Best Irish Team

Hi I'm back and today I am running through my back selection.

Half backs, I might get a lot of hate for one of my choices, but one is definitely not at all controversial. So the obvious choice at scrum half Conor Murray. His managing of the game is amazing and his kicking is top class. But also something that I think is overlooked, Murray's defense is immaculate, he is not the type of scrum half that you could run over easily, he is very tall and strong for his position. Now on to the out half, this is very controversial, I would not have Johnny Sexton in my team, and I think I have a very valid reason for this. Sexton is amazing at controlling the game, but you have Murray for that. Now great number 10's are great controllers of the game but they also have to be able to cause a threat to the opposition as well, and I just don't think Sexton is that sort of threat. But my selection Joey Carbery is, he just brings something different than Sexton, he keeps the defense thinking whereas with Sexton you know he is just going to pass every time.

Now the centres, I think these two are going to be the next Darcy and O'Driscol, and those two people are Stuart McCloskey and Gary Ringrose. McCloskey represents Darcy, in the sense that they are maybe the bigger of the two centres and Ringrose represents O'Driscol, the faster and smaller of the two, and isn't one for running into contact. The reason I picked these two is I think they bring a real balance into the centre, as you have one player who can truck it up the middle and one who can burn people on the outside and just sprinkle some magic into the game.

Now the back line, as in the two wingers and the full back. This is quite a hard selection, as there are many top quality wingers in Ireland. I'm going to start with the wingers and my two wingers are Simon Zebo and Tiernan O'Halloran. I think these two are just magic, they are both great kickers and are really exciting with ball in hand. The full back is also quite hard, I know Rob Kearney fits extremely well in Joe Schmidt's system but I just don't think he has got enough pace any more and he isn't a very good with ball in hand. That is why I would pick Robbie Henshaw, his defense is top class, he is a strong runner and great with ball in hand and he has great skills, In my eyes he is kind of like the Irish Sony Bill Williams, and that is why Henshaw rounds off my Best Irish Team.

Feel free to comment

Ben 

Best Irish Team

All right, first of all I think Ireland are going to win the Six Nations with a Grand Slam. We just are! But the thing is I'm not worried about England, I'm more worried about Scotland and France, the reason is that England are very structured and Joe Schmidt can analyse that and come up with a solution but Scotland and France they are more frenzied and wild and you can't really plan for that.

Now on to the real subject of this blog, the Best Irish Team in my opinion. I will admit some of my selections are a tad controversial, for example Jamie Heaslip will not feature in my starting 23. Now don't get me wrong he is an extremely good player but I just think there is a better number 8 in Ireland right now.

First of all, the Front Row!! In my opinion the prime example of a fine specimen of a man!! Now this selection is probably one of the least controversial selections in my team, and also all three are primed to start for the Lions. It has a mix of pure work rate and tackling skills in Jack McGrath, leadership in Rory Best and the pure essence of a tank in Tadhg Furlong.

Now second rows, this is tricky. Do you use the two of the classiest line out operators in world rugby  right now in Donnacha Ryan and Devin Toner, or do you use two of the best ball carriers in Ireland right now, Ultan Dillane and Iain Henderson? I think I would use Henderson and Dillane, my reasoning behind it is, I think you can teach line out skills but you can't teach Henderson's rugby brain or the brute force of Dillane.

Now on to the back row, now I know a lot of people might not agree with this but hear me out. Now don't get me wrong Jamie Heaslip is a phenomenal player and he is a great servant to Irish Rugby but I just don't think he is a big enough ball carrying threat as many modern number 8's are. I think there is only one solution to that problem, and that is CJ Stander. The amount of yards he makes per match and the amount of work he gets through is insane. Now another player like that is Jack Conan, a phenomenal player who is much like Stander, and because I think that Ireland haven't had a really strong ball carrying back row in a few years, Conan would be playing as my 6. Josh van der Flier, how he has such a good awareness of the game is beyond me at such a young age, his breakdown work is phenomenal and his power is insane, and that is why he rounds of my ball carrying back row at 7.

We'll talk about the backs next blog .

Feel free to comment.

Till Next Time

Ben, 14 year old rugby fan