Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Scott Robertsons fringe is working harder than the Irish team managed all night.

Hansen offers a lot and I'm glad to see him back. Popped in as second receiver a few times in the first half to act as the bridging pass option.

Our attack was badly out of step handling wise, but you can see the value he adds to the side when he's in it.

Great post, agree with a lot. Classic case of "you're never as good as they say you are when you win, and never as bad as they say you are when you lose" for me, I'd say on both a team level and an individual level for the likes of Crowley and Frawley, say.

Having said that, I expect to see a few changes next week in the 23. But still expect it to be 10. Crowley 22. Frawley.

I think the WR rankings are very fair and make perfect sense. Once your top of them, it's very hard to stay there as you'll rarely accumulate points as you can never beat a higher ranked team and gain the big points.

The problem with that was we kept with Sexton rather then looking for the next best and bedding them in. I

Poor performance however Farrell will I'm sure stick with same guys at least through the next 6 nations where we have a decent shot of winning, I do have major concerns for the next world cup and the age profile, it's going to be too late in 12 months time to bring through some younger players. I know we've done well collectively over the last 4 years at u-20 but are there any real stand-outs

Some amount of alcohol consumed at these rugby matches. They are no longer really suited to families which is a pity. Was like sitting in a:brewery at times with the match being second to chatting and boozing. The irfu need to reign in all the beer being brought out onto the stand.

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Its been done to death at this stage but looking back at the bench selection was pretty poor from an impact point of view. I also was surprised we waited so long to make some of the changes with the way things were going.

Healy a great servant but need to try and find someone to come on here. Surely there are options who can at least do a job for 3-4 mins which is what he seems to be doing at the minute.

Herring who hasn't played all season that I know of. Surely Heffernan (who has been going well for Connacht but is over 30 aswell) or McCarthy would offer more.

O Toole, no problem with his selection and was very unfortunate to be hurt. Hopefully he will be ok.

Henderson a bit like Healy his best days are probably behind him and not exactly a dynamic replacement like a Baird for example.

POM similar to above if he isn't starting I don't think he offers an impact off the bench. Cormac Iz or Cian Prendergast might offer a bit more dynamism and get them tested at the top level see what they are made of.

Murray again the same as the above guys around forever probably past his best still a fine player but do we have to at some stage see whether Casey can come on and close out a game if he is going to be the next guy.

Frawley no issues with that choice but he had a nightmare felt bad for him

Osbourne no issue with him either

our last result -with a very similar team- was an away win in South Africa.

We can’t know what tonight’s performance means until we put it in the context of more games.

It could be the watershed moment of an aging team, or it could just be a bad night at the office.

For the long run of the team I’m not sure it’s good if we revert to experience next week and get a result with the likes of Henderson, Aki and POM having crackers. We have good younger alternatives to all three. Bit more difficult with Healy as we’re shallow there. Can see Farrell giving them all another chance though rather than throwing in some younger lads to get the show back on the road.

I agree. The bigger concern for me is that tonight was comfortably the worst of our three defeats this calendar year.

I think there were more handling errors and penalties conceded through ill discipline than in both defeats to England and South Africa combined. I didn't recognize this Ireland team. Another performance like that and you start to worry.