Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Dick Spring got three caps. JOB is a much better player.

I don't think Hansen has had a good stand out game on the right wing.. pretty sure he hasn't scored from the right wing. Open to correction on that.

Outside of Keenan the competition for the back 3 positions in the World squad will be very interesting.

Hansen has will have a fight on his hands from Lowe, stockdale and even JOB for that left wing slot.

You're quoting a post form 13th October saying "if we were playing in the morning". At the time I think that was correct.

In the meantime 1) Lowry didn't have a great outing vs NZ XV and 2) JOB played brilliantly vs SA.

Them's the breaks. That's absolutely the way selection should work and fair play to JOB for taking his chance. (He wouldn't have even been on the bench but for Henshaw's injury, incidentally).

But it can still have been correct to think, at the time, Lowry was next in line. It seems he's not any more.

I think at the moment, Keenan, Lowe an Hansen are the first choice back-3. After that, it's much less clear who'd be next in line if everyone were fit. It's anyone from Baloucoune, Stockdale, JOB, Conway, Earls, Larmour. (Personally, I'd back Conway to be next up).

I think the wing almost more than any other position, some really good players are going to miss out on the RWC.

Doris was superb! But he wouldn't start for any side in world rugby right now.

I really thought Porter had a great outing. His scrum is improving and he's an absolute unit in the loose.

Savea is in a class of his own tbh

Unfortunate injury for Henshaw. Hopefully he's ok for Australia.

We didn't really learn much from the Fiji game. Treadwell and Timoney are well worth their spot in the squad. Herring is third choice hooker, but a high quality one.

We're hanging all our hopes on Sexton. Carbery didn't really impress during his time in the pitch.

A big issue is Carbery at 10. He just doesn’t get the backline going. And another start against Australia isn’t going to suddenly change that. He’s had plenty of opportunities over the last few years and hasn’t put any pressure on Sexton at all.

I’d love to see Farrell throw Crowley in at 10 against Australia in an otherwise full strength team. Carbery will always be a decent back up to Sexton but we need more than that. If Crowley goes well, suddenly we’ve built a bit of depth and he’ll probably get a few more immediate opportunities as first choice Munster 10. If not, we can still revert to Carbery and Crowley goes back to compete with Healy and Carbery. He

Farrel playing 4D chess here(isn't chess and everything else 4D?), Go hard on the lads after a win, going hard after a defeat is just confidence sapping

I’d love to see Farrell throw Crowley in at 10 against Australia

On what basis?

He was serviceable and no more against a 13/14 man Fiji team. He has no track record worth talking about at Munster.

We need some perspective here.

Exactly my reasoning. It’s a gamble but why not take it? We know what Carbery can do. More game-time isn’t going to make a difference. If Crowley played, was solid defensively and kicked his goals, suddenly he’s an option. He doesn’t have to do anything fancy. That’s where the bar ia at.

By the way I’d say the same with Frawley if he could stay fit or Healy. If Carbery goes down, who is 3rd choice right now?

Wasn’t a lesson after the last World Cup that the 3rd choice Carty had never started for us before the game against Japan?

Jack Crowley is 23 in 2 months. He‘s physically developed enough for profesional rugby and looks like a good enough and confident enough to do as good of a job as Carbery has been turning in. Give him a chance. I think he’ll swim and we need options at 10 urgently.

Let's see how it goes against Australia but overall so far I couldn't be happier with this series of matches. The performance against SA was very good. Losing Murray and McCloskey, who had both been brilliant in defense, after half an hour at 3-3 might have been a bigg blow. A word for Murray, he covered a huge amount of ground in the passage after he got injured before play stopped. It was touchline to touchline for a lot of phases in real discomfort but he got to the rucks and made good passes every time.

The match was a battle and Ireland handled it well, South Africa's shooters destroyed our passing patterns in the first half but we looked very comfortable in broken and turnover play, that's happened over the last 2 years. Sexton wasn't allowed to dominate the game at all and we won the match because of that heads up facility. This SA team might have strangled us and they'll be better at it come the World Cup. Winning that match while seeing the areas that need improvement was a best possible outcome. Fiji game also very valuable in giving the wider squad a game which showed that while we have good players our depth isn't where it needs to be in terms of performance. I really liked Farrell going a bit Keano on the players afterwards ('some lads won't be happy'), it really wasn't good enough and it raised real question about our depth in onfield leadership. And for Similar reasons Ireland A getting a shellacking from the excellent kiwis was a useful experience for the wider squad.

So everyone talking up France instead of Ireland suits us because the team's mindset needs to be focussed on continuing to improve and build on what's working and fix the stuff that isn't. Ireland aren't the finished article because SA, France and to a lesser extent the ABs, have shown how to beat us. It's more than just refining and fine tuning a system, which is where we were going into the 6N before the last world cup.