Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Bazzo

Buer wrote: »

Larmour is a better defender on his feet than Stockdale. Stockdale is much better under the high ball.

Keenan is a very capable full back but he needs to be more aggressive in how he bosses the back field. I'd like to have seen him own some of those situations where Larmour was struggling. It took him 25-30 minutes to really take that by the scruff and come from deep to demand the catch (which he took cleanly).

Can we carry both Larmour and Stockdale in the back three? I'd put Larmour on the bench for the moment given his lengthy absence and go with Earls on the wing. Earls' experience will help Keenan too if he's getting his first ever start at 15 for Ireland.

This is my thinking too. Both brilliant players but both can be shaky defensively so don't think we can afford to have more than one at a time on the pitch against top teams.

Richie_Rich89

Buer wrote: »

I think POM's hands are brilliant (and underrated) but he isn't really employed as a link man either for Ireland or Munster. He sometimes is deployed on the wing (such as he was when fielding the cross field kick at the weekend) and is sometimes a one out carrier. It's rare to see him operating in that role of getting on the shoulder of the carrier though like a traditional seven or in midfield linking the backs and forwards which we've seen more and more of in recent seasons from teams.

For Leinster's try at the weekend, they scored off a well worked set play. First receiver on the scoring phase was VDF who pulled a nice pass back behind the decoy runner to Byrne. It's not something you really ever see POM do (or maybe asked to do would be more accurate).

He done it for Haley's try against Clermont (1:37 in the video)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrNPGRBIYik

aloooof

Richie_Rich89 wrote: »

He done it for Haley's try against Clermont (1:37 in the video)

He did that on 2nd phase after taking the lineout, too.

KBurke85

Squad named.

https://www.irishrugby.ie/2021/01/25/ireland-squad-named-for-guinness-six-nations-2021/

Have at it.

mfceiling

Louis Friend wrote: »

Stockdale has been an abomination at 15...calamitous errors again and again...I can’t believe that anyone would pick him at fullback again. Larmour is the man.

Yeah Larmour definitely put forward his case for full back after Saturday.

Keenan is the safest bet at 15 from what I've seen. Solid under the high ball and not prone to switching off. Also can offer an attacking threat.

awec

Has he just named 4 props again?

Pudsy33

Is Stockdale injured?

theVersatile

Disappointed for Coombes but delighted for Casey

sydthebeat

no real big surprises

hopefully mcclousky gets some decent game time.

Good to see Conway retained

sydthebeat

sydthebeat wrote: »

no real big surprises

hopefully mcclousky gets some decent game time.

Good to see Conway retained

Stockdale missing is a big surprise

Pudsy33

The IRFU press release just says Stockdale is unavailable

sydthebeat

Deleted User wrote: »

Stockdale missing is a big surprise

have to assume he's still carrying an injury after that munster game

Clegg

Delighted for Ruddock. Been the form back row in Ireland this season. Hope he gets a few starts.

yoursaviour1989

No Stockdale?

Paul Smeenus

Disappointed for O'Sullivan and Coombes.

Stockdale is "not available" according to Farrell.

typhoony

not sure what Casey and Gibson-park have done to deserve places in the Squad, and don't even get me started on Murray whose form has been very patchy to say the least.

P.Walnuts

typhoony wrote: »

not sure what Casey and Gibson-park have done to deserve places in the Squad, and don't even get me started on Murray whose form has been very patchy to say the least.

That's kind of all of our 9s...

yerrahbah

awec wrote: »

Has he just named 4 props again?

I count 5.

Healy, Kilcoyne, Furlong, Porter and O'Toole

aloooof

typhoony wrote: »

not sure what Casey and Gibson-park have done to deserve places in the Squad, and don't even get me started on Murray whose form has been very patchy to say the least.

Murray's form has been much improved since the return, imo. He had his best game in a long time on Saturday.

sydthebeat

typhoony wrote: »

not sure what Casey and Gibson-park have done to deserve places in the Squad, and don't even get me started on Murray whose form has been very patchy to say the least.

:D

hummmm ......

The Inbetween is mine

Daly suddenly becomes a very important player in that squad imo

typhoony

P.Walnuts wrote: »

That's kind of all of our 9s...

Cooney, Marmion, McGrath, Blade. I heard the Argument it was either Murray Or Cooney not both in the same squad but the other 3 surely they are better than Casey and Gibson-Park

typhoony

aloooof wrote: »

Murray's form has been much improved since the return, imo. He had his best game in a long time on Saturday.

Just after Leinster scored their try Munster got into a position between the 10 metre line and 22, Murray opted for the box kick, that summed it up for me.

theVersatile

typhoony wrote: »

Just after Leinster scored their try Munster got into a position between the 10 metre line and 22, Murray opted for the box kick, that summed it up for me.

Do we really need to have this discussion again about tactical decisions and gameplans being the head coaches thing, not Connor going "let's box kick for the craic"?

Also talks about Murray patchy form and suggests Cooney...

Edit:
Also also talks about Murray kicking too much when Cooney is ahead of him in the kicking stats in the Pro14 (in fact last time I checked Cooney was either #1 or #2 for kicks in play, behind/ahead of Carty

typhoony

theVersatile wrote: »

Do we really need to have this discussion again about tactical decisions and gameplans being the head coaches thing, not Connor going "let's box kick for the craic"?

Also talks about Murray patchy form and suggests Cooney...

It kindof does, the Murray of old would have sniped

sydthebeat

typhoony wrote: »

Cooney, Marmion, McGrath, Blade. I heard the Argument it was either Murray Or Cooney not both in the same squad but the other 3 surely they are better than Casey and Gibson-Park

well... no

theyre not

theVersatile

typhoony wrote: »

It kindof does, the Murray of old would have sniped

The Craig Casey of old would have run around like an energiser bunny when he came on. Instead, we saw a continuation of le box. That should tell you clearly that it's not Murray's volition leading to Box Kick City.

aloooof

typhoony wrote: »

It kindof does, the Murray of old would have sniped

Murray had 3-4 snipes where he made good yardage. For example, in the build-up to the try. He's re-introduced that element of his game much more than he had done before lockdown.

Clegg

Would've had Baird in there somewhere. Been playing well for Leinster this season and was part of Ireland's 6 Nations squad last year off the back of a few good performances. Much more proven player this year. We've a strong second row however so no real complaints

thomond2006

33 year old Cian Healy and 32 year old Dave Kilcoyne will be in the 23 then. Not great in the medium to long term.

I thought Coombes would sneak in but they've opted for Ruddock.

Casey being named as one of three SHs is a surprise.