Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Stockdale will be glad to hear that Matsushima is playing 15

yerrahbah

Coombes

I wouldn't even mind if Baloucoune or Hume were on the bench.

But Shane Daly...why?!

molloyjh

salmocab wrote: »

Does this not happen before all these games, people build up all the new players starting and then when they aren’t are surprised?

There's normally a bit more integration of new caps into the team. Coombes is the only uncapped player in the 23. We're missing about a dozen guys too. That's disappointing in my book. There's room to throw in someone like O'Toole in there.

Is that pretty much full strength? No Sexton I guess. I'm happy to see the best team out to beat Japan. They looked good last week.

yerrahbah

TRC10 wrote: »

I wouldn't even mind if Baloucoune or Hume were on the bench.

But Shane Daly...why?!

Why not?

The fact that John Ryan (33) is playing in a summer test in a Lions year vs Japan actually has me in tears.

They've invested so much in O'Toole and Japan aren't a scrummaging powerhouse. It's the perfect opportunity to look at him

It's blatant fear from Farrell.

yerrahbah

Good to see Ryan's injury wasn't too bad.

That's a really mobile Irish pack.

Could make for an entertaining game

Trey13

I was very critical of Farrell for not bringing through more players during the 2020 Six Nations and Autumn Nations Cup but I must say I am happy with how things are progressing since then. Aside from John Ryan’s selection I think he’s got a good balance of experience and inexperience. Certain players like Keenan, Doris, Gibson Park, Kelleher are still relatively new to the international scene. It’s also an opportunity for players like Kilcoyne or JDF to step up and take leadership roles.

The bench looks good with a lot of players with few caps so I’m happy for them to get a run out again. While I enjoy seeing newcomers I don’t think we should play every uncapped player for the sake of it. There will be more scope to bring in fresh players against the USA. Japan deserve our respect.

Dubinusa

Ugh! As expected. No liathroids by AF. I'm happy to see Coombes. Very conservative team selection. Oh well, a slew of new caps v the Eagles. Which of course, will not be a good look at the uncapped players.

Squidgy Black

Can't entirely blame Farrell to be honest, Japan looked good against the Lions and have already played two games this summer.

tobdom

shootermacg wrote: »

Can't argue with selection really. Needed VDF at openside and the two centres will cut a lot of attack out at source. Coombes and Baird to come of f the bench and cause havoc.

A lot of our own attack....

TRC10 wrote: »

I wouldn't even mind if Baloucoune or Hume were on the bench.

But Shane Daly...why?!

Daly can cover FB, wing and centre. Really, you're just being lazy now.

I love the way some of you guys would take a few green players, throw them together and expect to beat Japan, the same team that beat is in the quarters.

This is rugby not top trumps.

shootermacg wrote: »

Daly can cover FB, wing and centre. Really, you're just being lazy now.

There's enough versatile players there to sort it out if there's injuries.

Larmour could be moved to 15 if Keenan gets injured. And he can cover 13 in an emergency (England 2018)

Hume can play 12,13 or wing.

Baloucoune and Hume both have a much higher ceiling than Daly and both are starters for their province (which Daly isn't)

shootermacg wrote: »

Daly can cover FB, wing and centre. Really, you're just being lazy now.

And he's young and very talented I'm unsure why he's an issue

Dave_The_Sheep

Am I the only one who doesn't really care if we lose this match? Sure, it would be nice to beat Japan and I'm sure we can, but are these tests not designed to play around a bit and blood a few new players? If not now, when?

sprucemoose

shootermacg wrote: »

Japan, the same team that beat is in the quarters.

im gonna be that guy and just point out that they beat ireland in the pool stage not the QF

Dave_The_Sheep wrote: »

Am I the only one who doesn't really care if we lose this match? Sure, it would be nice to beat Japan and I'm sure we can, but are these tests not designed to play around a bit and blood a few new players? If not now, when?

