VETERAN LOCK ALUN Wyn Jones says that captaining his side in Saturday’s first Test against the Springboks will mean even more to him after he feared his campaign had been ended by a shoulder injury.
Jones was initially ruled out of the Lions tour after suffering the injury in a clash with Japan in Edinburgh four weekends ago, with Conor Murray taking over as tour captain and Adam Beard being called up into Warren Gatland’s squad.
However, Jones has produced a remarkable recovery to be named to start in the second row against South Africa in the first Test this Saturday in Cape Town.
He played 26 minutes off the bench last weekend against the Stormers and is now ready to complete a sensational story by skippering Gatland’s team on what will be his 10th Test appearance for the Lions.
“I can’t swear on here so I won’t go into too much detail,” said Jones when asked what his initial feelings had been after the Japan game.
“The first few days after that and getting home, I was almost on the sofa before the guys had even got to the airport on the Monday. That was a tough one. Fast forward to the Tuesday when I was told there was a chance, it was bordering on the surreal.
“To be here now and taking the knocks and bumps and being in amongst it with the group, it means more, I’m not going to lie. I had spent two weeks with the guys getting to know people, we were bedding in with the rugby, I had the seven minutes [against Japan] and for those two days, that was my tour done.
“I had the decent news on the Tuesday and sometimes all you need is a chance and I was willing to work hard, and make it difficult for the guy sitting next to me [Gatland], to make myself available for selection.”
Gatland said that the Lions had weighed up using Jones from the bench against in the first Test but revealed that as soon as they made a decision on their scrum-half, Jones had to start.
“We did discuss whether we started him on the bench again and brought him off but when the decision was made that we were going to go with Ali Price at nine, we felt we really needed his leadership and experience in terms of starting in the second row,” said Gatland.
“That’s pretty important for us. It’s a great boost to the squad.”
Jones stated his confidence that his shoulder is capable of withstanding the obvious physicality the Lions will face on Saturday, paying tribute to the medial and conditioning staff in Wales and the Lions’ set-up for helping him to recover so quickly.
And the fourth-time tourist has belief that his team-mates won’t need any grand pre-match speeches to get them tuned up for this weekend.
“When you get to this level, and with the calibre of player we have, it doesn’t have to be over-complicated,” said Jones.
“You’ve seen the rugby we’ve been able to produce across the games this week. A big one is going to be composure, we’re going to be an arm wrestle. Gats has said there will be a territory battle. The basic messages are along those lines.
“There will be a lot of emotion involved anyway. The calibre of player and simplistic nature of that approach is what I’ve used in previous teams and with Wales in the past. I’ll continue in a similar vein.”
Hopefully the hype train about Average Joe Mcarthy has finally stalled. He made 4 carries for 4 meters. Gave away two penalties and is the weight of a grand national winner! So impossible to lift in the lineout. Average Joe & Mahony could do with a week off!
@Philyclever@eircom.net: I mean, if you are comparing the performance of locks on the basis of their metres carried, then his performance was still better than the 0 metres gained by the other Irish lock, Beirne. I think most people would admit calling Beirne average on the basis of his metres made in the match would be silly, given we all know Beirne is quality, but there is no sense cherry picking figures to try to discredit a player, when the most relevant categories for comparison are omitted because they destroy the argument. McCarthy has been one of the finds of the six nations and, while still inexperienced, clearly has incredible potential. Heavy locks didn’t stop South Africa/Munster winning their trophies.
@Philyclever@eircom.net: Poor Phil – did someone from Leinster run off with your missus?
@JoeVlogs: Don’t bother wasting your time, he doesn’t even believe what he’s saying himself, it’s only to try get a rise.
@Joseph Deegan: I know, but if the likes of him keep on spouting lies, eventually people will actually believe some of them, so it’s more for others I post replies. He is trying to discredit a player with falsehoods, so I’ll discredit him with facts.
@JoeVlogs: Fair play Joe. Dropping stone cold facts and knowledge bombs as per usual! Hopefully that individual gets tired soon with little interaction, just a troll with nothing else better to do. Didn’t realise Beirne had zero metres, tough old day for our second rows.
@Philyclever@eircom.net: Mccarthy is recognised by all fans , regardless of prov, as a serious find…young guy who had an off day…all part of his development. Way ahead of where guys of his age are….he’s going to be a big player for ireland for hopefully the next decade or so.
