I missed the part about the Open Training session in Galway....

"Ireland will host three ticketed open training sessions over the course the 6 Nations with the first taking place in the Aviva Stadium on Friday 30th January and further open sessions scheduled for Galway and Belfast"

Anyone know the date of the Galway one? I assume it will be in the Sportsground

bent is very poor on the TH side which is why leinster are busy converting him into a LH in an effort to get a return on their investment.

pinky wrote:

phatguerilla wrote: Bent covers both sides and Buckley doesn't.

Surely in the age of the 23-man matchday squad, the ability to cover both sides is no longer an advantage. If anything, it has made the more versatile props obsolete.

In theory yes but we saw James Cronin and Jack McGrath used on the tighthead side against argentina. Bents ability to swap sides as 5/6th choice prop makes him more valuable in the event of an injury or multiple injuries on either side, and more useful for the wolfhounds fixture in general, which is likely to be his only appearance if there are no injuries.

pinky wrote: Surely in the age of the 23-man matchday squad, the ability to cover both sides is no longer an advantage.

You'd think. Especially when there are 6 other props in the squad.

phatguerilla wrote: Bent covers both sides and Buckley doesn't.

Surely in the age of the 23-man matchday squad, the ability to cover both sides is no longer an advantage. If anything, it has made the more versatile props obsolete.

Bent covers both sides and Buckley doesn't. I wonder if Buckley isn't in need of a rest anyways, if he had been called up it could have done more harm than good. At the same time reading through the list I struggle to believe that any of the other Connacht forwards would genuinely start ahead of their counterparts in that 25 other than White (hence his inclusion). Perhaps the inclusion of Conan is pretty early, and I don't have an awful lot of time for Jordi Murphy, but they've both probably shown more with ball in hand than McKeon, who is their nearest competition here. If anything it just underlines just how good our coaches have been at getting everything possible out of our pack this year in the set piece/defence.

mary hinge wrote: Disappointed for Buckley who is such a better player than Michael Bent. Also unlucky is Matt Healy who deserved a run. Don't feel hard done by on the Rodney call at all.

overall i'm not too disappointed but having 3 LH from one province is not in national interest. OK Bent has played reasonably well over last 2-3 games but how much gametime is he likely to get between now and world cup if both Healy and McGrath stay fit? It would have been nice to see Matt Healy have a run out against saxons but he doesn't fit into Joe's physcial profile requirements. (neither does Earls but at least he covers more areas from the bench). I'm a little surprised Hanrahan or IHumph didn't get a call as extra backup.

Disappointed for Buckley who is such a better player than Michael Bent. Also unlucky is Matt Healy who deserved a run. Don't feel hard done by on the Rodney call at all.

Hardly surprising Rodney's dropped. But Michael Bent ahead of Buckley? Jokeshop selection that, as the man said, but to be honest it suits us to have an almost full deck for the 4 games over the 6 nations period.

Even allowing for injuries at Ulster, the provincial breakdown (Leinster 24, Munster 10, Ulster is pretty damning of the situations in Belfast and Limerick.

if that includes the players who will be called upon to play in the Irish Wolfhounds then that's a poor return.

no encouragment from Schmidt for our players.

Surprised that only 3 Connacht players included. Rodney is a notable ommission.

Extended IRELAND and Wolfhounds Squad:

Forwards (25)
Michael Bent (Leinster)
Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster)
Jack Conan (Old Belvedere/Leinster)*
Sean Cronin (St. Mary's College/Leinster)
James Cronin (Dolphin/Munster)
Robbie Diack (Malone/Ulster)
Dave Foley (UL Bohemians/Munster)
Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster)
Jamie Heaslip (Dublin University/Leinster)
Iain Henderson (Ballynahinch/Ulster)
Rob Herring (Ballynahinch/Ulster)
Mike McCarthy (Leinster)
Jack McGrath (St. Mary's College/Leinster)
Martin Moore (Lansdowne/Leinster)
Jordi Murphy (Lansdowne/Leinster)
Sean O'Brien (UCD/Leinster)
Paul O'Connell (Young Munster/Munster)
Tommy O'Donnell (UL Bohemians/Munster)
Peter O'Mahony (Cork Constitution/Munster)
Mike Ross (Clontarf/Leinster)
Rhys Ruddock (St Mary's College/Leinster)
Dominic Ryan (Lansdowne/Leinster)
Richardt Strauss (Old Wesley/Leinster)
Devin Toner (Lansdowne/Leinster)
Nathan White (Galwegians/Connacht)*

Backs (21)
Isaac Boss (Terenure/Leinster)
Tommy Bowe (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster)
Darren Cave (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster)
Gordon D'Arcy (Lansdowne/Leinster)
Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster)
Luke Fitzgerald (Blackrock College/Leinster)
Craig Gilroy (Dungannon/Ulster)
Robbie Henshaw (Buccaneers/Connacht)
Felix Jones (Shannon/Munster)
David Kearney (Lansdowne/Leinster)
Rob Kearney (UCD/Leinster)
Ian Keatley (Young Munster/Munster)
Ian Madigan (Blackrock College/Leinster)
Kieran Marmion (Corinthians/Connacht)
Fergus McFadden (Old Belvedere/Leinster)
Conor Murray (Garryowen/Munster)
Jared Payne (Ulster)
Eoin Reddan (Lansdowne/Leinster)
Noel Reid (Clontarf/Leinster)
Jonathan Sexton (Racing Metro 92)
Simon Zebo (Cork Con/Munster)

According to yesterday's newspapers the players were due to have been informed this morning so should be soon.

Does anyone know when the Irish squad is getting announced?