Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Think Hansen's injury was pretty much the last ruck of the game as well. Got dumped on his shoulder.

Think the back 3 will be Keenan, Stockdale and Nash...Ringrose and Bundee in the centre and crowley, JGP at half back. My only concern would be the french wingers, who give nightmares to better, more seasoned wingers than we have and I'd hate to see Nash or someone get a chance and then have a tough game against genuine world class players...

Keenan is full back, Lowe hasnt played, Nash should be ahead of Zebo, Stockdale has looked good and should be ahead of Zebo, Balacoune looks out of form, O Brien is injured, Larmour maybe. We arent stocked at wing at all at this stage.

Zebo shouldn't be near the squad but we are struggling there.

it is going to be hard for Munster players to find any sort of form atm. On current resources we will struggle to field a team not to mind win games.

We're in bother for this Six Nations I think. Sexton is gone and whomever steps in for Hansen or Lowe, or potentially both, will be a significant downgrade in terms of line breaking and creativity. The latter are miles ahead of every other wing in the country for that.

Lowe will be brought straight back in, I think. There's too much disruption to Ireland's attack otherwise.

We'll miss Lowe's kicking for sure. It would have been nice to have that to take some weight off Crowley for his first few games.

And Hansen steps in at first receiver a lot for us. Basically they're exactly the two wingers you'd want with a young 10 taking over from someone like Sexton.

I think Nash has to get one of the spots. I'd have gone with JOB for the other, but now I'm much less sure. Daly for the ability to play 15 could be a shout.

Zebo makes more sense than I would have expected if we were looking at it from a purely short term perspective. I'd actually be happy for the guy if it happened but I think the wiser choice is to go with Stockdale or Balacoune.

France in the SdF is always tough, our strongest team would really struggle to win this one. I really don't care the result of that game, I mean great if we win but if we don't, what of it? If we win the other four games, it will have been a decent campaign. Farrell should do an Eddie Jones and say he is beginning the process of building for the next WC (which in this case wouldn't be bs to cover for failing miserably).

Personnally, I'd go with Shane Daly ahead of Nash in place of Hansen. If Lowe doesn't make, I'd go with Stockdale. Pity Kilgallen is injured, I would have liked to see him at get exposed to the national coaches, I think he has a lot of potential if handled properly. Wouldn't bring Zebo in, nothing against him but there are plenty of younger guys worthy of a look.

We can beat Italy, Wales and Scotland in Dublin with a few changes from the RWC team. Prendergast should be first choice 6 regardless of POM availability. I'd also like to see Timoney rewarded with some meaningful game time in place of VDF (not that I want VDF dropped but I don't think rotation would be a bad thing for anyone in this case). Same applies with JGP and Casey. JoeMc should be starting two games. I'd love some game time for Osborne but injury may prevent that.

I'd use Furlong sparingly too, Bealham can hold the fort. Constantly getting thrown cold into high intensity games can't be helping his body. He always seems to have to get up to a high level very quickly after a layoff, usually followed by another layoff. I'd like to see him build fitness with Leinster after the 6N with a view to peaking for knock out games.

Other guys I like to see spending some time with the squad for familiarisation would be; N.Murray, Doak, Forde, Frisch and/or Hume.

I think O'Toole is playing better than Bealham.