Felix Jones (Picture from http://tinyurl.com/3lysylz)
Saturday , August 20
Wales vs Argentina 14:30
Scotland vs Italy 17:00
Ireland vs France 17:00
Tri-Nations
South Africa vs New Zealand 15.05
Ireland France
Ireland: 15 Felix Jones, 14 Andrew Trimble, 13 Brian O'Driscoll (capt), 12 Gordon D'Arcy, 11 Keith Earls, 10 Jonathan Sexton, 9 Tomas O'Leary, 8 Jamie Heaslip, 7 David Wallace, 6 Sean O'Brien, 5 Paul O'Connell, 4 Donncha O'Callaghan, 3 Mike Ross, 2 Rory Best, 1 Cian Healy.
Replacements: 16 Jerry Flannery, 17 Tom Court, 18 Mike McCarthy, 19 Stephen Ferris, 20 Eoin Reddan, 21 Ronan O'Gara, 22 Luke Fitzgerald
15 - Geordan Murphy (Leicester Tigers)14 - Johne Murphy (Young Munster/Munster)13 - Darren Cave (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster)12 - Ian Keatley (Munster)11 - Fergus McFadden (Old Belvedere/Leinster)10 - Paddy Wallace (Ballymena/Ulster)9 - Isaac Boss (Terenure College/Leinster)1 - Tony Buckley (Sale Sharks)2 - Sean Cronin (Leinster)3 - John Hayes (Bruff/Munster)4 - Mick O'Driscoll (Cork Constitution/Munster)5 - Leo Cullen (Blackrock College/Leinster)6 - Kevin McLaughlin (St. Mary's College/Leinster)7 - Shane Jennings (St. Mary's College/Leinster)8 - Denis Leamy (Cork Constitution/Munster)
Replacements:16 - Damien Varley (Garryowen/Munster)17 - Marcus Horan (Shannon/Munster)18 - Donnacha Ryan (Shannon/Munster)19 - Niall Ronan (Shannon/Munster)20 - Conor Murray Garryowen/Munster)21 - Denis Hurley (Cork Constitution/Munster)22 - Ian Whitten (Ballymena/Ulster)
So these are the teams to face France and Connacht. The team for Ireland is pretty well our top squad, with the only surprise being the inclusion of Felix Jones so hats off to Kidney for not playing it safe. Although Geordan Murphy must have the thickest skin in the squad. Looks like if you play in England, they treat you like you’re English! Good to see O’Driscoll and Darcy back. Would love to have Bowe back in action as well, hopefully that will be soon. Tomas O’Leary gets another chance to try and demonstrate that he’s the No. 1 choice, let’s give him the benefit of the doubt. Fantastic to see Ferris on the bench again, the French will hope he stays there.
France: 15 Cedric Heymans, 14 Maxime Médard, 13 Aurélien Rougerie, 12 Fabrice Estebanez, 11 Alexis Palisson, 10 David Skrela, 9 Morgan Parra, 8 Louise Picamoles, 7 Julien Bonnaire, 6 Fulgence Ouedraogo, 5 Lionel Nallet, 4 Pascale Papé, Nicolas Mas, 2 Dimitri Szarzewski, 1 Jean-Baptiste Poux.
Replacements:16 Guilhem Guirado , 17 Fabien Barcella , 18 Julien Pierre, 19 Raphaël Lakafia, 20 Dimitri Yachvili, 21 David Marty, 22 Vincent Clerc, 23 Luc Ducalcon.
This is the French team, and it’s impressively strong when you think 13 changes have been made from last week. No point trying to second guess which 15 Lievremont thinks is stronger, because it’s patently obvious that he doesn’t have a clue who his strongest 15 is. Frankly, he doesn’t have a clue full stop. Look at the riches he has available to him though. Think DK has got the upper hand with his team continuity, and at home, it’s going to be a green day.
South Africa New Zealand
The 2011 Tri-nations has been a damp squib for the Saffa’s, can they end it with a bang? They’ve picked good looking team, I would have stuck with Butch, but apart from that it looks well. Also great to see Bismark back. There is likely to be a nice air of desperation about the team as they go looking for their first win of the season. The All Blacks haven’t sent over a full strength squad, with Carter and McCaw in particular likely to be missed. I get the sense, rightly or wrongly that the AB’s see the Boks as easy meat, and expect lots of running rugby and tries. They’d better be careful. Without Carter, I’m backing the Boks.
South Africa: 15 Pat Lambie, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Jaque Fourie, 12 Jean de Villiers, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Morné Steyn, 9 Fourie du Preez, 8 Pierre Spies, 7 Willem Alberts, 6 Heinrich Brüssow, 5 Victor Matfield, 4 Bakkies Botha, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 Gurthrö Steenkamp.
Replacements: 16 John Smit, 17 Tendai Mtawarira, 18 CJ van der Linde, 19 Danie Rossouw, 20 Ashley Johnson, 21 Francois Hougaard, 22 Butch James
15 Israel Dagg, 14 Isaia Toeava, 13 Richard Kahui, 12 Sonny Bill Williams, 11 Hosea Gear, 10 Colin Slade, 9 Jimmy Cowan, 8 Liam Messam, 7 Adam Thomson, 6 Jerome Kaino, 5 Ali Williams, 4 Samuel Whitelock, 3 John Afoa, 2 Keven Mealamu (capt) 1 Tony Woodcock.
Replacements: 16 Andrew Hore, 17 Ben Franks, 18 Jarrad Hoeata, 19 Victor Vito, 20 Andy Ellis, 21 Piri Weepu, 22 Cory Jane.
Wales Argentina
Wales get Byrne, Halfpenny, Adam Jones and Davies back for this match, good looking team, and interesting to see Knoyle at scrum half. Argentina are at full strength, looks like some of the guys are getting a bit long in the tooth, but it would never pay you to underestimate Argentina. Wales look to be on a roll though, so I reckon they’ll take this.
Wales: 15 Lee Byrne, 14 Leigh Halfpenny, 13 Jamie Roberts, 12 Jonathan Davies, 11 George North, 10 James Hook, 9 Tavis Knoyle, 8 Ryan Jones (capt), 7 Martyn Williams, 6 Dan Lydiate, 5 Alun-Wyn Jones, 4 Bradley Davies, 3 Adam Jones, 2 Richard Hibbard, 1 Paul James.
Replacements: 16 Huw Bennett, 17 Ryan Bevington, 18 Andy Powell, 19 Justin Tipuric, 20 Lloyd Williams, 21 Stephen Jones, 22 Aled Brew.
Argentina 15 Martin Rodriguez, 14 Horacio Agulla, 13 Marcelo Bosch, 12 Santiago Fernandez, 11 Gonzalo Camacho, 10 Felipe Contepomi (c), 9 Nicolas Vergallo, 8 Juan Fernandez Lobbe, 7 Juan Manuel Leguizamon, 6 Julio Farias Cabello, 5 Patricio Albacete, 4 Manuel Carizza, 3 Juan Figallo, 2 Mario Ledesma, 1 Rodrigo Roncero.
Replacements: 16Agustin Creevy, 17 Martin Scelzo, 18 Mariano Galarza, 19 Alejandro Campos, 20 Alfredo Lalanne, 21 Nicolas Sanchez, 22 Juan Imhoff.
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