Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

He was the best 9 in world rugby for the better part of a decade. Retired now. Obviously before your time.

Hes just looking for a reactionz

Ringrose is crucial to our Defense and having Aki next to Crowley is also necessary.

Keenan and Lowe are available so the backline is going to be able to handle an inexperienced 10 and winger whoever they may be (Crowley and nash obvs…)

I wouldn't think Beirne is locked on this week. He was very poor v Saints. Didn't have any real dominant impact.

Henshaw was on TV3 news conference from the Ireland camp this evening.

Does that imply he'll be playing? Ringrose on the wing?

Yeah Smith is heavier than Casey but he definitely bulked up over the years. When he made his debut in 2012, against Ireland, he was smaller. I remember discussions with NZ fans about whether he was too small. One of my mates who was from Palmerston North and had seen a lot of Smith as a youngster, defended his size and swore it wouldn't be an issue. Turns out he was right.

The point I'm trying make is I think Casey will fine at international rugby despite his size. Sure he won't be able to do some of the stuff that halfbacks like Murray, Mike Phillips, Justin Marshall or Joost van der Westhuizen could do but theres other things he does so much better than them.

I went through one game (La Rochelle) and concluded that some of the reaction to it was hyperbolic. It was actually considered by most people to be quite a balanced take.

Interestingly, the fact he has the lowest ruck effectiveness aligns with my post, where he had a number of "neutral" ruck contributions but very few positive ones.

The penalties issue is more well known of course, it didn't take an analyst to figure that one out.

Glad the post is sticking around in memory though and continuing to offer a platform for discussion!

P.S. I also said in a latter post that McCarthy is a future Lion, so your line about "a Munster fan trying to talk him down" is way off mark.

For me, McCarthy is very close to a start (Thornley even reporting that he's in line to do so).

I only really see two options:

1. Straight swap for Ryan
2. Beirne to 6 (alongside POM and Doris), McCarthy and Ryan in the second row.

As per the data posted above, option 1 likely concedes 90+% success to the opponent's lineout (throw to where Beirne isn't), but you then get McCarthy's disruptiveness in any ensuing maul. Likely pushes France more toward strike plays which I think we can control. The major downside (again, as per those stats) would be the loss of Ryan in attacking rucks. So it might depend a lot on how the coaches want the team to play under the new 10, how much we want to build phases, etc.

Option 2, I fear leaves the backrow a bit slow, with the likes of Penaud capable of exploiting any tiny gap or crease. All of a sudden you don't have vdF's speed and workrate to shore things up if France do go to strike plays on first phase. I think this has more downside.

So for me, if McCarthy does start, I'd be slightly leaning toward the straight swap for Ryan, but it's a super close call.