Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

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.

Delighted for Jamie Osborne. He's been in great form this season and deserves inclusion. It's a big blow that Henshaw is out however.

Earls and Stockdale being in is a big surprise to me. Neither have the form.

Don't get Earls inclusion at all

Is Treadwell injured? He has been a selected pretty consistently by Farrell for a while now so I'm a bit surprised he isn't included.

Absolutely not

Nick Timoney isn't in the squad either. There's no cover for openside at all in the event VDF picks up an injury. It's not an issue selecting a replacement in that event, but I would have thought we'd have brought another 7.