Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Anyway. If we assume a 33-man squad, it could look something like this;

Porter, Healy, Loughman, Furlong, Bealham, Jager, Sheehan, Kelleher, Herring

Ryan, Beirne, McCarthy, Murray/Ahern/Treadwell

Doris, VDF, Baird, Conan, Prendergast, POM/Ahern/Hodnett

JGP, Murray, Casey

Crowley, R Byrne, Frawley

Aki, Henshaw, McCloskey, Ringrose/Osborne

Lowe, Nash, JOB, Hansen/Larmour

So I reckon the only calls are

• who replaces Henderson, is Ahern viewed as a lock or a 6? Do we move on from Treadwell?
• will POM travel or is he retiring from tests?
• Are Ringrose and Hansen going to be fit?

I reckon you're a back three player short (Stockdale) and a backrower heavy. Farrell likes going with only one openside, and you don't need three 6s or 8s. I can't see them phasing out O'Mahony yet considering he was captain for the 6N and looking at how Earls was kept on. Farrell sees the squad harmony/morale positive as outweighing the negative of an aging player maybe not quite being there purely based on playing merit. And POM probably isn't even at that stage yet.

I'm interested to see where Tom O'Toole is in the pecking order. He's been a bit of a pet project for Farrell over the last three or four seasons, but is he now behind Jager? Does he switch to loosehead? Farrell's gone with only 5 props in squads before, and he doesn't seem especially keen on Loughman, so maybe they just go with the props that make the XXIII and O'Toole.

The whole internet read your deleted post. You cannot say you're arguing in good faith. Great to see how you feel when the mask drops though..

Irish Rugby has a big problem at loosehead. Once you go past Porter the quality just isn't there.

None of the current starting or replacement props at the provinces are good enough to be relied upon. Of the lot Healy is still probably the best and he's clearly nearing the end of his career.

Might have to go to the newer generation of props like Milne of even Boyle before you get to someone who can possibly be trusted to bench ahead of Healy. And even then I have reservations about Milne.

We might see O'Toole get his first outing at LH.

Can't see Treadwell still on the cards - he's been very quiet this season, possibly leapfrogged by Sheridan at Ulster.

I agree. I suspect Razzmatazz will quietly shuffle his deck. No harm in given Casey/Bealham/Ahern the reins.

POM is still a huge leadership presence for Munster, he's still the guy everyone looks to for on field decisions and is apparently still the most vocal voice behind the scenes. His performances this season have been more understated but I never felt as if he was playing poorly, certainly for Munster I wouldn't dream of playing a knockout game with Ahern ahead of him who's still learning at this level.

We have to move on from POM at some stage but think he'd leave a big leadership void at present. The hope was probably for Doris to advance his claim as a leader and captain but that aspect seemed to be heavily criticised by BOD this week so it would appear he's not yet ready.

Last time we played Fiji, three players made their debuts, JOB and Deegan got their second caps, Timoney got his third, even Baloucoune got a start and there were plenty more fringe guys involved

Nothing breeds resentment like success

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