not the most skilled, but worth his place on any squad. So there ,

One controversial pick? How about four?

Boss (hardly the future), Sherry (can't hit a cow's arse with a banjo in the lineout), "Killer" Kilcoyne (barely Rabo standard prop), and Jennings (not so much a has-been as a never-was).

Marmion deserves to be in the training camp. On the plus side hopefully we wont be losing him throughout the season.

salmson wrote:

mary hinge wrote: twenty Leinster in the squad and only Henshaw for us.

Travesty...lokks like Schmidt is going to be a Leinster Kidney!

That's a bit unfair, at least the Leinster players Schmidt is picking have some form behind them. Marmion asides, I defy you to find one genuinely controversial pick - O'Donnell, Trimble, Olding, Hagan, Bent etc. are all injured.

Even mentioning Bent in their list of injured players unavailable is controversial. He was a replacement for the B&I Cup games last year. Ridiculous they'd even include him.

I did predict the potential for that during the debate about the new manager. All coaches have a tendency to favour the players that they know best. Soccer is littered with examples of managers raiding their previous clubs for players to bring with them. An Irish national team manager selected from the provinces is going to be no different.

mary hinge wrote: twenty Leinster in the squad and only Henshaw for us.

Travesty...lokks like Schmidt is going to be a Leinster Kidney!

That's a bit unfair, at least the Leinster players Schmidt is picking have some form behind them. Marmion asides, I defy you to find one genuinely controversial pick - O'Donnell, Trimble, Olding, Hagan, Bent etc. are all injured.

twenty Leinster in the squad and only Henshaw for us.

Travesty...lokks like Schmidt is going to be a Leinster Kidney!

Marmion's omission is very surprising when Boss will be 35 at the next World Cup and Reddan turns 35 one month after it ends.

Leaving out the 2 Exiles, the other 40 men break down as:
Leinster 20
All Other Provinces 20 (Munster 11, Ulster 8, Connacht 1)

...which is probably a fair reflection of Leinster's strength when compared to the other provinces.