Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Russell wouldn't even be in the squad. Ireland wouldn't put up with his disciplinary/attitude issues.

Conversely, if he was playing for Ireland and knew he wouldn't get away with it, he probably wouldn't act the dick to the same extent.

(On pure ability, he'd definitely be there)

Tackler committed is enough. Outside defenders know they have a decision to make. Rb is not quick but he's strong enough to make the gain line. Front foot ball.

You don't have to be Usain bolt to concern defenders. Drag them in.

Plus he's a good defender. Not going to be worried about the back three of the scrum running at him. He'll at least slow them down. That is all that is needed.

Perfect 10, certainly not. Good enough for 2nd in Ireland, certainly.

Did he go out drinking and break team protocols during Covid?

I hope he does for his own health. He owes us absolutely nothing. I didn't think a player could surpass bod, but I'm in two minds now.

IMHO BOD is well in the rear mirror. Sexton is the greatest ever Irish player.

Sometimes at Under 20 you can just see that a player has it. Doesn't mean that there aren't others at that level who can and will also go on to have excellent international careers, but sometimes, every few years, you just have someone where it's obvious that they're a level above.

Despite the success of the Ireland Under 20s across the last five years in the six nations I've generally seen a lot of potentially capable future internationals but, before this group, no one absolute standout. But I do see it in Prendergast, he is just a level above. As much as there's an argument about who replaces Sexton after the World Cup, I think it's only going to be an argument for about a year.

In the professional era we've gone relatively seamlessly at 10 from Elwood to Humphreys to O'Gara to Sexton. There has always been the next one there waiting to take over, usually with a couple of years of crossover during the transition. This time it looks like there will be a brief gap. But beyond that gap I'm as convinced as it's possible to be about an underage player that Prendergast will then take over the jersey long term.

Jack Crowley was outstanding in the U20s too.

https://twitter.com/Munsterrugby/status/1223347456043253760?t=Q_hRpQyP2A0uVMnYqeq2sg&s=19

From memory Jonny Sexton wasn't outstanding at U20s (or U21s as I think it was when he played).

I remember watching him play Wales at U21 level and thinking I'd just seen a future Lions 10...that was James Hook rather than Sexton!

That's one of our great victories considering the circumstances. So many injuries up front and especially with no recognized hookers.

Next week will be a huge challenge however. Sheehan, Kelleher, Doris, Henderson and Ringrose will most likely be missing and England will want to make amends for their humiliation against France.

That was a really impressive win given the circumstances. I thought we were toast 6 or 7 minutes into the second half.

The mental strength of this team is exceptional.

I guess we'll see if any of the injured players today are available next week. Given Doris and Kelleher played on for a bit then maybe they were impact injuries that the physio can deal with?

Did Doris get injured when he went for the ball off the quick lineout that led to the disallowed try? I thought it was a questionable enough challenge on him.

Hansen and Lowe were exceptional today. Gibson Park makes such a massive difference to the team and how good was Conan when he came on!

The injuries might help focus minds this week though and instil a little bit of fear which is no bad thing in my opinion.

Reminds after the France victory at WC '15 , the dfference this time we have strength in depth, England will be up for it given yesterday humiliation , expect a tougher game than today.

Even with injuries we can still get a very good side out

Porter, Herring (Sheehan may be ok), Furlong

Ryan, Baird

O'Mahony, Conan (sounds like Doris is ok), Van Der Flier

Gibson Park, Sexton

Aki, Henshaw

Lowe, Keenan, Hansen

Questions about the bench obviously

Who covers hooker if Herring starts? Big game for Stewart to make his debut in so I suspect they'd go for Heffernen.

Who is second row cover? Treadwell maybe? McCarthy? Maloney?

Presumably Coombes move to the bench if Conan starts and McCloskey probably wears 23.

So hooker cover and second row cover are the big areas of concern but that's because we are down to 4th choice picks. Pretty much any team in the world would be into the unknown or inexperienced in that scenario.

VDF, POM and Baird deserve a lot of credit for our lineout performance once we lost both recognised hookers. The latter both possess an excellent jump and can get off the ground so quickly. Scotland knew exactly where we'd throw, but the two lads were up so fast that they couldn't steal the lineout.

Why didn't Scotland just throw someone up at 2 every single time from the moment they saw VDF throwing?

We probably stole as many of their lineouts in that second half. VDF and O'Mahony were immense, the lifters too. The whole lineout unit really stepped up to the plate.