Is Will Conners injured?
Personally I'd have him ahead of Timoney. I like Timoney but if you needed a replacement for vdF v France I'd rather Conners.
POM, Baird & Dorris is a nice alternative
But for France and England you'd need someone to stop their ball carriers.
Yeah, would agree. I think Frawley is probably ahead of Harry Byrne in AF's thinking.
Frawley is such a useful bench option too because he can play 10, 12 or 15 to a relatively high level.
Poor call from Farrell naming POM captain , we needed a fresh start a new era after WC , someone young/new like Ryan , but naming POM strikes of sentimenatilty , its professional rugby. POM has been a brilliant servant to Ireland and Munsetr , but really his time is up , happens to everyone, could possibly be used a squad player in certain matches rather than ever present captain.
I honestly think the "sentimentality / his time is up" comments are doing a disservice to both POM and Farrell in his selection.
POM was one of our better players during the RWC, it's not like his form has fallen off a cliff or anywhere near that.
Add to that, we have a lot of transition with regards leadership with Sexton leaving, and an inexperienced 10 taking the reins of the attack.
I think it makes an awful lot of sense.
Not doing him a disservice , stated he has been an Irish legend , but after the WC failure a new era should commence , and making POM captain at 34 does not do that , absolutly have him part of squad , but captain - We'll wait and see who right.
Why do we need a fresh start though?
We lost 1 big game (of course a huge game, but if we played them again same teams tomorrow id still think we'd beat them), which we could have nicked in the end, and apart from that basically dominated world rugby for a year or so.
Wholesale changes are not needed. Small adjustments and keep evolving is a much better plan for me, and that seems to be the plan. I get that the 1/4 final was a complete body blow, but losing it doesn't mean the whole year prior of being an incredible rugby team goes out the window.
Not sure I'd agree... Hodnett has plenty of pace, maybe it's his running style... he kind of barrels along, like a turbocharged prop! I'd have him down as arguably our fastest forward to be honest along with Barron and Aherne. What impresses me most with him is his workrate, he's a real dynamo - and his power, he packs a lot of it in attack and defence. More than a fella of his size should imo.
Farrell doesn't rate him for whatever reason so far, which is a pity.
Wrong call to leave out ZEBO. How many blacks are there in this squad? Is it potentially a concern that Balacoune and Zebo have been left out and side-lined by the IRFU head honchos?
ZEBO should be there ahead of Stockdale (whoi hasn't been the same player since he shaved his head).
Hodnett should be there as well. He has a gas tank and energy that goes for days. I wouldn't min d seeing him switch to RL.
Mod Warning: Any more racist nonsense and you'll be banned from the rugby forum.
All the alternatives still played through the same WC cycle, got knocked out, and all of them are less experienced leaders than POM.
I view POM as a great leader who will relish spending a 6N and perhaps the SA tour as captain, then stepping aside for another member of that leadership group when the time comes.
I don't think it'll be any detrement to James Ryan (or whoever else succeeds him) to work with him for some time as captain.
win today, win tomorrow
If Farrell dumps all the players with the blind hope of winning a World Cup he could lose all his games and the people crying for change will be the first demanding his resignation
Remember, France dumped all their players to win a home World Cup. They got to the same stage as Ireland
And England fired their coach 8 months out and got to the semi. I keep seeing this point about France chopping and changing to win the World Cup. I'm not sure that's how it went down, they rotated and selected to get to a team that were any good. Ireland were excellent during those years but let's face it, France were terrible for a lot of it. This Ireland team just won a grand slam, if France were winning grand slams I'm not sure they would have been changing the team radically every season. Farrell's approach of steadily bedding in new players to the wider squad as a means of building depth has been successful to a point. We'll understand better over the next couple of seasons whether the WC failure was a bad luck aberration or whether we aren't as good as we think we are and recent success has coincided with other top teams being off the pace somewhat. We know England under EJ weren't great, France were so so until around 2020/2021, Wales fell off a cliff, NZ had a bad run after the galactico team retired, etc.
..
and people forget Rassie won a RWC with SA with an 18 month lead-in as head coach.
Likely 2024 6N starting team and their age at 2027 WC
Porter 31
Sheehan 29
furlong 35
Ryan 31
Beirne 37
POM 38
VDF 34
Doris 29
Park 35
Crowley 27
Aki 37
Ringrose 32
Lowe 35
Hansen 29
Keenan 31
its clearly not only POM who’s unlikely to make the 2027 WC.
Not sure what this has to do with my point. It's Farrell job to win games.
France won the GS in 2022 and finished ahead of Ireland 3 out of the 4 years in the last WC cycle.
Beirne turned 32 ten days ago. He'll be 35 by the time of the next World Cup.
I said France were so so until 20/21, thats when they landed on a squad that didn't change a great deal until the WC.
They didn’t land on a squad.
Galthie first squad was 19 uncapped players with a view to winning a WC and that was the only aim.
France have lots of talent coming up. Scary good.
They have a lot of young players getting serious game time. A lot of those u20s will play 500+ minutes of senior rugby while our lads are knocking about in the AIL or joining a long queue for trash minutes at the arse end of the URC.
On their current trajectory France should really dominate the game for the foreseeable future but if course it rarely works out like that.
That's never going to happen as long as Ireland are in the 6N.
The same was said of NZ post 2011 and 2015. Strangely back to back WC and nobody has really made the claim about SA.
France clubs are starting to pull back the power from the French union, so let's see how it goes over the next few years.
In terms of Irish players, unless we get a 5th province or a better option and invest into the Emerging Ireland tours players will get minutes and progres as they currently are.
Not sure why that is a problem? our rate at moving players from U20 to full international is impressive when you compare to Wales/England etc it was said on podcasts.
I get it is one game , but beforehand it was called the biggest game in Irish history , the facts are we lost and played poorly . Before the game I thoght Farrell was the greatest , but after the game some of his shortings cme to light , lack of use of squad players, and conservative on selection. Nothing against O'Mahoney he has been an Irish great , but he is 34 , I would like to have seen a more riskier selection process, which I cant see happening from Farrel.
I dont think Irreland will win 6 Nations, think ther will be an emotional hit on players, that has been ecident post WC , and is understable , losing a game of that magnitude has to have an impact on any human or player - thats just my amateur thoughts.
"played poorly"?
We didn't play to our peak but I wouldn't class it as poorly.
Not sure how you can rate a coach as the greatest and then one game totally changes that opinion.
FYI the teams who have won the WC have played more or less the same 23 from start to finish. That's been happening for many years.
Of those 19 in 2020 only Gros and Lucu were selected for the WC. Landed on eventually, I should have said. It kind of reinforces the point some people are making, that there aren't any guarantees in test rugby. You can rebuild the team immediately after the wc and see success in the 6N as France did in 22, but it doesn't guarantee anything in the WC.
We should just try win every game, like Farrell is doing or trying to do
That's the mandate and the model. The only weakness I perceive, and others here have challenged it, is that insisting our best team takes the field for every big game (or game against tier 1 opposition) means we never have a great amount of faith in our wider squad when it comes to the WC. For whatever reason (fewer games mainly) being in perfect condition of the 6N does not translate into perfect condition for the WC and while the 6N remains the rhythm around which the team operates we will always have a difficulty adjusting to the different challenge the WC poses.
From 2020-2023, Ireland have a win % of 81%, compared to South Africa's 69%. But I know who's position I'd rather be in.
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