Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

we have a preoccupation with managing minutes and a belief that it puts our players into a better position than our competitors, but does it really? England seem fully stacked with front line players who are apparently flogged to death, similar to France. You could say the same for South Africa. It has the potential to extend careers (see JS) but there again you have a rake of guys well into their 30s across the top teams, in particular 2nd and back row players.

I see we're already back to provincial point scoring.

Didn't last long.

I mean you've clearly just come back in to start a **** fight.

Good luck to you.

Whether or not it's to lead to a turnover, I saw something similar from (I think) Andy Friend about Connacht's defense. He was saying that their missed tackle count always looks high, but part of that is that part of the system was having one or two shooting up to put pressure on the attack way behind the gain line. They don't always make the tackle, but they always (in theory) interfere with the attack.

So as we move on, who is the next captain. James Ryan seems the obvious one, but he was dropped for the last match he was available for. Personally I think that was a one off, we missed him badly at the breakdown against NZ, but if he isn't absolutely guarenteed his place in the team it may open up a debate here. We don't want to be in an England situation with Owen Farrell having to be picked because he is captain (same with Dylan Hartley before that).

Garry Ringrose on the other hand is our undisputed 13 and I can't see that changing in the next 4 year cycle. He has captaincy experience and I'm sure is part of the leadership team. Obviously Farrell will know all these guys inside out and will gave more info than we do. But from the outside I'd be edging towards Ringrose.

All the very best to Earls, a magnificent servant.

I'm truly crestfallen after Saturday night. I genuinely believed this was our time. A few observations from what I remember (watched the game in the pub and haven't watched it back since so you can call me out on BS if that's what I'm talking).

The Whinges:

1. NZ first try had a clear forward pass to me. Not a drift forward but always forward.
2. "No clear head contact" on Bundi???
3. NZ constantly closing the gap at the lineout (although there has been an epidemic of that this world cup without being called).
4. I think Barnes went in with the thought in his head that Porter bores in and NZ took advantage of that. I think Lomax instigated the lateral shift on a few occasions but Barnes pinging Porter for it.
5. The final turnover from Whitelock. To me he did not have a clear release after the tackle.

The Regret:

1. Horrible start which in the end cost us the game. Very nervous and not cohesive at all in contrast to the last 2 years.
2. The bounce of the ball. Sheehan was in only for that cross kick took the worst possible bounce. Compare that the the two kicks NZ put in that bounced into the bread basket each time and that is just plain bad luck.
3. Sextons missed penalty. This was massive. If he had nailed that we would have been ahead post the PT which would have changed the complexion of the game. Even if NZ still took the lead subsequently a drop goal would have won it which would have been on in the last phase of play.
4. Kelleher getting held up. Since the rule change I think it is criminal to get held up. If there is a hint of doubt drop before the line and recycle. That try was the wining and losing of the game.
5. Decisions making. Never seen us more panicky. Some of the decisions were terrible in open play. There was one kick over the top by Sexton that was scarcely believable from both a execution and "it wasn't on" point of view.

The Positives:

1. Unlike other WC exits this was different. Any other past Irish team that found themselves 13 - 0 against New Zealand in a quarter final would have packed up the bus and shipped a hammering. Credit to this Irish side for showing such fight and determination and get back into the game not once, twice, but three times to be within striking distance at the end despite everything that went wrong. Anyone that calls this team "chokers" are either trolls or complete idiots who don't understand the term.
2. Jimmy O'Brien. For his first appearance at the world cup he made a massive impact and has 100% shown that he is up to this level. I expect him to be a permanent fixture in the Irish 23 going forward as even if he doesn't start in games his versatility to cover pretty much every back position from 12 - 15 means you really need him in there.

Unfortunately I see Ireland regressing over the next few years as despite our lauded conveyor belt of talent coming through I just don't see us kicking on from this for a while (just a gut feeling with no evidence by the way based on some psychological damage that must be done to many of these Leinster and Irish players who's consistency and ultimate failure when it matters most is scarily similar). The form of too many players at the World Cup was below where they were 9 - 12 months ago. VDF, Doris, Ryan, Porter, Furlong were all below the standard they were at last year.

There needs to be some level of re-building and people will need patience. The interesting thing is will the IRFU have patience? In the grand scheme of things the world cup means very little to the IRFU from a day to day management and funding of rugby. The meal ticket is the 6 nations and despite the fact that we built good depth we were still short of proper depth in some key positions. Props are the worry going forward. The scrum was one area where we've been consistently weak during the entire Farrell era. Porter played too many minutes as what was behind him was not international standard never mind the standard to win a WC. I know the injury to Healy was massive in that front, but we need more than 2 loose heads. Furlong is now a worry. He is a shadow of himself a few years ago. He looks out of shape and doesn't present the same nimbleness and ball carrying threat of years past. 10 is an obvious area where there will be a gaping hole. I am positive about Crowley though as he looked the business when he did play. The fact that Farrell left a legless Sexton on for the entire match on Saturday was confusing to me as Crowley could have brought a fresh injection to the line. Back row will be interesting. Do we move Beirne to 6 to make way for McCarthy or do we move Doris to 6 and start Conan at 8?

We will all watch with interest over the next year or so to see what comes next, but for now, rightly or wrongly it feels like just another failure at the world cup and as usual the same teams always manage to time their peak to perfection when we just didn't hit the heights of the past on Saturday. I've said before, after previous world cups that 6 nations mean more to us than rugby championships mean to the likes of South Africa and New Zealand. They are truly 4 year cycle teams. Now would I give up wining and consistently competing in 6 nations every year just to win a knockout game at a world cup? 100% No. But that just puts our priorities into perspective.

Anyway, I've probably made some decent point mixed in with bullshit ramblings but just my initial thoughts a couple of days after the dust settled. After being like a child at Christmas Eve every evening watching all the games, I now find myself put off by the whole thing of once again watching the same teams win it again. It's like, "Oh great another South Africa v New Zealand game". If they meet in the final it'll be the 3rd time they have played each other in as many months. It does show the weakness of rugby as a truly global sport.

See where where you're coming from. Apart from what I've wrote I've been exactly the same. Skipping over YouTube videos, not reading articles. I put my thoughts in here because the match thread looked like a **** show.

I'd have an element of agreement with the sentiment (for me, it's not so much the first-choice element, as how that affords you exposure to high pressure games), but for the sake of clarity, Luke McGrath has never been called up under Farrell.

It's impossible to judge whether Kelleher made the right call there. Herring has a couple of tries to his name last season that I swore were him peeling off too early but he scored them, end of discussion. Same with the late try Henshaw scored in Chicago. I'd be interested to hear what the coaches say about these though and whether that effort from Kelleher is something they'd look at and think he should have waited. The maul seemed to be motoring.