Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Yeah, if Keenan comes back in Frawley/Murray seems obvious. Keenan just back from a bad knee injury needs coverage, Crowley becomes your 15 backup but who goes to ten? Bringing Ringrose in perhaps allows Henshaw to cover 15 but then you've no ten cover in the slim chance Crowley gets hurt. That's just not an option.

1st time in yonks that I really aren't excited playing England. I probably will watch it. Still haven't watched the match v Wales.

Just the hangover of another failure when it mattered!

There are some tools around here.

I'm sure your not , but your post sounds like something a bandwagon supporter would say.

Hi Ewan

Not at all. Just tired of the false dawns. It blows. A six nations glosses over the fact that once again we crapped the bed when it matters.

Ireland have won just 15 championships in 129 years.

Until 24 years ago and the arrival of Italy, Ireland were historically the worst and least successful of the northern hemisphere sides. We have been, until relatively recently, a crap rugby nation.

I will never get tired of seeing Ireland winning championships and will never understand people acting like spoiled brats saying it doesn't matter because we didn't win the World Cup.

It is funny that there is a mood around that everything is a foregone conclusion with this team. The opposition aren't up to much once France revealed themselves as a farce and Ireland are a machine that's uber efficient with cruel defence and a varied attacking game. I'm not buying it though. England weren't particularly good last year but they were tough enough for us to break down. We lost 3 line outs (maybe more?) against Wales, largely because of Welsh pressure. We are one of the best teams in the world but our scrum is still so so. There are lots of chinks for opposition analysts to get excited about and England always show up for Ireland. I expect us to be too strong for them, our bench is insane etc etc. Still though, this should be the toughest test of the year so far.

Ireland expecting Twickenham chaos from England as Andy Farrell handed injury boost

Rúaidhrí O'Connor

March 06 2024 02:30 AM

Ireland are expecting Steve Borthwick’s England to make things chaotic when they travel to Twickenham on Saturday.

Andy Farrell will name his team tomorrow and has been handed a boost with Hugo Keenan returning to training yesterday, as Garry Ringrose, Iain Henderson and Oli Jager also took part.

Ireland’s most physical training session of the week will take place this morning, and if Keenan comes through, then the coach will have a major dilemma as to whether to retain the 6/2 bench split of forwards and backs or revert to a 5/3 to accommodate Ringrose and Ciarán Frawley.

No 8 Caelan Doris spoke yesterday about the boost that the team get from the arrival of players like Rónan Kelleher, James Ryan, Ryan Baird and Jack Conan.

Read More

• Rúaidhrí O’Connor: How Andy Farrell has managed to tame the English Lions after early maulings
• Hugo Keenan trains as Ireland declare clean bill of health for England clash
• Cian Tracey: Joe McCarthy’s box-office duel with Maro Itoje will set tone for Twickenham

“Just seeing four big specimens coming onto the pitch at the same time, you’re kind of like ‘OK, here we go, here’s another big surge of energy’,” he said.

“It gives you a little lift. It is nice, for the guys coming off, they know that they can give it all for 50-60 minutes, and they’ve got quality coming on. For the guys staying on, you get a lift from them coming on as well.”

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Scrum coach John Fogarty says Ireland are expecting to be put to the pin of their collars in London, meaning they’ll need to stick to their plans.

“A lot of noise can happen from England, it’s not being derailed mentally by the chaos of Twickenham,” Fogarty said.

“It’s a fantastic stadium to play in, but you derive a huge amount of energy from the crowd; they’re right there on top of you.

“England rise to play at home and it’s an incredibly tough place to go and play. Accuracy in every way is important to us as a group.

“They potentially are thinking we should be in a final of a World Cup and Ireland were out in the quarter-final stage. There’s a lot of power in their side. They won’t be happy with how they’ve gone over the last game or two.

“We are conscious of them delivering a lot of energy, but we’re more focused on us delivering our energy, our mentality, being able to impose our game on them.”

Read More

• Rúaidhrí O’Connor: How Andy Farrell has managed to tame the English Lions after early maulings
• Hugo Keenan trains as Ireland declare clean bill of health for England clash
• Cian Tracey: Joe McCarthy’s box-office duel with Maro Itoje will set tone for Twickenham

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