Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

its the "Trump effect" in action

essentially flood the zone with sh!t until the misinformation overwhelms any reasonable comment or debate.

its hilarious at this stage.

but to be a bit more two sided, Zebos idiotic comments haven't helped either. That lad could do with a review editor before he posts stuff.

the bookies currently have the spread at 6 points in favour of South Africa. i think it will be between 6 and 10 myself, before ireland names.

this tour will only be of use of we get to see how our more inexperienced players deal with playing the world cup winners. Hopefully casey and frawley start and casey puts in a good enough performance with firm the role as the back up 9, and well enough again to close the gap on JGP. In my opinion this is the single most important "learning" we will take from the tour.

Crowley is still very inexperienced at this level, but he is the incumbent and has a bit of distance between himself and his nearest rival for the jersey, and to be fair, hes currently a better out half than any of them. Hopefully he can show control in the face of a pack not getting it their own way.

i expect James Ryan to start on the bench, which i hope gives him sufficient kick in the ass to bring his game to an even higher level than he can. He does all the lock work to a high standard, he just needs to find an extra point of difference.

Jimmy O Brien and Ciaran Frawley both have had tough games at 15 recently, and will need to show that they are solid in the aerial battle if they are to have any hope of getting meaningful game time in green, and not just being bit part bench utility players. Is Osbourne a valid option there? He has a massive boot as well

Not really what?

if Osbourne is being looked at at 15, isnt that Farrell looking to see who might be the next best 15?

exactly. Both the named players there have shown issues lately aerially. If its a "let see how osbourne gets on" viewpoint im all for it.