I forgot to add that darcy looks finished at 12. a great player for ireland over the years but his time looks to be up. With size being the order of the day perhaps kidney should use downey at 12 at least until spence is ready for international rugby.

My team wouldd be Healy,cronin,ross,d ryan, p o connell, ferris,p o mahoney,o brien.
murray, sexton, trimble, downey, Mc fadden, earls, kearney.
bench- court, best, doc/tuohy,heaslip, redden, rog,best.

Prob no chance of it happening for france game but id like to see it at some stage of 6n.they will prob go with earls at 13 and mcfadden at 12.
Jonnie shud retain kicking duties but it shud be moved to mcfadden asap if hes off form.

Kidney has done a lot of good things 4 irish rugby but all cycles must come to an end. His time came to a natural conclusion when the World cup ended.

I firmly believe that in team sport, particularly representative team sport,when there isnt a great turnover of players that a coaches message/philosophy becomes dulled after 2/3 seasons and i believe thats the case wit this irish team.

They looked lazy and unmotivated for large parts of that game(some individual exceptions).

The back row have bought into their own press and are not performing anywhere near their potential. I think hook is right and the balance is not there. Peter o mahoney shud be brought in at 7 wit o brien moving to 8 and jamie to the bench. The french game ite not be the ideal time to do it tho.

What is it about jonnie kicking in an irish jersey. What ever the story its just not good enuf, Either out of hand or tee, for this level.

Yup, we have the talent to win that match, we just don't have the tactics. Or the heart to be honest. Looking at the way the Welsh players were allowed so much space.... god almighty, they have the ball, tackle them! Don't sit around waiting to see which way they'd go. Get into their faces!

Maybe it's more than just the tactics. Maybe we need to send a message to the players that the jersey isn't theirs - they're just renting it. Maybe we need someone to set an example, to get in the Frogs faces, to inspire those around them.

Maybe we need a new face to remind our management that there's no point in babying the players. There's plenty of talent here and treating the players currently in the starting 15 like they're members of an extremely rare species is taking the aggressiveness out of their approach. What the team needs is bravery and heart and we need someone who will play - and defend - with a whole load of ticker.

John Muldoon, your time has come.

Yep, all that talent playing Puke rugby because our Coach is more concerned with not losing than winning....

As below, really today highlighted how badly a change is needed in the Irish setup. The talk will be about the penalty and so on but Ireland should never have found themselves in that position. We never looked convincing at any stage in the game, some individuals performed well but as a collective Ireland were poor. Obviously we learned zero from the world cup game, still committed too few to rucks for the majority of the game and our defensive system once again played right into Welsh hands, with Davies 2 tries very similar to the world cup, caught on the blindside and on the outside shoulder off first phase ball, two very poor tries to conceded, even when we got ahead, couldn't take the sting out of the game, gave 14 men a penalty for going off our feet and with their missed conversion let them off the hook again by letting them move up the pitch with alarming ease for the eventual penalty.

We got what we deserved and its time for the IRFU to take a serious look at the situation. This years 6 nations is over, we'll be trounced in Paris next Saturday. The national team is ultimately the main goal of the union and good as it is to see the provinces doing well the national side should always be number 1. Given the money pumped in to rugby in this country and the interest in the sport its time to make a serious decision and get a proper coach in. I have good time for Kidney, he's a genuine person but its time for a radical change.

swift4prez wrote: jebus the two games today were very very poor. hope ireland spark it up tomorrow.

opens the debate up off 6nations vs the heineken cup and i can clearly say that i prefer watching connacht, munster leinster and ulster anyday over ireland.
one good game vs OZ in the world cup in years.

btw scotland should have been given that try

I'd prefer to watch any team that isn't coached by Kidney/O'Sullivan for the IRFU, two short sighted negative coaches without the balls to shake things up even when the opportunity clearly presents itself...

jebus the two games today were very very poor. hope ireland spark it up tomorrow.

opens the debate up off 6nations vs the heineken cup and i can clearly say that i prefer watching connacht, munster leinster and ulster anyday over ireland.
one good game vs OZ in the world cup in years.

btw scotland should have been given that try

Heartbreaking news for Keith and his family, I hope the little mite is ok and makes a full recovery.

+1

Think this is the best decision all round his head couldn't be in the game. It's like Rory Best said that something like this has to take precedent over sports. McFadden is an able replacement anyway and him and Darcy know each other well. Dave Kearney is a surprise for me on the bench but not an unpleasant one I think he's done well especially over the last few games.

Heartbreaking news for Keith and his family, I hope the little mite is ok and makes a full recovery.

Not a great news combo:
www.rte.ie/sport/rugby/sixnations/2012/0203/earlsk.html

www.irishtimes.com/sports/rugby/2012/0203/1224311210508.html

I agree but I think Macca and Jennings must feel very hard done by. I would have had Ryan in the first 15 and Macca and Jennings on the bench thereby letting me cover 4-8 with just those two players. Would have also have let us bed down Macca and Ryan who have a few years on O'Callaghan.

as ummm says management are only contracted for 2 more years and they are in the results business.

Thats what they are judged on.

Anyway as all the so called pundits are saying change for change sake is foolish and noone has stood up in hec with such outstanding performances to demand a place in the team. The choices in the key positions are limited and he has gone with what he knows. The only one who can really be dissappointed is ryan given that he had done the hard work and shifted doc from the munster lineup only for injuries to conspire against him and let doc back in. To be fair to doc he has performed since he was dropped tho and he wasnt the problem in the world cup.

I'd give these older players the first two games to prove there is a value to persisting with them. Win against Wales and France and they have a legitimate shot at the Grand Slam. Otherwise, maybe they have a chance at winning the tournament on points differential, but that rarely favours Ireland so why put off building towards the next RWC for 2nd or 3rd in the 6 Nations?

Probably have to agree with you, but as long as that is the thinking in the IRFU we are never going to be any better than 5 or 6 in the World rankings, never get to a WC Semi, never mind the Final and it will be another 60 years before we win the Grand Slam again.

The management team aren't contracted as far as the next world cup. Their focus will be on winning the next two six nations tournaments.

BOD (would probably be starting if not injured), GD, POC & DOC are all 32 / 33.

These guys have been brilliant for Ireland but we need to start somewhere with the changes. Start building for next World Cup now, don’t leave it until 2014.

The longer the old guard stay in place the less time we have to build an experienced squad for the World Cup.

At most there are 20 international games (6 Nations, Summer Tours and Autumn Internationals in 2012 & 2013) before you would expect the coaching staff to have a settled squad in place for the WC. That is less than 1 full playing season. It is even less games than the IRFU allow the Irish players to play in a single year.