@JoeVlogs: is this the comparison you’re looking at? 5 Tadhg Beirne: Stepped up to save Ireland on several occasions but ultimately, it was not enough. A consistent performer but would have wanted a bit more purchase in attack. 7
4 Joe McCarthy: Missed two of his 12 attempted tackles, conceded a penalty and was outplayed by England’s powerful second-row partners. 4
@JoeVlogs: 5 Tadhg Beirne: Stepped up to save Ireland on several occasions but ultimately, it was not enough. A consistent performer but would have wanted a bit more purchase in attack. 7
4 Joe McCarthy: Missed two of his 12 attempted tackles, conceded a penalty and was outplayed by England’s powerful second-row partners. 4
@Keith McNamara: He’s had 2 very good days, 1 ok day and 1 bad day. Not bad imo for a rookie lock. Unfortunately for us his bad day coincided with an off day for many of our more experienced pack. Hopefully him, POM, Doris and Sheehan return to the usual standards on Saturday. If they do then we will be 6N champs again. If not we’ll need a losing bonus point or a French win to secure the title. My money would be on France as they would hate to loose twice in the one 6N on home soil.
@Philyclever@eircom.net: McCarthy did okay , also England selected 3 locks just to deal with him – Martin coming in was purely there to mark McCarthy – the failure was on other players in our forward pack to step up , notably POM
@Philyclever@eircom.net: are those your ratings? Just because I like stats, I’ll give you some more:
Carries: JM:4, TB:5, POM:1, JVDF:6.
Metres: JM:3, TB:0, POM:4, JVDF:12.
Passes: JM:3, TB:5, POM:2, JVDF:4.
Offloads: JM:1 TB:0, POM:0, JVDF:1.
Tackles: JM:9, TB:8, POM:8, JVDF:12.
Penalties conceded: JM:1, TB:0, POM:1 (and a yellow card), JVDF:0.
There, I am comparing the two locks, and the two flankers. Pretty objective. Don’t need to find subjective evaluations to back my point up. So, as you can see, on some things Beirne was better, on other McCarthy was better. Neither reached the numbers of JVDF or Aki, and both will want to improve their performance, but neither were individually to blame for the loss.
@JoeVlogs: the data doesn’t lie
@Owen ODonoghue: your kidding right? Pom didnt have a great day but mccarthy was very very poor. Didnt carry well, broke the line countless time and very slow to get back to his feet. He deserved praise for his performance again france but also deserves stick for this outing. Will not progress otherwise
@Philyclever@eircom.net: He is no Gav Coombes, that’s for sure. How many URC PoTM awards has Gav got in the last few international windows?
Relax comrades.. Saturday we will be favourites to win Six Nations title. Do you youngsters not remember the 90s!? We lost two games of the last 19 approx. Both of those teams we lost to had to play their very best game in a number of long years to beat us by one score. One of those teams was the All blacks. We lost against an England team who has not played like that since 2019 RWC. We gambled on 6 2 split that cruelly went wrong in the first 3 minutes. And yet we let victory slip in the last kick of the game. We truly are a spoiled lot! I dont ever want to see a 6 2 split again.
Agree with the sentiment. POM had a poor game but think he should still start, just look to take him off at 45 mins for Baird, like SA do with Kolisi. Would also like Casey to get another shot on the bench, he was poor vs Italy but we need him to come good or magically unearth another back up 9 to JGP (Murray is ok but not the future). If no Nash or Frawley then Ringrose to wing and McKloskey to 23 (drop Henderson or Conan)
@Andrew Slazenger: Did he tho? Was Baird brilliant when he came in? Weren’t we in front for the entire time POM was playing/in the bin, did Casey have a ‘poor’ game against Italy? Or is that all part of the usual ‘HateHype’ that is peddled on here, that allows all types of mad proportions to get blown out by tribal ‘flatheads’ looking to gargle bile.
@Thesaltyurchin: no we were not in front the entire time PO’M was in the bin. They scored after the penalty he gave away.
@Thesaltyurchin: Pretty sure we conceded a try while he was in the bin. Could be wrong.
@Thesaltyurchin: Baird only got 10 mins because of the sin bin, he’s been excellent all 6 nations and all season in fact. Yeh I thought Casey was fine vs Italy but many saying he wasn’t, either way, hope he gets a chance on Sat
@Thesaltyurchin: yes POM was poor vs England. Yes Casey was fairly average vs Italy. Baird got 11 mins off the bench despite being the best performing Irish 6 this season followed by Ahern and McCann…. You are the one who consistently brings in the blinkered provincial nonsense. You literally patrol every article and start belittling any poster who has the temerity to state that a Munster player wasn’t brilliant. You’re allowed be critical/disappointed in your own team’s players. Grow up man. Sheehan and Doris were poor by their standards. McCarthy was subdued, where I wouldn’t begrudge Henderson coming in for him as the lineout improved after he came on. See, it’s normal to talk about and make reasonable comments about your own province’s players.
