You would assume Michael Lowry will miss this one with the HIA. Jake Flannery and Jude Postlethwaite are out for a few weeks ( was Crean and McIlroy injured?). David Shanahan, James Hume, Charlie Irvine and Cormac Izuchukwu could all be back, maybe Stuart McCloskey and Nick Timoney will be allowed back? Hopefully Hume or McCloskey will be back as we need someone with experience in the center with Carson.
David Shanahan and James Hume have both recovered from the concussions they sustained in the game against Edinburgh Rugby and are fit for selection.
Charlie Irvine (lower leg), Sam Crean (knee), Jack Murphy (ribs) and Scott Wilson (shoulder) will have their fitness for selection assessed through training this week.
Nick Timoney and Stuart McCloskey are back in training following their involvement in Ireland’s Guinness Six Nations Championship campaign.
Players currently unavailable for selection because of injury:
Cormac Izuchukwu (concussion), James McNabney (knee), Stewart Moore (knee), Jude Postlethwaite (hand), Robert Baloucoune (elbow), Rory McGuire (shoulder), Jake Flannery (shoulder)
No mention on Lowry, so must have not been concussed? Good to have McCloskey and Hume back, but Jack a doubt and Jake injured we really are in trouble at 10. Who is plays at 10? Doak? Lowry? Humphreys? I guess Humphreys, what’s the point having him if you don’t play him in times like these? ( he’s only played 4 mins this season)
I think it’ll be Lowry if he’s fit (I’m surprised he’s not ruled out after the hit he took on Friday, on top of several others recently). We really need to add a 10 for next season; even the hint of an injury to Jack puts us in trouble immediately. Jack who’s 21, that is….
The front row could also be a problem area this week if both Wilson and Crean don’t make it.
My guess would be that lowry wasn’t mentioned as it is too early to know the situation. Given his history if it is a bad concussion he could be out for a while.
In terms of stu, the way the Ireland front liners work is often being allowed to play so many games in a block, if that is the case we might best using his time now until jude is back.
The most worrying of the potential absences is Murphy given flannery is also out. Would feel very nervous about humph Óg getting his first start in a must win away game.
- Eric O’Sullivan (133)
- Rob Herring (267)
- Tom McAllister (1)
- Iain Henderson (Capt) (172)
- Joe Hopes (9)
- David McCann (84)
- Nick Timoney (177)
- Bryn Ward (12)
- Conor McKee (15)
- James Humphreys (6)
- Zac Ward (22)
- Stuart McCloskey (212)
- James Hume (113)
- Werner Kok (28)
- Ethan McIlroy (71)
Replacements:
- James McCormick (13)
- Angus Bell (10)
- Scott Wilson (50)
- Matthew Dalton (22)
- Juarno Augustus (10)
- Nathan Doak (102)
- Ben Carson (18)
- Ben Moxham (39)
So Humphreys starts, if that team can’t take home 5 points from Zebre then we are in big trouble. Maybe pressure at the scrum but McAllister did well against Edinburgh.
Given we’re resting a few, it’s a pretty strong team, first choice back row and centers should help and some impact from the bench. The slight concern is obviously the half backs, more specifically out half. From what little I’ve seen of Humph he’s inherited his dads tackling technique, but also shown glimpses of his attacking flair, we’ll see how he goes. I think McKee and Humph have both been playing for Hinch this season, so maybe that’s why they’ve been picked together, I also suspect that Doak might be asked to come on at ten, depending on how Humph is going.
Not as comprehensive as you’d have liked, playing most of the match against 14, but we needed five points and got them. Finishing in the top 2 of the league is still in our hands.
that game doesn’t give me much confidence for the rest for the rest of the season. They really made a meal of putting away a 14 man Zebra. If it was 20mins for a red, we might have struggled to win that game. Bryn had a disappointing game, too many mistakes, maybe guilty of trying too hard to make things happen ( I think Augustus was better when he came on). Zack while not bad, just has not been playing as well as he was before the Ireland A game. McAllister had another solid game. Henderson just isn’t the player he was, looks tired, I was hoping that being dropped from Ireland would give him drive in ulster, but not seeing that yet.
Worrying that Humphreys went off injured ( played ok to that point I thought) and while good to have Doak as an option as an emergency 10, he isn’t 10. If Jack is back from injury, who we got for 10? Maybe Lowry will be back, but you wouldn’t want to start him in a knock out game as your 10.
Ospreys have an outside chance of making the top 8 ( they are 10 point behind 8th place), hopefully they will send a weak team for next week
Yes finishing in the top 2 is possible, but based on the performance of the last few games, not likely. I would take 4 place right now. Maybe i’m too pessimistic
I’m still hopeful, a home game against a direct competitor is a lot easier to get up for than mentally than a game against a team who haven’t won since the second game of the season.
The biggest concern is probably the set piece, a lot of penalties given away at scrum time, even after bell and Wilson came on. A lot of the other problems today are hopefully transient. Ward will probably go a while before having a game that bad again and given murphy was only listed as doubtful for this week, you’d hope he might be OK for next. I think it’s bruised ribs, which can be played through, but they’re very painful, so not ideal and hopefully not too bad.
That was an odd performance. A few passages of very slick attacking play but long spells of very middlin’ stuff. I think we were trying to force too many offloads and a lot of them were being dropped. Fair play to Zebre: for the bottom side in the table they were decent, but we should not have needed to struggle to put them away.
Very encouraging second outing for McAllister. Humphreys didn’t do much wrong. I think both the Wards were below their best particularly Zac – fortunately we should have Stockdale available now.
