Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

This is why people don't come here anymore

Ah in fairness

A) Peyper wasn't that bad

B) there very much is a review process for referee performance

C) abusing the guy (if that's what happened) isn't going to achieve anything once the game is over

If the reports are accurate, the only guilty party here is Sexton.

EPCR are in a real bind here. If they ban him, IRFU will want to know what motivated them to open this investigation weeks after the match. If they don't ban him, the South Africans will claim it's yet more evidence of a conspiracy against them.

There is something that seems dodgy about this having taken so long to be dealt with. If it was in season it would have been the following week. The delay has allowed it to be built up.

I'd love BigBok's take on all of this... 😊

Think there’s only pictures of him in the gym and not on the pitch though? To take the bibs in training logic the next level, every player is wearing a navy/green piece of clothing, apart from Osbourne, who’s in bright orange. Could mean he’s on a recovery schedule program and not training with the squad or more likely could mean nothing at all

From the pictures. There are a few of Farrell specifically talking to the half backs. 4 scrum halves and 4 out halves. Frawley is in this group. So you'd imagine if Sexton is ruled out he is 3rd choice ahead of bringing in another outhalf.

Wasn't there a SH ref abused recently? Saw some stuff online about it. Not by a player but by fans I think. That would have me a bit worried that the powers that be might make an example of Sexton, this sort of thing is creeping into the game. One look at the match thread here on the day would back that up.

It was very idiotic of Sexton to approach the refs on the day, let alone have his say. He does have a petulant streak that goes against him at times.

You know not of the God of War and Horticulture. Your judgment shall likely not be in this lifetime, though keep an eye out for greenfly all the same.

But yeah, right now it looks like once JS and POM are gone, it'll be the Ryan era. And to be fair to him, he has grown more into that leadership role you describe in recent years.

One I really fancy for the future is Jack Crowley. There's a few videos in the Access Munster content that follow him around in particular, and he is very mature for his age. In one video he's showing these young kids around the training ground and you can immediately see a guy who has very strong emotional intelligence, and went out of his way to build a rapport with these nervous, shy kids. There's another video with behind-the-scenes footage before the URC final in cape town, and you can see that he is already part of the leadership group, giving team talks in the build-up sessions during the week. Kendellen is another, though competition in the backrow could limit his gametime, even at Munster, let alone Ireland.

I'd be less familiar with who might be coming through the Leinster pipeline. Doris is obviously a magnificent player, but would he be more the "lead by example" type, that wouldn't quite fit with the leadership qualities you mention? That said, he might grow into it. Would I be right to say that by the end of his career SOB had become a far more vocal leader, in contrast to a more "head down", "do the work" player earlier on? Any time I've heard Andrew Porter speak he has always impressed me. Has he ever been considered? He'd certainly be in the upper tier of that often helpful captaincy quality of "could murder most men using a single limb" too. On props, I think Tadhg has also been given the armband for Ireland... was it in the AIs a year or two ago?

Also, I'm sure if you just upgrade Hugo Keenan's software and install a captaincy patch he could do it in his sleep.

Not a good look….