Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Ringrose, Sheehan, Doris, Keenan

Maybe one of them could bring something fresh/different rather than staying with the past in a short term role

Giving them a chance could have even led them to being a favorite for the Lions captain as looking at the other captains it is only Jamie George who is an option for that

Could that bring them to another level?

We might never find out now

Congrats to POM, very well deserved, and happy for him as a person. Hopefully it goes better for him than his Lions run in the role.

To me it is the wrong choice and another example of AF falling for sentimentality and probably fear to the detriment of the team. I don't see the value to the team in giving him the role.

From a PR perspective, what I noted as a concern a few months ago is already happening on Twitter - the captaincy is being weaponised as a stick to beat the IRFU. The captaincy will be even more of a poisoned chalice post POM if all parties can't come to an agreement and POM end up playing abroad and loses the captaincy.

Calling him "past his prime" is daft. The year running up to the World Cup has been one of his best veins of form in his career, and at the tournament he was one of our best performers. He's played two games since, due to getting injured in one, and in the other he played well and lead the team to a badly needed and impressive win.

I'd agree he's on the last couple of years of his career, but I haven't seen anything to say that he doesn't deserve his place in the team. If anything I think VDF might need to hit some of his higher levels again to keep Baird out of the back row.

Love how Baird is the "generational talent" and the fella that has captained the Lions isn't.

POM is the generational talent, Baird is all potential. Looks to have bags of it mind.

Hodnett and especially Prendergast unlucky to miss out

Could say the same about VDF

This has been the argument against him for years. He's repeatedly proven it wrong.

VDF is there for the taking. No talk of him becoming Leinster or Ireland captain, which is telling. He seems to lack a strong mentality.

Take nothing from POM's career and he's been written off for 3 years by plenty of people but each season he has come in and made massive contributions for Ireland. I've no problem with him in the team and Baird will come out of this 6N with plenty more caps but making Peter captain is missing a trick here. For me Sexton was never a great captain, he didn't need the arm band to be an inspiration and drive standards in the dressing room but his temperament was never effective on the filed as captain for me. Now Peter is in as a stop gap as he is highly unlikely to be a fixture for the next 3 seasons. I'd much prefer if Farrell had used this season to at least establish a new long term captain even while he went for continuity in the squad.

The idea of a long term captain is a terrible one.

You pick a captain for a campaign, like the 6 nations and then you pick again for the summer tour and again for the Autumn.

They may well be the same person and they may not, but you dont pick a captain now and tell him he is in charge for the world cup.

James Ryan could be dropped for Beirne and Mccarthy, Ringrose could be dropped for Henshaw & Aki. POM might be gone to France by the Summer.

Its not a long term job, you just might be lucky to do it for a long term.

We will find out, one of those players is likely to be captain in the next year or 2. They need to show that they have the leadership skills first before the honour will be bestowed upon them.

I don't think the Zebo think is anything to do with handing him caps. It's more to do with having only 1 FB in the squad and Zebo having several international caps and in good form currently. And he covers wing. I'd have picked him ahead of Stockdale both on form and versatility. I'm guessing that Zebo having not been involved in an AF squad before counts against him.

That's rubbish. VdF has a very strong mentality. He struggled at international level in the past due to a lack of power and go forward in the carry. He took the feedback on board and developed that aspect of his game. So much so that it earned him WPOTY. He comes across as someone who leads by example more so than in a vocal way. One of the first names on the team sheet.

Zero chance O'Mahony leaves now, imo.

I'd like to see him start against France or England. Guys like him, Casey, McCarthy need to be tested against the best to develop, not the odd start against a really weak Italian team or Nov international.