Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

There isnt a lot of mid 30s players in the starting team here. Props is about the only worry here where there isnt a young player that could step in now.

1. Porter 28 years old
2. Sheahan 25
3. Furlong 31
4. McCarthy 22
5. Beirne 32
6. O Mahoney 34
7. VDF 30
8. Doris 25
9. JGP 31
10. Crowley 24
11. Lowe 31
12. Aki 33
13. Henshaw 30
14. Nash 26
15. Keenan 27

Have to agree. Crowley did really well on Friday. His passing was good, he most often picked the right option and he made some stuff happen. He also had at least 4 howlers by my count. Didn’t matter because France were beaten all over the field. last seasons French team would have scored off one or two of them, Nz certainly would. I can see why Farrell left him on the bench in the 1/4. Not to be harsh on Crowley, he proved he’s the man for the job but he has the temperament and skills to iron out the mistakes and thrive in this set up.

Disagree with Calvin Nash being a young player. He's 26!

26 is not young! No matter how it's spun.

No that can of worms needs to be opened regularly, the template is there built by SA which is a heavy reliance on rotating and that you trust in the players that come in and in a physical and mentally draining tournament you need that. I heard the excuse that we had to go with out first team in every game but that clearly was a myth. No sign of any change in the approach from Farrell when even in the 6 nations it could be tested.

I would say Sexton being suspended threw a wrench in the works. But yea, there could have been more rotation.

One of the things in the Irish system, is players are slow coming into provincial teams from under age. Every year there'll be comment how the French or English U20's have much more senior experience than the Irish players. Whether that's from the limited number of pro teams or what. Players only establishing themselves on provincial teams at 23 or 24 or more is common.

"Johnny who?? Crowley is excellent"

"Ireland's new 10 looked pretty good. He didn't wilt under the spotlight."

Texts from some nonIrish friends of mine. It's interesting to me how less equivocal their praise is of Crowley, while the narrative in Ireland (from Nugent's closing thoughts on commentary, through to posts on here, through to broadsheet coverage) is defining him in a much different tone, i.e., "in spite of his mistakes", or "showed character to rebound", etc.

I don't know whether there is a disproportionate anxiety around replacing Sexton that is causing this. But in contrast, Joe McCarthy had at least two turnovers, but the narrative is only focusing on the positives. Rightly in my opinion.

For me, two young players had excellent games. McCarthy had the greater impact and was deservedly MOTM.

But in one case, Irish people are defining a player's contribution around his mistakes. In the other case, they simply praising how good a game he had.

Is it because McCarthy, in many respects, is a bonus? I.e., we already have very good depth at lock.

But the very existential issue of Ireland replacing its 10 is perhaps leading to scrutiny on Crowley that is perhaps not entirely fair.

A 23-year-old out-half just went to Marseille, played 80 minutes, and we beat France scoring five tries. Something, I feel, we should be a lot more excited about (positively) than we seem to be....