Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

A player bigging up a team mate isn’t weird in the slightest…

It is funny to me tho that for someone who so summarily dismissed Kleyn’s comments to the media is now happy to accept Daly’s comment.

He is basically out the door and there are plenty of ways to leak to the media.

Not only did he help Munster to the URC but he also has a giant set of balls if there is zero validity to his comment around selections and is gambling no one will call him out. He could have played it safe and said players improved but went a step further.

As I said, you and I know less than he does so we're completely guessing.

You’re conflating Munster, Van Graan and Rowntree here.

That whole paragraph on JGP; literally none of that applies to Crowley. They were at entirely different points in their career when they got their Test debut. Add that Covid would clearly have had an impact on Crowley’s development. That absolutely matters.

Fwiw, I literally previously remember arguing you on here when you dismissed Healy and Crowley for not taking Carbery’s spot during his 2 year injury absence with Munster.

Crowley, 19, wasn’t even in the academy and Healy, 20, was year one academy at the time Carbery’s 2-year injury stint started.

I didn't dismiss Kleyn's comments, I questioned the blind faith some were putting into his self-serving generic Robbie Keane style platitudes.

Bigging up a team mate isn't weird, but what you're implying is very weird - that Daly is making up a very specific lie about a team mate's growth during a very specific period and repeats it at multiple times during the interview.

There was a million ways he could have bigged up Crowley but chose multiple times to refer to his growth during the EI Tour.

That Emerging Ireland trip was just unbelievable for him, just the way he was able to step up. He kind of put himself in a leadership role out there as well and he’s brought that back into Munster as well.

His confidence levels really went through the roof after that tour and rightfully so

Why do you feel you know better than his own team mate? Maybe, just maybe, the IRFU and Dave did something that helped Munster.

Again, the specifics of the JGP situation aren’t particularly relevant , it’s the general point that we have a national coach who can really identify players who can do a job regardless of provincial pecking order or experience. You could look at Jimmy O’Brien, Mack Hansen as other examples of that same ability.

All you’re doing is highlighting your unwillingness to credit him for that.

Fwiw, I literally previously remember arguing you on here when you dismissed Healy and Crowley for not taking Carbery’s spot during his 2 year injury absence with Munster.

Jesus Christ not this again.

Surprised you actually posted those and showed everyone how you wasted your time trawling several months back only to dig up quote after quote that align with exactly how I described them earlier:

I questioned the blind faith some were putting into his self-serving generic Robbie Keane style platitudes.

If I was dismissing him back, then then you joined me tonight 'dismissing' poor old Jean and Shane Daly with your statement that matches my posts that:

it’s extremely rare that a person involved in sport tells the full truth to the media

I can see through your obvious attempts to goal post move and deflect from the fact that one of Munster's own players repeatedly cited the EI Tour as being beneficial to the development of Crowley. This wasn't some generic, 'Crowley, had a good tour' waffle, it was specific areas on tour that Crowley showed improvement and brought back to Munster and the impact it had on his game.

But no, you obviously know better than a guy who has played with Crowley for years, just like 'ulster'u20s knows more than the guys who were in the room where discussions happened.

I know you said you'd leave it a few times already but I will actually drop out for the rest of the week. Have a Champions Cup final to focus on, much better to look forward to that than getting flustered about some back-ups potentially missing a few matches in September.

I absolutely understand why you don’t like me bringing up things you’ve said in the past tbh. FFF…

I'm sure you do, because I've repeatedly said it's bizarre and deliberately antagonistic.

But a couple of weeks ago you were relentlessly attacking me for a post from February 2023 that Healy was absolutely sh…..ort of the required quality.

Now you've pulled an even older one out of the air that's completely consistent with that, and you're acting like it's some sort of gotcha? I'm not seeing the point tbh.

The point is I think you’re sometimes far too overly critical of Munster in a way that doesn’t match the reality. Like with Kleyn, Healy, Frisch, Crowley and now Rowntree.

You’re pointing to him being there for 3 years but you know he was only head coach for 2 games prior to the EI tour.

I will say tho, this was very good. 😉 Genuinely.

Healy was absolutely sh…..ort of the required quality.

The point I'd make there is that France had nearly a decade of massive underachievement before that happened, where I think their highest 6 Nations finish was 3rd?

In that context, it's far easier to back a 19 year-old.

But we can't say anything like that of Ireland, who've had their most successful ever decade.