Stormers / Lions / Sharks have home European R16 Fixtures the week after R16, so probably not send the full deck. Bulls playing in Toulouse in R16 so probably send the full deck.Colmodon wrote: ↑March 1st, 2023, 4:38 pm Any danger of one of these for the last 4 rounds? Feels like the round after next will be pretty crucial
Cardiff (9) @ Zebre (16) - potential banana skin for Cardiff needing to stay above Os/Scarlets
Stormers (2) @ Leinster (1) - Possibly (but unlikely) a fully loaded stormers coming up, against team between the 6N and Ulster R16
Lions (12) @ Benetton (10)
Dragons (15) @ ospreys (13) -
Edinburgh (11) @ Connacht (8) - win or die game for both
Sharks (7) @ Scarlets (14)
Glasgow (4) @ Munster (5) - huge game in the shake up for playoffs/top 4
Bulls (6) @ Ulster (3) - huge game in the shake up for top 4
The Quickening 2022
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Re: The Quickening 2022
-
Ruckedtobits
- Rob Kearney
- Posts: 8117
- Joined: April 10th, 2011, 10:23 am
Re: The Quickening 2022
There are players, plenty of them, in all four Irish Provinces who are not in the current Irish Squad but who have been there at various points in the past 30 months, who are saying to themselves, "I'm as good as him, I could do that job. When we played them last year / in '21 / '20, I outplayed him and I know I can do it again".
The Irish Squad at the moment is populated by a group of players who are high on confidence, enjoying being part of an unexpected odyssey, at ease in each others company but not dependent on one or two superstars to drag them to victory. Yes, in every game we have a few players who play like superstars but that could be almost anyone of the twenty-three named any given weekend.
However, I absolutely believe there are also another twenty-three, and more, every week who could be the ones who produce an Irish winning performance, if they were in the same environment with the same preparation behind them.
Many of that group, who are not part of the substantial collection of injured or recovering players, will have opportunities in the coming weeks to put up their hands and wave at Faz to say "Just gimme a chance, I can do that".
Irish rugby is at a high point at present and has worked very hard to get there. Everybody playing for their Province over the last four weekends of the regular URC season should be reflecting that and show the Northern Hemisphere just how strong our rugby is and that the depth goes way beyond what has been seen to date.
All four Provinces can make the play-offs and even go further from there. Obviously Leinster are in the prime position but all four can progress if they can perform to the top of their potential. I know it, many on this forum know it and I'm sure that their Coaches know it.
Good luck to all the Provinces and those individual players.
The Irish Squad at the moment is populated by a group of players who are high on confidence, enjoying being part of an unexpected odyssey, at ease in each others company but not dependent on one or two superstars to drag them to victory. Yes, in every game we have a few players who play like superstars but that could be almost anyone of the twenty-three named any given weekend.
However, I absolutely believe there are also another twenty-three, and more, every week who could be the ones who produce an Irish winning performance, if they were in the same environment with the same preparation behind them.
Many of that group, who are not part of the substantial collection of injured or recovering players, will have opportunities in the coming weeks to put up their hands and wave at Faz to say "Just gimme a chance, I can do that".
Irish rugby is at a high point at present and has worked very hard to get there. Everybody playing for their Province over the last four weekends of the regular URC season should be reflecting that and show the Northern Hemisphere just how strong our rugby is and that the depth goes way beyond what has been seen to date.
All four Provinces can make the play-offs and even go further from there. Obviously Leinster are in the prime position but all four can progress if they can perform to the top of their potential. I know it, many on this forum know it and I'm sure that their Coaches know it.
Good luck to all the Provinces and those individual players.
Last edited by Ruckedtobits on March 2nd, 2023, 4:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: The Quickening 2022
Yeah, all 4 provinces making the playoffs is only good for Irish rugby. SA players need to get used to losing when they come up against Irish teams.