Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Agree with this. The squad is fairly old. But, the summer tour should bring in a handful of newbies.

Replying to above post

Collectively it's a problem. In a couple of years we could hit a situation where the core of the team all begins to decline or age out at around the same time. All of the players listed are included on merit but if we don't start filtering in younger players over time it's going to lead to a slump followed by a drastic clearout and a difficult transition to the next generation.

Something similar happened in Wales with the 22/23 team. Welsh coaches rode the AWJ & friends train for a solid decade getting a bunch of centurions in the process but they were all a similar age, all declined at the same time and within 18 months the entire squad fell apart and left Wales in the shambles they're in today.

It was 22 mins. Way too short to be drawing conclusions about any kind of form from that.

dont think thats a dave alred thing to be honest, going by any videos ive seen of him working with players he spends alot of time working on spirals, i doubt hes then telling them not to use them

France have named 42 players, eight of whom are uncapped.

Ireland have named 40 players, seven of whom are uncapped.

I fail to see how one of these is much worse than the other. If you can only see the older players and ignore the younger ones, then yes, it's an old squad.

The comparisons to Wales are hilarious. We have been actively turning over our squad at a pretty consistent rate. For all the people moaning about POM, they're forgetting he was dropped for our last match against the world champions, that Murray is now third choice, that Herring is also third choice, and that Healy would be out to pasture if only we had a decent alternative.

There's no younger player who can consider themselves truly hard done by today.

We might have T'O'T packing down at loose head. That would be great if he can perform there.

So? It's a start, isn't it? it's up to them to make an impression now.

Gus McCarthy is one of only two hookers in the squad who could actually line out if we had a game tomorrow. Clarkson and Boyle are each one injury away from benching against Fiji.

Let's see how many new caps the French actually dish out.

People are missing out on some much enjoyment from this team by only ever focusing on the negatives and constantly looking for ways to criticise. It's genuinely depressing.

Jack Boyle is a loosehead prop.