@Andrew Slazenger: Would agree with all of that. O’Mahony will more than likely start but we need to see fresh legs on 45/50 mins. The 9 question remains but don’t see Murray being dropped either.
@Thesaltyurchin: we were ahead when POM was carded, and behind by the time Baird was able to came on. Comparing performances of a player who was on the pitch for 60 minutes, versus one who was on the pitch for 10 is somewhat difficult, but in terms of defence, Baird made 5 tackles in that time compared to 8 by POM, so I wouldn’t say Baird was anonymous when he came on… brilliant might be a stretch alright. I know the alternative argument is that POM makes his presence felt at the ruck (“always makes himself a nuisance at rucks”, the expression is I think), but only Sheehan has fewer ruck involvements of the starting forwards, which is partly explained by the fact that Sheehan made the joint second highest number of tackles.
@Thesaltyurchin: I’m all for respecting players and not attacking them after a bad outing but your response is way over the top. Nothing in the original message was hateful or even anything resembling abuse or bile. Feels like you had this in the chamber and wanted the earliest opportunity to post it but have let yourself down badly in how you’ve done it.
@JoeVlogs: Baird also made a class chop type tackle which brought player straight to ground to allow Kelleher and Henderson get in over the ball to win penalty from which we should have closed out the game. Just wasnt on long enough. I do think that yellow card cost us big time. I think it was madness. Its one thing McCarthy giving away penalties. but Pete should have known that was a straight yellow given his experience, and backed off accordingly
@Andrew Slazenger: doak
@Andrew Slazenger: I’m not 100% convinced about CC @ this level but he was decent v italy…any other view is just perpetuating a given narrative. Deserves a bench spot v Scotland. CM was our greatest ever 9 but time waits for no man.
@Andrew Slazenger: why would you put the best 13 in the country by a distance out on the wing. Put players in their best positions.
@Andrew Slazenger: If Henderson is dropped Baird has to be replacement lock. Not so sure about that especially if either Beirne or McCarty get an early injury.
@Niall English: Lack of a better alternative. Larmour is a fine club player but there are reasons he has featured much under Farrell. Hansen, JOB and Nash all ahead of him. Ringrose has plenty of speed, attacking flare and is solid defensively.
@TL55: rather stick a winger on the wing. This is a championship decider, not a Mickey mouse URC game.
@Niall English: Who do you suggest then? Larmour or Stockdale? Neither are in even decent form. Ringrose has been very good every time he’s moved to the wing
@Gary Galligan: Very good player but doesn’t fit how we play especially around attack, Casey fits that way more
@Andrew Slazenger: yep I think that’s how it will play out – I think AF will go 5-3 and Henderson will get dropped for Ringrose. He’ll look to give McCarthy & Bernie the full 80 and bring on Baird for POM & Conan for VDF – Baird will of course over 2nd row if we have any issues there
@Carmine Lorenzo: I don’t think POM was ever ‘brilliant’ but jheez do we have to hear about it, yes Sheehan and Doris were quiet (along with the entire team), but we haven’t ha hardly a peep about it? Why would we, isn’t the traffic on the road POMs fault, the number of articles and bile spewed (feel free to troll through the list) is endless (but popular content of course). I’m critical of any player, Munster players more so, it is reasonable to be critical and make judgements of course but we are not talking about reason or logic, we’re talking about the opposite, nonsense. Which (maybe by your own admission?) you’re responsible for quite a bit! Same for JoeV there, a consummate Munter hater, in fact, enjoys hating everything Munster more than he likes his own team! ‘Oh My poor team got no funding because of this other team’… fk, give it a rest. I’ll keep calling you clowns out! lol
@Owen ODonoghue: maybe Larmour starts with Ringrose 23 to cover centre wing and full back at a real push. I would not favour staring a centre as wing. Doesnt show much confidence in our wingers
@Arjuna: most likely if Nash can’t play – can’t see Ringrose starting given he hasn’t played in 2 months
@TL55: Would agree there, all that you mention would be ahead of Larmour unfortunately for him. He’s a great club player but I really thought he would have kicked on a bit more now – he’s still suspect under a high ball and doesn’t really have a kicking game to speak of unfortunately. It’s times like these with injuries that you’d want the likes of JL and Baloucoune to be banging down the door with their club form.
The next big hurdle for this team is finding a way to win against the other big nations when the other team feels they have a reason to feel slighted, either by the other team or by the press etc.
New Zealand felt there was a lot on the line in the WC coming up against a country that has never won a knockout game but yet Ireland went into the game as favourites.
And we all know what the run up to Saturday’s game was like with England wound up to the last by kickoff.
