Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Anyone else notice that there doesn’t seem to be any pics of furlong in any training session pics released over last few weeks? Not that I’m constantly checking , just haven’t noticed any in IRFU social media feeds that I follow.

Wonder is he been giving some time off to give the calf a proper chance to recover after the injuries the last year or so.

My FDA-approved testing procedure: "how many would get into the 2015 All-Blacks RWC squad"

Two from 2023 (Doris and vdF)*

None from 2019.

MAYBE one from 2015 (SOB).

*Damn near 3, the form POM is in....

I'm playing catch-up on this thread so apologies if someone has mentioned him already, but there's a case to be made that AJ McGinty could have made the choice to try to represent Ireland. If you looked back to late 2019-early 2020, then i think a reasonable person could have found a place for him in Ireland's succession planning at 10.

He's played for the US since and picked up some bad injuries but I think if he was IQ (or at least potentially) then he'd be worth a contract at a province. He only lost his place at Connacht because of the IQ rules.

Yeah, but they signed a south african 10 during the 2015-2016 season. McGinty was on a 1 year contract and really came into his own towards the end of the year when they had some injuries.

When it came to the renewals they found out that they weren't allowed to keep McGinty. They admitted it was an oversight in that they hadn't considered the idea that an Irish guy would be ineligible and would cause that conflict.

It's a pity because the signing, Boshof(?) was very unlucky with injuries all season, and then a family member passed away back home, and so he left after one year. Meanwhile AJ kept improving at Sale.

Not sure I’d like to see O Toole start a big one yet but wouldn’t have any real worries about Bealham.

really? It doesn't feel hugely different to what happens with this rule in general.

Is it the forethought that makes it more objectionable?

I guess the other way of looking at it is that we don't have any other NIQ 10 in the country right now (right?) so you could offer him a contract, explain that he has a chance at representing Ireland but it involves standing down from the USA. It's then his choice.

Also, fwiw, I did say a few pages ago that I don't like the idea of Tier 1 countries benefiting from this rule. This is exactly the kind of thing I would have been worried about. However IF the rule is there and we were looking at potential benefits for Ireland from it, this is one that came to mind.

https://www.sportsjoe.ie/rugby/ireland-world-cup-jersey-rugby-290132

 I hope that World Rugby will use their approval to prevent the "uphill" movement of players.

I think this was implied when they announced it, but it's very hard to see how they can implement it.

I feel like the design brief was something like this:

Main Jersey: Green

Alt Jersey: White