Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Agree with basically all of that, including POM's recent form (ignoring how little he has played since the WC).

POM has however gone through a number of periods during his career where his performance levels dropped significantly. He is plays a position where Ireland probably has the most depth, along with two of the most exciting young talents coming through in Ahern and Baird.

POM can be a natural leader that the team looks up to with having the captaincy.

AF has just boxed himself into a potential difficult future situation which I don't see as being smart for the Irish team (though obviously great for POM personally).

Actually forget about the lions tour only a year away. POM has to be favorite as captain for that , surely with Farrell as head coach. Be great to see it from an Ireland POV.

I agree about his passing, it's crisp and hits the target consistently. Kicking needs some more work. I agree re his age and his potential to improve. Hopefully he continues an upward trajectory.

I don't think he has reached a higher level than Murray, to make it into the 23. But he's not far off it. At this level all of these players are a very high standard and it's fine margins between them. We get the rare outstanding peerless players; Sexton, O'Driscoll, Wood, O'Connell but they are few and far between.

Most of the senior players can/do play the role of mentoring and could play the role associated with being available to the squad, not everyone but this rarely comes down to one individual being absolutely vital as others simply don't have the requisite skills. The exception to that is communication skills under pressure on the field when dealing with the ref. Ten or 12 years playing at the highest level prepares most players for most situations they come across but not that one. It's been glaringly obvious on a few occasions with Sexton and Ryan that they've simply ended up on the wrong side of the ref because they aren't great at that role. POC was a master at it and BOD was pretty good. Could the captain have done a better job in protecting Porter from the refs interpretation of what happened in the scrum last season?...I have no idea but its vital that the captain does that job well or he shouldn't be captain.

Mod: Poster has been banned, folks, so no need to respond to any of his posts.

In an effort to steer this onto some semblance of reasonable discussion, anyone know the answer to this?

I wasn't the first, I didn't invent anything and I'm afraid you didn't search hard enough. Start at 1.58pm today.

I don't think that anyone who has been left out can have too many complaints. They all either have issues with form or a specific element of their game that I don't think is up to the task for test rugby.

The only person that I think is genuinely harshly left out is Cian Prendergast. He has continued to play extremely well in a team going backwards. He was MOTM in an interpro and was a one man team against Bordeaux. He's potentially a victim of the small squad being named. This is the smallest 6N squad named in many years by an Irish coaching team.

Of those named, I think Harry Byrne is fortunate to be in there purely because of injuries to others and lack of options. He has played well in parts but also still struggles with injuries as well as having some sloppy moments. The other that jumps out is Conor Murray who looks well off the pace at this point and has had some ugly days this season so far. Blade can safely assume that he's never going to be an option under Farrell.

Rumoured to be later in the 6N, probably available for last couple of rounds at best if deemed suitable/match fit.

Coombes is having a fine season. Topping the stats from the off, I remember posting it around week 3. Was brilliant at 8 away in Toulon. I'd imagine he's not far off the squad

I think Hodnett is a guy that probably is never going to be in the plans based on selections we've seen. He's 25, has been a provincial first choice for a couple of years but never brought into any Irish squad. I've always been a big fan and think he's a quality player. The area I'd think that he's potentially lacking in is speed/mobility. For an openside, he looks more cumbersome around the park than a guy like VDF who always looks more athletic in covering ground. I don't think he's able to make some of the plays that we've seen VDF and Timoney make in recent weeks.

HB is potentially available for this weekend, apparently. I'd imagine his injury is minor as they wouldn't be naming him if he wasn't going to be able to train with them next week.

Based on Irish selections and involvement in training to date, I'd say Frawley is probably ahead of HB at this point. Newcomers have very little time to make an impact compared to those who have been in camps across the summer.

Timoney has been excellent so deserves to be there, no question, however that doesn't mean one or both of Hodnet or Prendergast couldn't be there as well. There's no limit to squad numbers, and while I understand that coaches probably want to work with smaller numbers, I'd have thought a few others could have been included for a week and maybe a handful could be released for game week.

Prendergast is probably the player who was unluckiest. He has carried connacht at times in games this season and is an outstanding player who will be in his prime come the next WC.

He is the closest thing we have to a PSTD, massive workrate, enough niggle without overdoing it and getting smarter and stronger all the time.

If posters want to advocate for POMs exclusion based on age and building for the next world cup then it makes more sense that Jack Conan should dropped because a player who will be 36 by the next world cup and hasnt been putting in performances on the level of prendergast this season should be jettisoned first.

Im not saying i think it should happen, but if your going to argue about age and world cup cycles for one player then this change makes more sense.

I would think Prendergast is next off the rank if we lose any back row.

After that I think it might come down to who we lost in terms of Coombes or Hodnett.

Timoney probably edged Prendergast because he's an option at 7. Imo they've been pretty similarly good in terms of performances.

Shane Daly is probably fairly disappointed too. We're light on Full Back options and he's been good. Don't think he's been robbed or anything, but he must have been in the discussion until close to the end.