At an absolute minimum, it strengthens his bargaining power. But you'd have to imagine it's close.
He has scope to be was my point. He is a freak athlete for a backrow and seems to be getting better very quickly.
haha
Farrell must be doing something right then :D
Ya, sorry, I've edited my post to include the "scope" part. I think he'll be an excellent player for Ireland and have a quality career. I just don't see him getting to Sexton type generational levels.
It's a really poor look if POM is being put into the team ahead of lads who are outplaying him week in, week out. At least with Best and Sexton, they were still the best performing player.
Cian Prendergast was robbed
He's been injured. Hard to be out-playing someone week-in, week-out, when they're not playing.
And prior to this season, he was in the richest vein of form of his career for around 2 seasons or more. And you still wanted him dropped from the extended squad.
agreed
we do not have either the overall number of players playing in the country, nor the depth at the top level, to be able to wipe the slate clean and work to 4 year cycles.
with jager, ahern and Prendergast included as essentially squad players (34 with 3 trainees = 37) plus the youth of harry byrne, baird, steward, crowley, casey and joe mc....... thats more than enough freshness and youth brought in
I'm delighted. Concentrate on winning this years tournament. Forget this nonsense of planning for something four years away. We shpould always play our best team in the here and now.
Only 2 recognised 10’s, looks like Farrell is still backing Frawley as a live option for cover at 10
Our 3 outhalfs in the squad have a combined 12 caps between the three of them. I think some continuity around them is probably a good idea.
And Cian Prendergast.
Agreed. Part of the reason they are no uncapped players named in the squad-proper, is because Farrell has done a relatively good job of capping guys.
Certainly early in his tenure, and as we approached the RWC the team became more settled. Which sounds entirely logical to me.
It will happen that one day all the Peter-haters get exactly what they want, and what many have wanted for a few seasons.
But today isnt that day, and tomorrow doesn't look likely either.
Wait a minute, your almost criticising sexton in that post. Such things are frowned upon.
I would have probably moved on from him going forward, but i've no issue with him being in the squad. My issue is if he is being put into the starting team, over lads who are frankly playing better, due to him being made captain.
What uncapped players would you like to have seen included?
No Prendergast! Shocking in my opinion. Glad to see Timoney, though. He's deserved a call up.
I do not see a slam this year.
The 2023 World Cup was not won in February 2019. Long term planning is not a thing this early. The World Cup won't be a consideration at all until after the Lions tour at the very least.
2 ways of looking at it, the one you've bought forward and the needed turnover for the cycle.
Agreed. Ross Byrne would obviously have been in if fit, any ideas of his return date yet?
I think we had similar post RWC 2019, at hooker. Sheehan, Kelleher and Herring had very few caps between them at that point.
Conor Murray! Jesus!
A lot of people would have expected Balacoune to be at this level now. He has certainly shown the promise but maybe not the consistency.
I would have included prendergast.
Balacoune is not in form. He shouldn't be near the squad, imo.
100%. Loads of coaches talk about periodisation, and peaking at the right times. ROG has talked previously about it only being possible for around 18 months at a time.
Has to be disappointing for Baloucoune that he's missed this opportunity. Not that long ago he was pretty close - started against SA and Fiji in Nov'22. Now with Mack and JOB injured and Keith Earls & Conway's retirement, he's still not in the squad, despite having his first relatively injury free run in a while.
I don't disagree with the call - think Nash and Larmour are just playing better than him.
I am happy enough. The first and 4th year of a RWC cycle is about building momentum which its good to see Farrell is focused on. Get our cycle off to a good start and then we can look to add to our squad.
I think O Mahony is a good choice of captain.
I also think the player who is rumoured to be considering retirement and has several highly promising young players coming up in his positiopn has zro chance of being captain in 4 years.
Nash deserves his call up as does Larmour. I hope they both get minutes.
Don't think it's a hugely surprising squad, and happy enough with the decision to make POM captain. Still think there's a chance to win another 6N there for this squad, even with the upheaval from Sexton leaving.
France have had plenty of injury and disruption too, and can't be happy either with how their 2022 finished. They've lost the best player in the world out of their team, and they've looked pretty mortal the last few years when he hasn't been around, notwithstanding how good Lucu & La Garrec et al are.
In terms of the squad - think the interesting calls are the following:
-Cian Healy still deemed the next best option at LHP. Hard to see where else they could have gone here.
-Nick Timoney gets the nod in the back row - his form has been good, but Cian Prendergast and John Hodnett might feel a bit unlucky.
-Conor Murray retained at scrum half despite a relatively poor run of form. I get it, but mostly driven by no one else really stepping up to displace him. It wouldn't shock me if Craig Casey (who is playing well) has supplanted him in the 23 though.
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