Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Eh, taking Loughman would absolutely be more forward thinking. Don't agree on Cooney but I never argued for his conclusion.

Anyway, I'm not the least bit surprised. Ireland don't give guys a go unless the incumbent retires or gets injured. That's just how it is and anyone who expected that to change is silly. So before anyone says I'm whinging. I'm not. I'm just acknowledging how things are.

I wonder what it is that Loughman lacks in Farrell's eyes. He looks good to me; strong scrummager, and useful in the loose. I was looking forward to seeing him on early so Porter only had to play 60 minutes. Does Farrell think he doesn't have the right mentality?

I don't really see the point in including Larmour. He's topped out below higher end international rugby, and is too suspect defensively on the right edge. I suppose there aren't a whole lot of other options unless you included more of a development player who wouldn't actually be expected to play (Kilgallen, maybe). Shane Daly is more of a left wing/fullback, and Baloucoune hasn't played for quite a while as far as I'm aware. Could they have had a look at Stewart Moore as a playmaker winger? Farrell likes creatine wingers.

Coombes probably falls down in acceleration and open field speed. How much have you seen him running in the open and showing a good turn of pace? Timoney is way ahead in that regard.

Maybe if he went and got some training in doing block starts and 60m running it would be good for him.

and i think most munster fans would argue that, while it worked well in SA, not starting coombes (and RG) on saturday probably didnt work out. i dont think it worked all that well against ulster either tbh but we got away with it

I'm really looking forward to the tour. Love watching Ireland play.

Oh sorry, I'm doing it wrong. All these selections are wrong! Why haven't all those amazing 19 year old promising players who might have a high ceiling been selected! Ridiculous!

I was ridiculed for saying this before but I've heard numerous times now that it's not his physical capabilities, skills or on field performances for munster that are lacking..

Bench is just a convenient new excuse imo… Conan being on the bench constantly doesn't seem to do his chances any harm. Murray also has spells on the bench. Leinster rotate their 10s every week.

Pace, yeah maybe, if that's what you want your 8 doing. But strength… are ya mad! He's one of the most powerful rugby players on the island. A lot of his tries highlight reel is him barreling through players in the tight. He's an absolute ox. He also covers lock, and I'd say he'd make at least similar or better stab at it than Izzy or Baird. Handling is very good also.

Genuinely don't know how a player regularly posting the level of carries/tackles/rucks/tries that he does is not worthy of more of a look in. But there ya have it, them's the breaks.

Farrell is an intensely system based selector.

Even if this was true (and I don’t think anyone really believes it), isn’t the inability of a player to adapt to the team’s systems a massive black mark against him?

Like, why can Timoney and Prendergast - aka the guys keeping Coombes out of the squad - manage it and he (according to you) cannot? They don’t play for Leinster either.

That’s not the fault of the coaches, that’s the fault of the player.

But again, that’s your theory, not mine.