Rebels 2013

[Ollie]

Reading alot about Phipps and queries over his defensive skills. It always occurred to me that that is one thing Phipps is better than Stirzaker at, while the latter may have more spark about him in attack (based on last year's matches). But when naming names over the problems in our defence, I'm surprised JOC (James O'Connor) gets overlooked? He's as guilty as anyone of not being accountable for his opposing man. Is this because he makes dazzling runs and scores points, that this can be excused?

All in all, can't accept anyone other than Phipps at 9 come Round 1. Hilly has finally developed a squad this year where you'll find competition for spots all over the park. Each player knows, including even our Captain from last year, that they're no certainty. If Phipps WERE to fall away, he'll be on the bench quickly.

 

[Slim 293]

I think so, the promos the Wallabies were doing in Sydney earlier they were wearing a diff jersey to the current one

Just going off topic again, any pics of the new jerseys yet?

 

[jermano]

while the latter may have more spark

Gold, bout time we had more Ranga jokes.

 

[en_force_er]

Reading alot about Phipps and queries over his defensive skills

Phipps is a pretty decent defensive halfback but he plays a sweeper role in a very poor defensive team. It does his stats zero favours.

 

[kronic]

We've signed a hooker for 2014.

Leinster and U20s hooker Tom Sexton.

He was born here, left at 4. Suspect he is cover for the departure of Ged Robinson.

 

[qwerty51]

Related to Johnny?

 

[KevinO]

Related to Johnny?

Hope not, Johnny is the most overrated international player

 

[qwerty51]

He's just about a shoo-in for the Lions 10 unless Farrell does something extreme in the 6Ns.

 

[TOCC]

We've signed a hooker for 2014.

Leinster and U20s hooker Tom Sexton.

He was born here, left at 4. Suspect he is cover for the departure of Ged Robinson.

seems like a pretty decent signing, he has served a good apprenticeship in Ireland..

 

[KevinO]

He's just about a shoo-in for the Lions 10 unless Farrell does something extreme in the 6Ns.

His always backed off his club form, when in reality he has been a massive let down in the green jersey.

 

[kronic]

He could play for Australia also, which makes it easy for us, with our foreign spots.

 

[James Buchanan]

Hopefully one of the Irish posters (is it Bardon that is the Leinster fan?) can give us more details on the bloke.

 

[Lee Grant]

He's just about a shoo-in for the Lions 10 unless Farrell does something extreme in the 6Ns.

Not just about; he is the form flyhalf of all the candidates and will be the first picked. They'll select another specialist and also Farrell who can cover 12 in a matchday team as well - not that Sexton can't play there, come to think of it.

 

[KevinO]

Hopefully one of the Irish posters (is it Bardon that is the Leinster fan?) can give us more details on the bloke.

Can tell you he went to one of the best rugby schools in all of Ireland, went to a Leinster schools final one year I was over there and they had a crowd of about 20k at the match. Leinster has a long history of signing players from Belvedere collage. (Cian Healy recently)(28 Internationals and 7 Lions according to there website)

Played in the U20 World Cup team that contained Conor Murray and Peter O'Mahony who are both full capped internationals.

It's a good move for him as Leinster have some quality in the 2 jersey, Strauss and Cronin both ahead of him at the moment. He has played most of his Rugby in the reserves.

Believe he is a good signing age wise, the fact he is pretty much a Vic is a bonus and does not count into the foreign players as he is still eligible to play for the Wallabies.

PLAYER BIOG
School: Belvedere College SJ
Leinster 'A' Caps: 7 (v Munster x3, Connacht x3, Ulster)
British & Irish Cup Caps: 16 (v Gael Force, Newport, Cornish Pirates, Worcester Warriors, Currie, Bedford Blues, Esher, Llanelli, London Welsh, Pontypridd x3, Munster, Leeds Carnegie, Jersey x2)
Ireland Under-20 Caps: 9 (v Wales x2, France, Italy, England, Scotland, Argentina, New Zealand, Samoa)
Leinster Under-20 Caps: 4 (v Ulster, Munster, Connacht, English Counties)
Ireland Under-19 Caps: 2 (v Italy, France)
Ireland Schools Caps: 3 (v Japan, Italy, England)
Leinster Schools (Under-19) Caps: 3 (v Munster, Connacht, Ulster)
Leinster Schools (Under-18) Caps: 9 (v RFU Academy, Connacht, Ulster, Munster, all 5 appearances on 2006/07 South African tour)

 

[Lee Grant]

Can tell you he went to one of the best rugby schools in all of Ireland.

Leinster has a long history of signing players from Belvedere collage. (Cian Healy recently)(28 Internationals and 7 Lions according to there website))

Also the great Tony O'Reilly who I saw play several times when he was in the 1959 Lions team.

Went to an after-game function once in Dunedin and stood as close to him as I could because all the girls were around him and I was hoping for left-overs, but I drank scotch for the first time that night and missed out on the girls.

An interesting piece of trivia is that O'Reilly was recalled to the Ireland side after several years in the wilderness, and fat. He replaced a selected player who was injured and that player ended up never getting a test cap.

The injured player's son got a few caps though - Brian O'Driscoll, son of Frank.
.

 

[Caputo]

IRB may consider him Irish like R. Murphy,

 

[Forcefield]

No. Sexton was born here. There will be no eligibility problems. R. Murphy was not born in Australia and does not have any Australian born parents of grandparents. That is why, despite living in Australia for around 10 years in the past, he is not currently eligible for the Wallabies.

 

[Lindommer]

Also the great Tony O'Reilly who I saw play several times when he was in the 1959 Lions team. An interesting piece of trivia is that O'Reilly was recalled to the Ireland side after several years in the wilderness, and fat.

Legend has it O'Reilly turned up for training in the Heinz company chariot. During the match Tony was caught at the bottom of a ruck (for the uninitiated, players put in a bit of slipper work in those days, sigh!) which led to some wag in the crowd calling out, "And you can kick his chauffeur, too".

 

[elementfreak]

He's just about a shoo-in for the Lions 10 unless Farrell does something extreme in the 6Ns.

Freddie Burns. Watch this space.

 

[Lee Grant]

Yeah - I've been watching young Freddie for a while and there's a whiff of Cipriani about him - the good parts - and a bit of Larkham.

There have been some promising players taken on Lions tours over the years and I could probably name them as well as anybody, but it the main they take proven players.

Let's all rugby lovers hope that Freddie gets a lot of time in 6N to prove himself the the hard-nosed Lions selectors and that the Lions tour is not a year too soon for him. He's worth watching.
.