Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

You keep trying to drag this into me making personal comments about the player or other posters. Not sure why.

Because you're misrepresenting what posters are saying. Case in point:

Farrelll never seemed to be a man to throw out caps/minutes just for the sake of it which it seems to be the request now.

Nobody is saying Farrell should throw out caps just for the sake of it.

Personally, I'm disappointed Coombes didn't get a start vs England, as I was hopeful a good performance could force him in ahead of Prendergast. But I'm also not surprised he's not made the 33, as Prendergast is a better cover option for 7 and can also play elsewhere.

Both those things can be true.

Just on Coombes' height, he seems to stand and walk in a slouch. Shoulders hunched head forward. Maybe he stands up straight when he gets measured. That could explain why theres a couple of inches between his listed height and how tall he appears in pictures.

I'm a fan of Coombes and disappointed that he's not getting a run this weekend. But clearly theres something he's not showing in the training camps that the coaches want to see. I've said it before 100 times, club form gets a player into camp but then they have to impress the coaches. Some fans can't understand that.

If he so far hasnt showed what is needed during all those training camps and his other chances then what difference should a warm up game do in the coaches minds?

There is no point in throwing minutes out there just to make a few supporters feel better (or likely more angry if he performed well) when the minutes could be used in a more beneficial manner on another player who is more clearly in the picture.

That's not giving caps for the sake of it. That's giving someone caps to maintain match sharpness as they are the backup to the squad for the world cup.

It's even in the post why I would have given him minutes. Giving people minutes to gain match sharpness before a world cup is the entire point of these games.

I think the difference is you see Coombes as no where near the squad and hence any minutes given to him are just a waste of warm up games. I see Coombes as probably third choice 8th, and the second choice 8 left the last game injured so giving him minutes to maintain match sharpness would be a good use of these games.

Based on tomorrow Coombes looks to be 4th choice 8

This is overly simplistic. If there were no squad limits, you could maybe infer that. But the reality is it's a 33 man squad. Versatility matters.

But I don’t think you can infer that with any certainty when we know the squad is limited to 33 and versatility is obviously a consideration.

URC stats can be misleading based on gametime differences.

I don't see what trick is missed if the coaching team don't see him on the plane barring injury. They must be confident Conan will be fine and see Prendergast as a potentially better fit for what they want going to France. 60 minutes (or not) for Coombes now won't make one iota difference to match sharpness if he gets called up as injury replacement in late September.

Conan was a 3 time Lion just 2 years ago and has had a very good season

Doris is one of the top 5 players in the world this year.

Not really sure where Coombes fits in here currently.

Hows it going FFF? I'd have 9 ya; Ryan, Beirne, O'Mahony, Coombes, Hodnett, Murray, Casey, Crowley and Daly. My controversial ones on here would be Coombes over Conan, Hodnett over Prendergast and Daly over Earls (and Nash). I think Ireland end up with Beirne, O'Mahony, Murray, Casey, Crowley and Earls.