Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

I know the argument for not moving on from the 3 senior players will be that wasn't what we did with Sexton. But he was clearly still head and shoulders above the young guns behind whereas with Healy, Murray and O'Mahony there are clearly viable younger options that should now be given their chance. More importantly there's enough experience in the squad not to have POM as captain. He's not going to be around in 2025 is my belief

What have the poor referees of Connacht done to deserve that punishment.

Pretty frustrating call if true.

Best was too old to be captain for 2019 WC. Sexton was too old to be captain in 23 and pom will be too old by 27.

Hopefully it's only a short term appointment until end of the season

Best's captaincy was supposed to be "short term". Sexton's captaincy was supposed to be "short term". Ireland are too sentimental and never ruthless enough to take the captaincy from established players and move on when they need to. If POM is named captain, we'll see the exact same sh*te play out again over the next 4 years.

Sure we've heard it all before

Always the optimist, TRC

Unless it is just for this six nations. Give it to O Mahony now and appoint the long term successor to Sexton in the summer.

Am I wrong? Does POM being named captain not seem awfully familiar to Best and Sexton being made captain at the start of the last two World Cup cycles, and still being captain when the World Cup came around when they were 37 and 38 respectively?

We've got 3 outstanding young 6s in Baird, Ahern and Prendergast. Why not give them a go at the start of a new cycle like other nations would, instead of persisting with the tried, trusted and failed?

We have but it still won’t stop you

You're a mainstay until your not.

Baird is playing at a very high level and has scope to be a generational level player. Why not blood him now? Feels like he's ready to me.

Ireland Squad – Guinness Men’s Six Nations 2024

Forwards (19):

Ryan Baird (Leinster/Dublin University)(15)

Finlay Bealham (Connacht/Buccaneers)(36)

Tadhg Beirne (Munster/Lansdowne)(46)

Jack Conan (Leinster/Old Belvedere)(41)

Caelan Doris (Leinster/St Mary’s College)(36)

Tadhg Furlong (Leinster/Clontarf)(72)

Cian Healy (Leinster/Clontarf)(125)

Iain Henderson (Ulster/Academy)(79)

Ronan Kelleher (Leinster/Lansdowne)(26)

Jeremy Loughman (Munster/Garryowen)(4)

Joe McCarthy (Leinster/Dublin University)(5)

Peter O’Mahony (Munster/Cork Constitution)(101) (captain)

Tom O’Toole (Ulster/Ballynahinch)(12)

Andrew Porter (Leinster/UCD)(59)

James Ryan (Leinster/UCD)(59)

Dan Sheehan (Leinster/Lansdowne)(21)

Tom Stewart (Ulster/Ballynahinch)(2)

Nick Timoney (Ulster/Banbridge)(3)

Josh van der Flier (Leinster/UCD)(57)

Backs (15):

Bundee Aki (Connacht/Galwegians)(52)

Harry Byrne (Leinster/UCD)(2)

Craig Casey (Munster/Shannon)(13)

Jack Crowley (Munster/Cork Constitution)(9)

Ciaran Frawley (Leinster/UCD)(1)

Jamison Gibson-Park (Leinster)(30)

Robbie Henshaw (Leinster/Buccaneers)

Hugo Keenan (Leinster/UCD)(36)

Jordan Larmour (Leinster/St Mary’s College)(30)

James Lowe (Leinster)(26)

Stuart McCloskey (Ulster/Bangor)(15)

Conor Murray (Munster/Garryowen)(112)

Calvin Nash (Munster/Young Munster)(1)

Garry Ringrose (Leinster/UCD)(57)

Jacob Stockdale (Ulster/Lurgan)(37)

Training Panellists:

Oli Jager (Munster)*

Thomas Ahern (Shannon/Munster)*

Sam Prendergast (Lansdowne/Leinster)*

Pretty underwhelming squad. No uncapped players in official 34. With 3 uncapped "development players". Why not just name them in a 37 man squad.

Pom captian.

He's made 2 appearances. Cos he's been injured.

I can understand the calls for his inclusion, and he's a young player with loads of potential, but I think "scope to be a generational player" is overstating this.