Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

I'd agree with that; it's worth pointing out that one of his starts was actually under Farrell, albeit it was in the November of Farrell's first year and thing hadn't started to click in attack yet. But ya, that's pretty much exactly what I meant by the following:

 and our attack has improved a lot since then, so if he is called in, I'd expect him to be a lot better than his previous showings demonstrated.

I think there's no doubt he deserves to be ahead of guys he was previously behind in the shape of Burns, Carty, Harry Byrne anyways. (It's notable tho that Farrell selected all those guys ahead of him at one point or another; all players with a better running threat, imo).

Ya, I don't see them being ahead of him now. But they've all been ahead of him in the past.

I think it gives some indication of the type of 10 Farrell is looking for.

Gerry Thornley saying RB will be called up as well as Crowley.

Harry isn't near the team. His goal should be to get minutes and game time under his belt. I've no idea if he's going to be a good out half. I'd say Crowley at least has shown some good physical traits.

Carty is nowhere near the level. Burns is under rated. He's a running threat but, his kicking isn't great. RB probably does deserve an opportunity. I don't think he's at the level either. But he'd be grand off the bench.

Not to open another can of worms but... what do people think constitutes a successful 6 Nations this year?

When you look at what we achieved last year (triple crown, series win in NZ, November clean sweep, getting to no.1 in the world ranking and retaining it through November) and you look at our fixture list (England and France at home), if we're serious about building on those achievements and being considered genuine world cup contenders, not a team who peaks when everyone else is at their weakest, a Grand Slam is the minimum for me. Anything less than that and you'd have to say we've gone backwards.

That's not to say another triple crown wouldn't be a "good" 6N. One could argue that that would be a successful 6N and traditionally for Irish rugby, it would be, and if we're satisfied with that than fair enough. But I think if we seriously want to sit at the top table, we need to go out there and back up what we did last year, play as well as we did in NZ last summer and prove that we aren't just a team who has one good year every world cup cycle who invariably flops when everyone else is peaking. Winning a GS in a world cup year would be a huge statement that we aren't peaking too early again and we're here to compete at the world cup.

The match I'm by far the most nervous about, is Wales on day one (more so than France at home). If we can come away from Cardiff with a win, I think we'll win the slam.

I for one am shocked that the minimum you’d accept is the maximum that can be achieved. Shocked I say. I’d never have guessed you give no room at all for error or misfortune.

Also, to say that going from a Triple Crown to a non-GS championship win is going backwards seems somewhat disingenuous.

I think we have the players and the form to win this Six Nations. We're the number 1 ranked side in the world for a reason after all.

My one concern is that Wales and England are big unknowns now. New coaching systems and presumably new players means we won't have much data on them, whereas Ireland's attacking structure has been analysed to the smallest detail. They could spring a surprise on us.