Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

I'm not sure it's no interest in developing more that the situation has gone on so long and become so dire that it would take a serious amount of investment and a full generation before we'd see the proper benefits of it. Rugby is punching above its weight in Scotland in terms of the results on the field both at senior test level and for Glasgow/Edinburgh. I doubt they have the funds available needed to really overhaul their development and structures.

If we look at their U20 team, the players simply aren't there and that is something that needs to be addressed when these lads are 12-14 years old. Hopefully they are trying to address it behind the scenes but, right now, things are going from bad to worse for them at underage level. Their results in the U20 6N in recent years are eye watering.

2017: 5th (beat Italy in Scotland)

2018: Wooden Spoon

2019: Wooden Spoon

2020: Abandoned

2021: Wooden Spoon

2022: Wooden Spoon (had 40 put on them that summer by Georgia)

2023: Somehow didn't get the Wooden Spoon as they beat Wales despite having 40 put on them in Glasgow by Italy and 80 by Ireland. Went on to lose to Uruguay in the World Rugby Trophy and, whilst they beat Zimbabwe, they conceded 33 to them.

The game is in a bad way in Scotland. It appears to be run in a far more pragmatic way from a financial perspective but I wonder is part of that refusing to spend any money on anything outside of senior men's rugby.

As long as they can pick up established pros from other countries who can supplement their professional game and keep it above water, they're going to keep doing it.

This seems to be totally overlooked by many (and more likely deliberately ignored by some).

If Healy was remaining in Ireland, I'd 100% back him to be in the Irish squad currently based on his showings from the SA A game onwards in November. But he hadn't shown anything close to that level of performance and consistency previously. Even in the early games of the season, he was very much a contributing part of the misfiring team that was struggling.

He got his season together from November onwards. He announced he was moving to Scotland in the first week of January. One would assume that the talks on the move were already well advanced in November/December.

All the best to him, he's made a ballsy move and I've no doubt he's going to enjoy far more international exposure and probably better financial rewards overall as a result.

Good form in 2021 when Ireland were capping AIL replacement level players like Harry Byrne at 10. Lotta shyster talk about 2022 going around.

Most of this is fair but I am skeptical of this tbh:

If Healy was remaining in Ireland, I'd 100% back him to be in the Irish squad currently

In any case, I think there are others who can feel more hard done by than Healy, but my question on the following would be:

he hadn't shown anything close to that level of performance and consistency previously.

Did the alternatives that were getting called into camp? I’m not sure they did either. RB did. But I’m not sure we can say the same of HB or Frawley? (Particularly at 10 for the latter, obviously).

I think Burns has correctly fallen off the radar entirely after his last season but he was playing some really nice stuff in 2021/22 and was completely frozen out of the set up which I thought was harsh.

I can only assume that the Irish coaching team had made their minds up entirely about him but it was unusual to see just how far he fell so quickly. Jack Carty is a similar scenario. I don't think either deserve to be anywhere near an Irish 23 now but it's surprising that, given our merry go round and depth at 10, they were both unceremoniously dumped from fairly high places. Burns started against France in the 2021 6N. He got a sub appearance that summer against Japan and has never been in an Irish squad since.

Players will have their names printed on their jerseys for this weekend's game.

Some like the tradition of nameless jerseys, I like the idea of the change.

No issues with this. What I would be against is squad numbers like football, like players being assigned numbers 1-33 for an entire campaign. I hope rugby doesn't go down that road

He wasn’t playing that well in 2021. He was decent but no more. And 2022 is especially relevant to decisions made in, well, 2022.

Ross has also done a good job in those appearances he’s had. He has absolutely paid back the faith the coaches placed in him.