Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

have to say i agree. much as from an ireland perspective i hope hes available, from a neutral and fan of the game perspective i hope the book gets throw at him unless he can be proved 100% innocent. too much of this sort of nonsense is creeping into the game, be it fans or players, and it needs to be stamped out before rugby becomes too much like soccer

It was a concern of mine when he initially got the captaincy, but I don't think you can take it off him at this late stage. But it would be a worry if we got Peyper, say, reffing a game in the RWC...

I wouldn't like to see him stripped but it's a genuine concern. The whole thing is a mess. I'd say Farrell is raging.

Are you seriously trying to compare what Sexton did, to what Erasmus did? They are not even remotely similar. So no I don’t think the people who were quick to call out Erasmus for orchestrating social media campaigns against referees and for making hour long videos criticizing referees. In the cold light of day, not in the immediate heat of a game. Will see Sexton being a dick and saying something (we don’t know what yet) to a referee as being anywhere near the same thing. While still being disappointed in Sexton for being an idiot and bringing both himself and his club into disrepute.

Seriously the disgusting attitude of a certain section of Irish fans being shown up by this, would turn your stomach.

Sexton is alleged to have called the officiating team "a **** disgrace". What's more, he was a non playing member of the club on the day and shouldn't have been anywhere near them. Directly abusing the officiating team like that is far worse than what Erasmus did. Erasmus insinuated incompetency and undermined their authority. Sexton, if what has been alleged is true, directly accused them of incompetency at best (and that's a generous interpretation). You also have to consider that he's one of the most high profile players in the world. It's a terrible look for a player in that kind of position to use abusive language towards officials.

There's also the possible consequences his actions might have on his teammates. Sexton is vital to Ireland's chances at the World Cup. If he's out because of his behaviour then he's let his whole team down. Sexton being on the field is far more important to Ireland than Rassie being in the coach's box is to South Africa.

Only one player that should be captain and its Ringrose.

Is that an elaborate way of saying Ringrose?!

If we're looking at long term captains, I wouldn't be surprised to see Doris in the mix in the next couple of years along with Ryan but it's very hard to know, really.

But I think we need a lot more than that anyway. Leadership takes different forms and I think Ireland (and Leinster) suffers from having multiple quiet people in the team. The likes of Aki and Lowe bring a lot to the field purely through personality if not actual smart decision making and tactical awareness. It's hard to find a player who has the combination of emotional intelligence, tactical awareness and communication ability (both in terms of being vocal during play and able to speak to the referees).

Within the Irish set up, POM and Sexton probably are the closest thing to that. POM more so particularly after Sexton's recent actions. But I don't think there's another within the set up like that. Some have certain elements but not others. Then there have been guys who have the full package like Billy Holland or Ross Molony but they don't have the outright ability to be in the Irish set up.

After the two elder lemons mentioned above, I don't think there's a single guy in the entire squad that jumps out as the obvious captain. It will be Ryan as he's the closest and has shown capacity to develop his style and game so far but it really is a gap in our squad.

Hasn't Peyper said he didn't hear Sexton say anything? If so, what's the evidence against Sexton?

I can't see anything coming of it.

I rate Ringrose as having leadership smarts but I don't think it comes naturally to him in terms of being vocal and being someone everyone turns to in the huddle. From a Leinster perspective, that seems to be far more Ross Byrne/Molony.

Absolutely one for the leadership group but I'd have my doubts about him as a captain in big pressure situations. As far as I know, he was the on field captain for the last 55 minutes against La Rochelle and I don't think he really stepped up there.

I hope he has a better defense for what was said than your offering.