Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

If any winger made those glaring defensive errors like lowe did they wouldnt see the squad again.

Its baffling that lowe is back there.

Thought there were some interesting selections when I seen the squad. But did not expect the complete uproar there has been over it.

Lowe I'm surprised to see but not disappointed to see. Definitely his last opportunity to come good at this level but he's well capable of doing it and he could be a pretty useful player to have over the next few years if things work out for him. He's in decent form for Leinster this season too.

JGP I don't have an issue with. I thought he was excellent when he played for Ireland previously. I understand frustrations about not giving game time to younger players but it's not exactly the travesty people are making out.

Looking forward to the game!

Now this is how it should be done. “I don’t agree with the selection, but I’ve made an attempt to understand it as opposed to just outright ridicule it”.

Japan will definitely stretch Lowe defensively, so we'll get a pretty good idea if his previous mistakes were a poor run of form, or something more fundamental. Also hope for Lowe that Farrell and Catt will have put some better attacking structures together so we can get the best out of him going forward.

Drico mentioning it's a big season for Garry Ringrose as well. Hopefully he can put his injury issues behind him and push onto the next level.

" ignoring of connacht players like TOH, buckley, muldoon over the years, munster players like zebo, ulster players like ballacoune. Name one leinster player that should have but wasnt included and you might be able to refute my point."

Balacoune, I agree but he had some bad luck timing wise with injuries didn't he? And he's in the squad now isn't he?

You are having a laugh with the other names though. I know Zebo is back and he's very lucky he is with his self centred attitude.

Luke McGrath and Rhys Ruddock.

If you're going to list guys like Muldoon and TOH, how about Conan before Gatland picked him as a lion being left out for years? What about young guys like Penny and Josh Murphy who have never been involved.

The idea that Farrell who has no connection with leinster is biased towards them is complete horse **** from "fans" who are bitter about leinsters success in recent years. Maybe Leinster just have better players?

One thing I'd have a small concern about is that we'll miss CJ's physically, particularly in the aspect of his ability to stop guys dead behind the gainline. The guys we have are all quality back-rows, but I'm not sure any of them have the same strength in the tackle.

Josh Murphy? There's no way he's anywhere near Irish inclusion, imo.

You're saying there is a Leinster bias because Lowe is picked. Why would Farrell have a bias towards leinster?

McGrath is still a superior player to Murray and Casey and is left out. Is that a Munster bias then?

CJ and POM played a load of stinkers and were always retained ahead of Ruddock and Conan, is that a bias towards munster?

There is no bias in this setup. Maybe Farrell has his favourites, fair enough, but that's not a bias towards a club

He was in his very early career, some of that at 13. But Lowe is 29. He has less time to turn it around. And Earls long been a defensive lynchpin for years and years since.

Ever seen him play? He's good enough to be called into the wider squad. Im not suggesting he'd be involved in a 23, but with all this bullshit about leaving out X young munster lad or Y young connacht lad I'm making the point that there are young leinster lads too who aren't included in these squads

Hopefully someone will be able to make up for all those lost 0.5m carries we'll lose with cj bejng gone