BOD racks up century
9 Mar 2010
Keo.co.za brings you the latest news from the Six Nations.
BOD racks up century
Brian O’Driscoll will play his 100th Test for Ireland against Wales in Dublin on Saturday.
The Ireland captain played his 100th Test against Australia last year after also turning out for the Lions.
The side remains unchanged to the one that defeated England, with only Rob Kearney coming onto the bench.
Meanwhile, Wales have lost their captain Ryan Jones to a calf injury. Martyn Williams will lead the side and Gareth Delve will play No 8.
Lock Luke Charteris comes in for the injured Deiniol Jones and Matthew Rees starts at hooker for the first time in the Six Nations.
Ireland - 15 Geordan Murphy, 14 Tommy Bowe, 13 Brian O’Driscoll (c), 12 Gordon D’Arcy, 11 Keith Earls, 10 Jonathan Sexton, 9 Tomas O’Leary, 8 Jamie Heaslip, 7 David Wallace, 6 Stephen Ferris, 5 Paul O’Connell, 4 Donncha O’Callaghan, 3 John Hayes, 2 Rory Best, 1 Cian Healy.
Subs: 16 Sean Cronin, 17 Tony Buckley, 18 Leo Cullen, 19 Shane Jennings, 20 Eoin Reddan, 21 Ronan O’Gara, 22 Rob Kearney.
Wales - 15 Lee Byrne, 14 Leigh Halfpenny, 13 James Hook, 12 Jamie Roberts, 11 Shane Williams, 10 Stephen Jones, 9 Richie Rees, 8 Gareth Delve, 7 Martyn Williams (c), 6 Jonathan Thomas, 5 Luke Charteris, 4 Bradley Davies, 3 Adam Jones, 2 Matthew Rees, 1 Paul James.
Subs: 16 Huw Bennett, 17 Rhys Gill, 18 Ian Gough, 19 Sam Warburton, 20 Dwayne Peel, 21 Andrew Bishop, 22 Tom Shanklin
Worsley to start for England
Martin Johnson has made two changes to his team to face Scotland in the Calcutta Cup match on Saturday.
Worsley will win his first start of the Six Nations as he replaces Lewis Moody, while Louis Deacon comes in for the injured Simon Shaw. Johnson has made three changes to his bench as Ben Youngs replaces Paul Hodgson, Courtney Lawes is called up, and Steve Thompson replaces Lee Mears.
Meanwhile, Scotland have made one change with centre Nick de Luca winning a spot ahead of Simon Danielli.
England – D Armitage (London Irish); M Cueto (Sale), M Tait (Sale), R Flutey (Brive), U Monye (Harlequins); J Wilkinson (Toulon), D Care (Harlequins); T Payne (Wasps), D Hartley (Northampton), D Cole (Leicester); L Deacon (Leicester), S Borthwick (Saracens, captain); J Haskell (Stade Francais), J Worsley (Wasps), N Easter (Harlequins).
Subs: S Thompson (Brive), D Wilson (Bath), C Lawes (Northampton), L Moody (Leicester), B Youngs (Leicester), T Flood (Leicester), B Foden (Northampton).
Scotland – H Southwell (Stade Francais); S Lamont (Scarlets), N De Luca (Edinburgh), G Morrison (Glasgow), M Evans (Glasgow); D Parks (Glasgow), C Cusiter (Glasgow, captain); A Jacobsen (Edinburgh), R Ford (Edinburgh), E Murray (Northampton); J Hamilton (Edinburgh), A Kellock (Glasgow); K Brown (Glasgow), J Barclay (Glasgow), J Beattie (Glasgow).
Subs: S Lawson (Gloucester), G Cross (Edinburgh), N Hines (Leinster), A MacDonald (Edinburgh), R Lawson (Gloucester), P Godman (Edinburgh), S Danielli (Ulster).
Fourie called up for Poms
Martin Johnson has called up another foreigner to his squad, as South African Hendre Fourie joined the team on Monday.
The Burgersdorp-born 30-year-old has played for England Saxons against Italy A last month, but is unlikely to play against Scotland this weekend and was called up as a precautionary measure due to Dan Ward-Smith’s injury.
Fourie has played for Rotherham and now Leeds, and is another foreigner in England’s elite player squad alongside New Zealanders Riki Flutey, Dylan Hartley and Shontayne Hape.
This thread will be updated throughout the day…
8 Comments
9 Mar 2010, 10:16 am
Scratching the barrel for Dragons
9 Mar 2010, 13:37 pm
As an irish girl we are rubbing our hands and laughing at the fact that the mighty england have to resort to these kinds of tactics to field a competive team, even more funny is that they are still strugglging to beat teams in the top 7 or 8 of the IRB rankings…
it was great to read the media here in london talk up their chances of a 6N grand slam though!!!
9 Mar 2010, 13:48 pm
@Maria: check the 6N table
9 Mar 2010, 14:38 pm
@scar: If they decided to dip into their own barrel, they’d probably have better results. Mercernaries will never add anything to a national team, unless they’re exceptioal players – Flutey, et al, are not exceptional players. I know many would disagree with me, but I think players should only be allowed to represent the country in which they were born. There’d definitely be more dedication…
9 Mar 2010, 15:34 pm
@SimiJan: A question then of which empty barrel they scrape!!
10 Mar 2010, 01:24 am
Its amazing how some players deserve their 100 caps, while others do not.
10 Mar 2010, 08:13 am
BOD definitely deserves 100 caps, for years he was a 1 man team for Ireland. Has never been in the team because of reputation or lack of competition and has been in the “world class” category now for at least 10 years. Chris Patterson and John Hayes however….
10 Mar 2010, 14:22 pm
@SimiJan:
I agree. Flutey for example is only playing for England becase he was living there for years so qualified. As soon as he starts playing for England he moved off to France.
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