Thursday, June 16, 2016

Joe Schmidt throws a few big surprises!



 
 Quinn Roux (picture http://bit.ly/1Ot4eNn)

Round two of the three match series, and Joe Schmidt has thrown some major surprises, making five changes from a winning team last week. The biggest of these is the inclusion of Quinn Roux – he was a bit player at Leinster, and has been the same at Connacht this year, not even on the bench sometimes. He’ll be able to call the Springboks line out calls anyway. No Mike Ross, and Stuart Olding at centre, again a player who has not played a lot for Ulster this year but through injury I think. The Boks meanwhile are not substantially changed, and have Morne Steyn on the bench.

It’s a tough job for new coach Alistair Coetzee – he needs to get the players to buy into his style, while at the same time there’s a heavy transformation expectation on his head, and he’s also trying to favour local players.

I think we can win this series, but I’m not sure if we’ll do it this weekend.

In New Zealand, I think Wales have already lost their big opportunity for a win, but you never know.

And in Australia, the Wallabies are right right up against it, and I can only see pride preventing a series win for England this weekend.

Ireland: 15 Jared Payne, 14 Andrew Trimble, 13 Robbie Henshaw, 12 Stuart Olding, 11 Craig Gilroy, 10 Paddy Jackson, 9 Conor Murray, 8 Jamie Heaslip, 7 Rhys Ruddock, 6 Iain Henderson, 5 Quinn Roux, 4 Devin Toner, 3 Tadhg Furlong, 2 Rory Best, 1 Jack McGrath
Replacements: 16 Richardt Strauss, 17 David Kilcoyne, 18 Finlay Bealham, 19 Donnacha Ryan, 20 Sean Reidy, 21 Kieran Marmion, 22 Ian Madigan, 23 Tiernan O’Halloran

New Zealand v Wales      8:35 AM                             
Australia v England           11:00 AM
South Africa v Ireland      4:00 PM

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