Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

I did read your post, thank you for your polite response. The fact that there is two years between now and the World Cup does not explain how Flannery and Crowley, sitting behind Joey and Ben Healy, are going to get the minutes that would allow them to become competitors for this position.

I take your points, but think that as the consequences of the reduced fixture schedule for the provinces become clearer, many players are going to have to reassess where they can realistically play first team rugby, a prerequisite to being part of the Ireland equation. Crowley's rejection of O'Gara's overtures might have been heartening to the Munster faithful, but I'm not sure it was a good idea.

I thought ROG wrote in his own article that Crowley himself turned him down, no? I don't remember it being reported that the deal was blocked?

Crowley may well squeeze his way into the Munster starting team, He has the size / physicality that Joey lacks and the running game that Healy has yet to seriously show.

Yes and he was the only player on the pitch to come out of it looking good.

Anyone hear if the Argentina match could be affected by our new mini lockdown.

Crowley and Flannery are in a very tough place! Carberry is an international and 1st choice at Munster and Healy is the back up. It will be tougher for them as there's less games this season. They should get minutes in S.A during the upcoming tour. But, it's likely that they will see very little time! If Healy travels, he will start at least 1 match.

I think a move to another province on a loan basis would help. Ulster or Connacht would be ideal, imo.

Don’t see why Carty would leave tbh. Realistically he has a good chance of going to a second World Cup, regardless of what most people here think.

sexton is at an age where you can’t guarantee his fitness and will have to be looked after minutes wise. Carberys injury record has shown nothing to say he’ll be fit in two years time. his form is also questionable.

carty, Burns and R Byrne could all be considered similar levels but as Carty has been called up ahead of the other two, would suggest he’s top of that picking order. Six nations time will show a lot in this regard.

Then you have H Byrne, Crowley, flannery and healy. By Healy, none of these have the minutes at senior level to suggest they are anywhere near test standard. With the URC schedule not exactly being friendly to promoting younger players, they have a very fine time frame to impress before World Cup warm up games. Obviously in an ideal world two of these plays could really push on for the rest of the season.

Ryan starting might mean we're looking at a pretty strong line-up rather than wholesale changes.

While I agree with your point that Carty is at a stage in his career where a big money offer would tempt him, going by this insight from Muldoon in 2010 it would probably need to be a good bit more than 100k to make him think seriously about it.