Thursday, November 22, 2012

Ireland go Puma hunting, and if you're from the North, avert your eyes now

He's back! (picture http://bit.ly/UVvx0k)

What a mess of scheduling they’ve made of the matches again! You wait three months for a quality international match to come along, then suddenly three come at once.

Ireland go hunting to try and bag a Puma this weekend. Puma concolor is a large cat of the family Felidae native to the Americas – although let’s face it, they seem to have acclimatised to Europe and the fat salaries in France in particular pretty well. Primary food sources include ungulates such as deer, elk, moose, and bighorn sheep, as well as domestic cattle, horses and sheep and Irishmen.  Yes, at critical time their diet definitely includes Irishman.

Over the years, particularly at the World Cup, the Argentineans have made an irritating habit of beating us when it really counted. And they are in a bit of form at the moment, having spent the last couple of months playing Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, not disgracing themselves, and then beating Wales. Ok, they got beaten by France, but if anyone is battle hardened it’s them.

Wales tried to steamroller them and it went pear shaped for them, as they the Pumas don’t give up and can’t really be bullied. We can’t bully them so how are we going to beat them? Declan Kidney obviously feels that wings are key to our success, as half our team seems to be wings now. We have wings on the wings, wings in the centre, and wings at full back. If we get dry weather, and a bit of space, we could score lots of trys. We could get dry weather, but no space from the Pumas, and I hope those wings can catch high balls, as they will get lots of practice. I’m excited to see Gilroy in the team, hope his tackling and catching is on top form, and I’d loved to have seen Marshall or Cave come in at centre.  And the result is going to be… a win for Ireland, but you’ll have to watch through your fingers. Lot’s of passion from us anyway.Actually, I was wondering, do you think Wales could play us instead of Argentina? The Cardiff crowd would be treated to a classic NZ Pumas match, and we’d have a pretty good chance of bagging some points.

South Africa haven’t been in great form this tour, but England are not exactly brimming with form themselves after the Aussies knocked the wind out of their sails. South Africa know only brutal, and England brings out the extra brute in them, so I’m going with the Boks.

Scotland should be Tonga, sorry about that Wales, and France Samoa should be a classic, and another good win for France.

And in the Pro 12, Sean O’Brien is getting a start for Leinster– get in!

International Match
Saturday , November 24
Ireland vs Argentina 14:00
England vs South Africa 14:30
Scotland vs Tonga 15:00
France vs Samoa 17:00
Wales vs New Zealand 17:15
Italy vs Australia 18:00

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