I mean you likely don't care until there's a bad performance and we lose and then your up in arms right?

shootermacg wrote: »

I love the way some of you guys would take a few green players, throw them together and expect to beat Japan, the same team that beat is in the quarters.

This is rugby not top trumps.

Nobody is saying we shouldn't respect Japan.

But come on, 1 new cap on the bench when 8 players are away with the Lions and Healy, Sexton and Earls are being rested is incredibly underwhelming and conservative and reeks of fear from the coach.

sprucemoose wrote: »

im gonna be that guy and just point out that they beat ireland in the pool stage not the QF

Apologies

Of course you're right. We've never made it that far, with our best selections

Dave_The_Sheep

nerd69 wrote: »

I mean you likely don't care until there's a bad performance and we lose and then your up in arms right?

Not particularly, no. That's not really my style.

But in any case, I said 'lose' not 'play badly'.

clsmooth

shootermacg wrote: »

I love the way some of you guys would take a few green players, throw them together and expect to beat Japan, the same team that beat is in the quarters.

This is rugby not top trumps.

TRC10 wrote: »

Nobody is saying we shouldn't respect Japan.

But come on, 1 new cap on the bench when 8 players are away with the Lions and Healy, Sexton and Earls are being rested is incredibly underwhelming and conservative and reeks of fear from the coach.

The same people will be here for the post mortem screaming bloody murder.

TRC10 wrote: »

There's enough versatile players there to sort it out if there's injuries.

Larmour could be moved to 15 if Keenan gets injured. And he can cover 13 in an emergency (England 2018)

Hume can play 12,13 or wing.

Baloucoune and Hume both have a much higher ceiling than Daly and both are starters for their province (which Daly isn't)

Daly's about 23 and a good enough athlete that he's played international 7s what kind of upside are you looking for

molloyjh

I wouldn't change too much of the squad tbh. But there are still a couple of areas that I'm disappointed by. Ryan on the bench being one. He's 33. He's currently 4th choice at best. If we are really considering moving Porter to LH then we need to be looking at our options there. O'Toole should be more than able to come off the bench in this one.

Daly ahead of Balacoune is another one. Daly is a fine player and probably does offer coverage across centre, wing and FB, but Larmour offers that too. For me Balacoune is the better player and should be on there.

I dont think I'd change anything else, although I would wrestle a bit with that centre combination. I dont see it offering a whole lot tbh but happy to be proven wrong there. Hume is the obvious choice at 13 but he is very inexperienced so I get why he wasn't selected.

sprucemoose

TRC10 wrote: »

Baloucoune and Hume both have a much higher ceiling than Daly and both are starters for their province (which Daly isn't)

Daly is a very talented player and is fairly underrated, definitely deserves his selection

having said that, there is a very good chance he will see limited game time for munster from now on since zebo is back. similarly, if addison stays fit for any length of time then id imagine hume will be in a similar position.

molloyjh wrote: »

If we are really considering moving Porter to LH

i dont think thats being considered outside of the media to be honest

molloyjh wrote: »

Daly ahead of Balacoune is another one. Daly is a fine player and probably does offer coverage across centre, wing and FB, but Larmour offers that too. For me Balacoune is the better player and should be on there.

balacoune will most likely get a full game next week while daly will be on the bench again at most id imagine.

shootermacg wrote: »

The same people will be here for the post mortem screaming bloody murder.

We should be able to beat Japan at home, while also giving more than 1 new cap and without a bloody 33 year old tighthead on the bench.

molloyjh

TRC10 wrote: »

Nobody is saying we shouldn't respect Japan.

But come on, 1 new cap on the bench when 8 players are away with the Lions and Healy, Sexton and Earls are being rested is incredibly underwhelming and conservative and reeks of fear from the coach.

I think fear is reaching more than a little bit. I'd have preferred to have seen more debutants but even 4 years ago we only had 2 debutants in our first game vs Japan. And one of those was Rory O'Loughlin. So it's not massively more conservative than we're used to.