Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Looking forward to seeing Casey get a run against SA. He’s served a (long) apprenticeship and has earned it. With regards to his kicking, I think he’s improved that massively over the years. Murray’s kicking has historically been excellent but think it’s definitely tailed off since 2018 when we used to regain a huge amount of contestables in part due to the quality of his kicks but also of course to the chasers. We rely on that far less now and I can see us using Lowe, Crowley and Osborne far more on Saturday as kicking options.

Generally the better teams don't need to get out of second gear against them. The draw last year to France the beating Wales were very rare occurrences.

It eas four months ago, during the 2023 world cup. I've amended my posts as mistakenly left out "months".

I'd absolutely say the same against Wales. They are awful. Scotland, I would put their result down to a rare lapse from them rather than any significant improvement fro Italy. I expect normal service to be resumed next season.

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/2024/07/05/springboks-coach-rassie-erasmus-has-transformed-south-african-rugby-in-weird-and-wonderful-ways/

I honestly think Erasmus's biggest enemy is the utterly obsequious SA press. When the d***-riding hits levels of:

"Rassie brings the nation together. South Africa needs Rassie. Rassie gives hope for the future."

you simply can't expect to be kept in check by fair journalistic scrutiny. And you'll never think you have a bad idea.

Not that we're anywhere near this point with Farrell, who I believe is fundamentally a better person than Erasmus to begin with, but there is nonetheless a broader cautionary tale here for those who label discussion of a coach's decisions and policies as 'relentless abuse' or 'hatred.'

Everyone deserves scrutiny, including those who are complaining.

Many called for experimentation and now that one of Ireland's most exciting young prospects is getting his first cap certain posters are moaning about the lack of opportunity for a 30 year old who had an out of shape now retiree starting ahead of him at his province.

Who?

Who are these people who you claim are saying both Osbourne is not a risk but Casey is?

From reading the thread since the Osbourne rumour came out I feel these 'absolute hypocrites' are 100% in your head.

What are you talking about?

I asked you to back up your claims of these 'absolute hypocrites' and you came back with this nonsense.

I asked you to back up this claim by you:

The lads who sugget 90 cap craig casey is a risk but osbourne is not however are absolutely hypocrites

You've completely failed in it and are now trying to drag in a completely different comment, one that I never made.

Will leave you at it.

as stated already, i doubt most peoples ideas of experimentation would be giving a player their debut away to the current rwc champions in a position which theyve barely played recently

Playing Osborne is a huge risk. Of course it is.

But it has a huge potential upside and that’s what people are missing. JOB and Frawley are good players and decent full backs but neither has a ceiling nearly as high as Osborne. It might pay off tomorrow, it might not, but it’s worth a go.

It’s exactly the sort of selection that people have been saying Farrell never makes. And then he does, and he’s still getting stick.

Likewise, Casey is a risk. Less so than Osborne maybe but Murray is a far more known quantity in a game like this, this is a huge step up from anything Casey has ever played before. Maybe he’ll struggle, but what if he has a stormer?