So, after an exhaustive 2 week process, we have whittled Ireland’s RWC hopefuls down to 2 sets of 30 – Deccie’s and ours. Somewhat suprisingly, given Deccie’s chronically odd selections, we have 26 names in common.
We have amended our thoughts silghtly at hooker after a vigourous debate below the line – Jerry should go if his is fully fit and firing, just like Fez and blog friend and favourite Rob Kearney.
The disgreements are as follows:
- Dan Tuohy-Donnacha Ryan. Given Dan has missed the cut for the initial 43 man squad, he must be out of the reckoning. Given this, its a choice between Ryan and Kevin McLaughlin (and Biiiiiiiiiiiiiig Bob Casey if life were funnier). Ryan is probably better suited to second row than Locky, so we tentatively agree with Deccie at this stage of the selection process.
- Denis Leamy-Shane Jennings. This is a straight choice between a classic openside and a brawling spoiler who can play 6 and 8. Jennings is coming back from injury but adds something extra to the loose forward division whereas Leamy can’t get past James Coughlan into the Munster team. This looks a no-brainer, but Deccie and Denis go back a long way.
- Tomás O’Leary-Isaac Boss. Speaking of going back a long way, Deccie loves Tomás so much, he gave him his HEC debut at outside centre back in the day. As soon as O’Leary’s pass wasn’t absolutely abysmal, he displaced Strings as first-choice Munster scrummie. And when O’Leary’s pass is functioning, he is a pretty good player. Unfortunately for all, it isn’t right now. And he is injured. Boss has most of O’Leary’s qualities and is in form and should go. But we all know he won’t.
- Paddy Wallace-Fergus McFadden. Here we have another Deccie favourite against an in-form and upcoming rival. Wallace, as we have said before, takes a lot of heat, but is a quality distributing 12 and has the potential to add a different dimension to our centre play. But he is out of form and coming back from injury. McFadden has had a good season, albeit often not at centre, and just about deserves to go ahead of Paddy. Ooooooooooooooohh James Downey has had an even better season, but is off the radar, and probably doesn’t have the calibre anyway.
We welcome any additional thoughts, and full squads are below:
| Deccie | WoC | |
| Prop | Cian Healy | Cian Healy |
| Prop | Mike Ross | Mike Ross |
| Prop | Tom Court | Tom Court |
| Prop | John Hayes | John Hayes |
| Hooker | Rory Best | Rory Best |
| Hooker | Sean Cronin | Sean Cronin |
| Hooker | Jerry Flannery | Jerry Flannery |
| Second Row | Paul O’Connell | Paul O’Connell |
| Second Row | Donncha O’Callaghan | Donncha O’Callaghan |
| Second Row | Leo Cullen | Leo Cullen |
| Second Row | Donnacha Ryan | Dan Tuohy |
| Back Row | Stephen Ferris | Stephen Ferris |
| Back Row | David Wallace | David Wallace |
| Back Row | Jamie Heaslip | Jamie Heaslip |
| Back Row | Sean O’Brien | Sean O’Brien |
| Back Row | Denis Leamy | Shane Jennings |
| Scrum Half | Tomas O’Leary | Isaac Boss |
| Scrum Half | Eoin Reddan | Eoin Reddan |
| Scrum Half | Conor Murray | Conor Murray |
| Fly Half | Ronan O’Gara | Ronan O’Gara |
| Fly Half | Jonathan Sexton | Jonathan Sexton |
| Centre | Gordon D’Arcy | Gordon D’Arcy |
| Centre | Brian O’Driscoll | Brian O’Driscoll |
| Centre | Paddy Wallace | Fergus McFadden |
| Outside Back | Tommy Bowe | Tommy Bowe |
| Outside Back | Keith Earls | Keith Earls |
| Outside Back | Luke Fitzgerald | Luke Fitzgerald |
| Outside Back | Andrew Trimble | Andrew Trimble |
| Outside Back | Rob Kearney | Rob Kearney |
| Outside Back | Geordan Murphy | Geordan Murphy |
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