IRELAND ANNOUNCE PRE-SEASON TRAINING SQUAD

No big surprises here let me tell you.... The only real disappointment from this announcement is the exclusion of 3 players... Ian Humphreys, Shane Horgan and Nevin Spence. Why is that I hear you ask? Well, they all just recently had surgery on long standing injuries... Tough brake! In saying that though, it does not rule them out of contention for the World Cup. It only deems them unavailable for the conditioning schedule due to their rehabilitation periods, yada yada yada... It also means they won't take part in any of the games during the Guinness Summer Series in August.

For those of you who think it won't affect them much, think again. These 3 players are fringe players at best. If they had aspirations of playing in the World Cup (which I'm sure they do) they'll know just how detrimental their absence will be for the start of camp. If they are to feature in the World Cup, they will need all the time they can get to impress the coaches.

In my opinion, unless injuries should come into play, none of these 3 players will be playing much rugby in the World Cup but I do like the look of young Spence. He has had a very strong season for Ulster and seems to have established himself as "one for the future" playing at 13 but he is still not at international standard just like his fellow Ulster man Humphreys. While we are on the note of missing players, where is Craig Gilroy? Surely he played his way into Kidneys head this year too. My only thought is that he isn't named in this pre-season squad because he is playing in the Junior World Cup.

I am however, delighted to see the inclusion of Conor Murray and Felix Jones who have had great seasons. Murray has been a revelation at 9 for Munster and I hope Kidney is prepared to give him a good chance while Jones has shown the damage he can do attacking from full-back provided he stays injury free. I hope come September it is he who is wearing the 15 shirt, not Roberta Kearney.

IRELAND RUGBY WORLD CUP PRE-SEASON SQUAD

Backs (19):

Isaac Boss (Terenure College/Leinster)
Tommy Bowe (Ospreys)
Gordon D'Arcy (Lansdowne/Leinster)
Gavin Duffy (Galwegians/Connacht)
Keith Earls (Thomond/Munster)
Luke Fitzgerald (Blackrock College/Leinster)
Felix Jones (Shannon/Munster)
Rob Kearney (UCD/Leinster)
Fergus McFadden (Old Belvedere/Leinster)
Geordan Murphy (Leicester)
Conor Murray (Cork Constitution/Munster)
Brian O'Driscoll (UCD/Leinster)
Ronan O'Gara (Cork Constitution/Munster)
Tomas O'Leary (Dolphin/Munster)
Eoin Reddan (Lansdowne/Leinster)
Jonathan Sexton (St. Mary’s College/Leinster)
Peter Stringer (Shannon/Munster)
Andrew Trimble (Ballymena/Ulster)
Paddy Wallace (Ballymena/Ulster)

Forwards (24):

Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster)
Tony Buckley (Sale Sharks)
Tom Court (Malone/Ulster)
Sean Cronin (Leinster)
Leo Cullen (Blackrock College/Leinster)
Stephen Ferris (Dungannon/Ulster)
Jerry Flannery (Shannon/Munster)
John Hayes (Bruff/Munster)
Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster)
Jamie Heaslip (Naas/Leinster)
Marcus Horan (Shannon/Munster)
Shane Jennings (St. Mary’s College/Leinster)
Denis Leamy (Cork Constitution/Munster)
Mike McCarthy (Buccaneers/Connacht)
Kevin McLaughlin (St. Mary’s College/Leinster)
Sean O'Brien (Clontarf/Leinster)
Donncha O'Callaghan (Cork Constitution/Munster)
Paul O'Connell (Young Munster/Munster)
Mick O'Driscoll (Cork Constitution/Munster)
Mike Ross (Clontarf/Leinster)
Donnacha Ryan (Shannon/Munster)
Damien Varley (Garryown/Munster)
David Wallace (Garryowen/Munster)
Brett Wilkinson (Galwegians/Connacht)

Not considered due to injury:

Shane Horgan (Boyne/Leinster) – Knee
Ian Humphries (Ballymena/Ulster) – Shoulder
Nevin Spence (Ballynahinch/Ulster) – shoulder

Supa Dupa Rugby Round – Up with Francois “aut viam inveniam aut faciam” Badenhorst

James O'Connor is looking to move away from the Force

You thought you got rid of me huh? Well, hold on to your valuables because Super Rugby is back.
The game between the Chiefs and the Hurricanes ended in a draw, 18 – 18. Bit of a dead rubber this one since both teams are out of the competition but these two teams will be big time stumbling blocks for playoff aspirants in the rounds to come. The final round 17 game played in NZ was a cracker between the Crusaders and the Blues. The game itself ended 23 – 16 in favour of the ‘Saders and it was a game that was more tense than the Korean De-Militarized zone. It was like that but with less Koreans and more Zac Guildford scoring tries.
The first game played in Oz was between the Brumbies and the Rebels with the Brumbies jogging out 32 – 17 winners. The scoreline doesn’t do the Brumbies justice as they outscored the Rubbles 5 tries to two. The Highlanders continued to unravel against the Waratahs in Sydney losing 33 – 7. ‘Tahs fullback Kurtley Beale was inspirational and his slaloming runs were more magical than the Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry. Meanwhile in Brisbane, my favourite team in the whole world <SARCASM ALERT> The Reds just sneaked past a plucky Force team to win 24 – 21. The Reds were super lucky in this one and to be frank didn’t deserve to win. That doesn’t matter though because an undeserved win counts just as much as a deserved one.
Curse the Gods! The Lions deserved more than a 30 – 30 draw against the Sharks in Johannesburg. They were at one stage leading by 24 points and on the way to a resounding victory when the experience and championship calibre Sharks got their act together to mount the greatest comeback since Mickey Rourke. Time to espouse some universal truths: Butch James is turning into one of this season’s best signings and Sharkies flyhalf Pat Lambie is good at rugby. The last game of the weekend was witnessed by me, in person, sitting in the railway stand of Newlands. My outing to the southern suburbs of Cape Town didn’t end happily however as the Bulls managed a 19 – 16 win over the Stormers. Utter disappointment, especially since Bryan Habana was halted a metre short from the line from scoring the winning try after the hooter. Even more disappointing is that it happened RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME. Hot damn.
This is all the information I have. I can’t give you anything more. Stop looking at me like that! What? No! I won’t E-Mail you topless photos of me! Just leave me alone.