Fireworks wrote:It is messy having to wait for a player like Zane. It reduces his value as he will not have these warm up games and pre season to get familiar with the guys around him and the way the team plays. I can see him appearing on the wing for a while because it requires less knowledge of systems.
Or it could just be that South Africans don't tend to interchange between wing and fullback as much as we do. They use specialist wingers a lot so fullbacks don't play on the wing as much.
We don't really go in for that sort of thing. Almost every back plays at fullback a little and we like converting strike running fullbacks into wingers. i.e. of course he'll play on the wing sometimes.
artaneboy wrote:
But which of us weepy wusses will be harsh enough to remind him??
Oh and Donny, remember- "Consistency is the hobgoblin of petty minds." being consisentcy is no virtue in itself.
Either is good spelling but I still respect it all the same.
And hell, I hope the Leinster shirt transforms him into an attack-minded superstar and I'll eat all the humble pie you boys want to serve up. But on the evidence of his career to date, I have my doubts and don't think expressing them is such an outrageous crime.
artaneboy wrote:
But which of us weepy wusses will be harsh enough to remind him??
Oh and Donny, remember- "Consistency is the hobgoblin of petty minds." being consisentcy is no virtue in itself.
Either is good spelling but I still respect it all the same.
And hell, I hope the Leinster shirt transforms him into an attack-minded superstar and I'll eat all the humble pie you boys want to serve up. But on the evidence of his career to date, I have my doubts and don't think expressing them is such an outrageous crime.
Touché on the spelling. I'd blame the phone's predictive text- but then I remember I did it on the laptop!
On humble pie: oh yeah, ye can bet we'll force feed it to you when/ if he becomes a sensation. But our (well my) point is that we cannot know yet and I just think its unwise- your business; and unfair- all our business- to a player to write him off that early. I can't say I was ecstatic when the signing was announced, but I wasn't when Isa was either. Not saying, of course....
"Oh, I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused!"
artaneboy wrote:
But which of us weepy wusses will be harsh enough to remind him??
Oh and Donny, remember- "Consistency is the hobgoblin of petty minds." being consisentcy is no virtue in itself.
Either is good spelling but I still respect it all the same.
And hell, I hope the Leinster shirt transforms him into an attack-minded superstar and I'll eat all the humble pie you boys want to serve up. But on the evidence of his career to date, I have my doubts and don't think expressing them is such an outrageous crime.
Touché on the spelling. I'd blame the phone's predictive text- but then I remember I did it on the laptop!
On humble pie: oh yeah, ye can bet we'll force feed it to you when/ if he becomes a sensation. But our (well my) point is that we cannot know yet and I just think its unwise- your business; and unfair- all our business- to a player to write him off that early. I can't say I was ecstatic when the signing was announced, but I wasn't when Isa was either. Not saying, of course....
I was though, because I had seen him play and knew we'd gotten a gem.
But who knows. When we signed two players from Ulster a few seasons back, I didn't know why as I didn't rate either of them. I was right about O'Donoghue but completely wrong about Boss who's turned into a wee star for us.
So even the mighty Donny can occasionally be wrong. There I said it. Where's the love people!
Donny B. wrote:Some people forgot very quickly indeed.
He was also the starting Lions fullback 4 years ago, but that's not too relevant when talking about current form.
What current form are you talking about though? Kearney missed the first half of the season for Leinster last year. When he got back his Leinter form was pretty good, with 4 tries in 11 appearances.
Yeah he wasn't great for Ireland while the Kidney ship was sinking, but who was? And as for the Lions, well when he did his hammer he shouldn't have even travelled. Even if the hamstring hadn't happened, and he was running in tries for fun, its doubtful he would have gotten ahead of Halfpenny cause of the latter's kicking.
Donny B. wrote:Some people forgot very quickly indeed.
He was also the starting Lions fullback 4 years ago, but that's not too relevant when talking about current form.
What current form are you talking about though? Kearney missed the first half of the season for Leinster last year. When he got back his Leinter form was pretty good, with 4 tries in 11 appearances.
Yeah he wasn't great for Ireland while the Kidney ship was sinking, but who was? And as for the Lions, well when he did his hammer he shouldn't have even travelled. Even if the hamstring hadn't happened, and he was running in tries for fun, its doubtful he would have gotten ahead of Halfpenny cause of the latter's kicking.
I agree with all that. This myth that Rob was in bad form on his return last season is really tedious rubbish. It became obvious that the Lions test selection was made by Gatland before leaving. Rob's torn hammer just made it easy for him. And in fairness Halfpenny was great and it's hard to complain. Now, on the other hand we don't want to go back to the BOD v Davies call...!
"Oh, I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused!"
I know this is a crazy notion but I'm going to trust the views og Joe Schmidt on this one...
Upon signing Kirchner for Leinster in April, then coach Joe Schmidt praised the South African’s balance, pace and skill while also suggesting his vast experience would be a great benefit to the next generation of young backs coming up the Blues’ ranks.
And after I see Kirchner play 3 or 4 games I'm going to make up my own mind about him. From what I've seen of his before joining Leinster he's a very solid dependable player. With caps for SA and the Blue Bulls, super rugby and international titles I cant see how he will do anything other that improve the strenght of the team.
ZK has been left out of the SA 23 for the RC opener by Meyer in favour of WLR and Lambie on the bench. Given that he's not making the 23, I would wonder if there's a chance he'll be released early to Leinster still. Pienaar, for example, was allowed to leave S.A. by his club ahead of schedule, pending Springbok selection. When he wasn't selected, he arrived in Ulster in September.
Oh so wait, him being left out of a squad in favour of Le Roux and Lambie wasn't an entirely unreasonable thought after all?
Jaysus, who'd have thought it...
wixfjord wrote:Oh so wait, him being left out of a squad in favour of Le Roux and Lambie wasn't an entirely unreasonable thought after all?
Jaysus, who'd have thought it...
Pity you didn't notice the South African squad for the tournament being announced last week with Kirchner in it as expected. The match day squad is irrelevant to his being here or not once he was, as expected, named in the Tournament squad.