It’s all well and good beating NZ a few times in between WCs and SA in the group stages but that 80 minutes of knockout rugby that only comes around once every 4 years is our Everest.
@Stanley Marsh: maybe if the Irish press would dial down the rubbish talk, its making other teams 20% more aggressive than they normally are, that stat is made up but it sounds good.
@Matthew Delaney: your not wrong. Jamie Heaslip pre match piece got England going as per Ben Earls. You would have thought he would know better
Seems to just reinforce a message that form doesn’t really matter once you’ve gotten into the team and changes won’t be made regardless of how badly individuals and the team collectively perform.
@teuO6nLS: yeah, i though the same. Deja vu.
@Philyclever@eircom.net
Have to agree on McCarthy have watched him closely over the last few years and don’t know where the term big Joe comes from. Probably about 6ft 3 or 4 which is small for an international second row where most are 6ft 7 or 8. If he is played definitely would need a second row partner who is 6ft 7 for line out
@Padraig Fallon: We have now gotten to the point in the barrell where nicknames are being criticised….there is no hope for humanity.
@Padraig Fallon: Andy Farrell and the coaching team must have it wrong about him so
@Padraig Fallon: he is 6ft6 and 124kg. For reference, Beirne is the same height and 113kg, Henderson same height and 119kg, while behemoths like Snyman is 6ft 9 and 131kg. So he is clearly not the biggest lock relative to Saffas, but he isn’t the smallest either. Even Etzbeth is 6ft9 and 119kg, so actually lighter than McCarthy, while Ryan is 116kg and 6ft 8.
@Padraig Fallon: omg how come a person like you who knows so much more about players and tactics than Farrell &co. Is not picking the team? Your country needs you!
@Padraig Fallon: I just don’t think you have watched him closely. Tell the truth
If we are putting the future captaincy in the hands of Caolin Dorris We are in for lot more days like last Saturday, lad goes missing at the breakdown when it’s put up to him, all blacks game was same
@Joseph O Reilly: he still had more breakdown involvements than POM, so I wouldn’t be talking about captains going missing. Also had more passes, carries, tackles…
@JoeVlogs: I agree completely but I wouldn’t compare any future caption to the current form of pom which is well below average
@JoeVlogs: playing 8 does that for a player. Probs not important tho. Do you have Ben Earl’s stats handy for comparison?
@JoeVlogs: joe he was piss poor by he’s own high standard, often hailed as the best 8 in the world by some posters, earl completely out played him in stats, so why are you always so quick of the mark on nearly every artical going to criticise Pom at every opportunity you can, doris deserves to criticised like the rest that didn’t perform…
New Zealand or South Africa would have been ruthless and made a raft of changes after a performance like that. We’ll once again pay the price for this ‘loyalty’ at the next RWC.
@Overthrow Audio: No they wouldn’t.
They’d calmly review the situation and make the changes that are necessary.
You can’t go down the road of dropping a player just because he has one below par performance.
Having said that there’s a case for freshening up the team a bit given that by their own admission they weren’t great against an appaling Wales team either.
@Overthrow Audio: Their squad depth is superior to ours so easier to make multiple changes. SA in particular could field at least 2 strong international sides and probably 3 or 4 packs. Rugby is the number one sport in NZ and the regularly rob Samoan, Tongan and Fijian prospects.
@TL55: we have multiple options for once is the point.
E.g. Ringrose for Henshaw, Bealham for Furlong, either Baird or Henderson (Beirne to 6 in the latter case) for O’Mahony, Conan for Doris, Kelleher for Sheehan. The bench itself could easily see the likes of McCloskey, Casey, Timoney, Ahern all as options to come in
@teuO6nLS: agreed I’d also like to see Hugo Keenan given the captaincy, he is ultra consistent, competent and fearless, could do a lot worse
@Overthrow Audio: disagree , they would wait till next series of games – for us it is the SA tour – we’ll see changes for sure based on the England game for this now (POM & Murray being dropped I think )
Relax… he not gonna drop his captain that would be mental
I agree with the Munster fans calling for rotation. In that vein here is my team
Porter, Sheehan, Furlong
Henderson, Beirne
Baird, Doris, VDF
JGP, Crowley
Lowe Aki , Ringrose, Nash (Lamour if out)
Keenan
Kelliher
Healy
Bealham
McCarthy
Conan
Casey l
R Byrne
Henshaw
I don’t think POM will be dropped, but if we are going to hold McCarthy to high standards after 4 caps (and rightfully so), then POM as skipper needs to be held to the same.
Forcing Ringrose to the wing to start is a terrible idea and 6-2 is off the table with no Frawls. I don’t think H Byrne should be ahead of R Byrne for a Championship decider either.