Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

That's true. My point is that the competition for the jersey in Leinster is nuts. The depth is incredible. 3 very very good players! Competing for the 8 shirt. The standards are high.

Conan may have had a drop off in form. He's been in the squad for yonks and is trusted. Coombes hasn't achieved this yet. Nor has Deegan.

I suppose my point is that the assumption keeps coming back to Coombes being next cab off the rank, but nothing we've seen from Farrell actually backs that up. Like, everyone is talking about Coombes v Conan, but Timoney, Prendergast and Deegan have all been capped more recently than Coombes, and if Baird is now a back-row, that's another one in the mix who has been a Farrell favourite.

People keep talking about Conan's form (and that's fair enough) but it's not Conan keeping Coombes from earning caps.

The point I’m making is that there isn’t really anyone (that I’ve seen at least) claiming that Coombes isn’t good enough and shouldn’t be near the team. What people seem to be saying is that while his form is good he still has work to do to get into it.

FFF summed it up well above. People are talking about Coombes being involved ahead of Conan, but he hasn’t been able to get ahead of the guys behind Conan yet. If he hopes to be in the 23 he’s going to need to prove he’s better and more deserving than a list of players. And maybe he can, but that remains to be seen. But for some people a reasonable position like that can’t simply illicit a “I get that and respectfully disagree” type post. It has to illicit a “blind provincialism” type response instead.

What we don’t get is a whole lot of analysis of anything at all. Coombes possess a skill set that few others in the Irish squad do in terms of his carrying. And while he also does have a wider range of skills beyond that, one thing I’ve rarely, if ever, seen from him is the link play and decision making we look for from our back row a lot. Those tip on passes and the decision making ability of when to give them vs when to go out the back. The short line and footwork in contact to exploit gaps and dog legs etc. Now I’ll freely admit that I don’t see as much of Munster as I would like and so possibly have missed things, but he’s never seemed that player to me at all. And if he isn’t then he’ll have trouble getting into an Irish 23 because of how we play and what we want from our back rows.

Either way it is fair to say that the guy has work to do. He was the only one dropped in November despite not being the only one who performed poorly in that NZ A game. So there must be a reason beyond that singular performance that caused that. In as much as we know he is currently behind a good few players in Farrells mind. As you and others have said, there’s no reason why that can’t change, but like Lowe before him, if he has been dropped he’ll have been told what he needs to improve on to get a look in again. If he’s shown he has he’ll get a look in again. If he hasn’t then he won’t. Unlike Lowe we aren’t sure exactly what he has been told to work on so it’s much harder to assess his chances this 6Ns.

But do you think "he stunk the place out so badly, they had to fumigate the RDS after" is akin to "I get that and respectifully disagree"? The point being... it works both ways.

In any case your 3rd paragraph is the interesting point in all of this, and on that note:

Those tip on passes and the decision making ability of when to give them vs when to go out the back. The short line and footwork in contact to exploit gaps and dog legs etc.

Coombes absolutely has that ability; his offloading is excellent, as are his close tip-on passes. He's also significantly improved his footwork before contact, imo. I don't think he has quite the same speed as Conan, but equally Conan doesn't have the same heavy carrying. (Fwiw, I also think Coombes is a significantly better jackal threat).

And Coombes has put in serious workrate with his carries and tackling lately. He even had 2 lineout steals at the weekend playing from the 2nd row. And, I don't think there's another player in Ireland I'd want ahead of him on the ball 5m out.

Either way it is fair to say that the guy has work to do.

I think the point people are making is that, since he was dropped, he has put in a serious shift; he's been in brilliant form. It's entirely possible he has since moved ahead of some guys in Farrell's mind. We'll find out in a few weeks.

I would necessary have POM as an automatic nailed on starter in back row, I think it's the 1 position that we lack is an out and out number 6. Don't get me wrong he is very good but can seem lightweight and goes missing in games but his line out is excellent. I wonder would baird or even Doris move to 6 and put conan back in at 8 work. Anyway ya it's POM's Jersey at the minute and I just hope he proves me wrong but it's great to have quality options as back ups.

Then you have Connors coming back who's our 2nd best 7 after Josh. It'll depend on how much the injuries have taken out of him.

In fairness to Coombes he's going well this season and has been Munsters best Backrow. The NZ XV was the worst I've seen him play but he's bounced back.

An Irish Backrow of 6 Dorris 7 VDF 8 Coombes is probably the form one and would be good to get a look at in a competitive game.

POM and Conan are going well but neither are at their best this season. They both have credit in the bank though which Farrell holds highly. He's a fan of Baird too who's going very well at 6.

Prendergast, Timoney and Deegan will need injuries to see any important game time.

We'll know soon what Farrell is thinking.

I'd imagine for the 6 nations he'll go with Dorris, Josh, Conan, POM, Baird(might be brought as a row) then that only leaves 1 spot. I think he might go with Timoney as he covers across the 3 positions or maybe he'll go Coombes.

Probably because of Dorris, Conan and Deegan! Ridiculous talent at 8 already. I'd imagine he'd fill in fine there though if needed

Penny is a good player. Connors on form is an international class player. Penny could get there. I would think Hodnett is in the mix too.

There's also controlling the ball at the base which is trickier than it looks, especially if the scrum is going backwards(or forwards very quickly).

Conan was very good here at the weekend in a scrum under a lot of pressure.