Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

No, that wasn’t my argument, but I strongly suspect you already knew that.

My argument was we don’t play a style of play that he’s suited to. He is well suited to the cumbersome, forward heavy gameplan the South Africans play.

That’s why I’m arguing he’s of more value to the South Africans than he is to us.

Nz have scarred and tarnished both bod and sextons careers.

Yeah, that’s entirely consistent with me saying I don’t think he seems to be a fit for how we play and how much ball handling and carrying we want from our locks.

Why else do you actually think Farrell, O’Connell, Easterby and Co actually didn’t pick him? It’s obviously because they don’t think he’s a fit for what they want.

It would help if you’d read the thread tbh

Like I said hours ago, our depth problems are not uniform and never have been. Like I said hours ago, if Farrell lets test level props or half backs slip through the net, come back to me. Like I said an hour ago, everyone knows it’s not a uniform problem but if people want to pretend otherwise, sure grand.

If lads like Frisch and Kleyn are the biggest misses that people can point to, then I’ll call that a job well done by Ireland.

Yeah, but we don’t have the forwards to play the sort of game they play and we likely never ever will. Just because he’s a good fit for that system doesn’t mean he is for us.

South Africa pick more narrowly than anyone - they had the oldest squad at the RWC and still rely really heavily on that same core all the time.

No tier 1 team awarded fewer new caps between the 2019 RWC and the 2023 RWC than South Africa.

Once again - telling us what France do isn’t in any way convincing or compelling. There is no bigger underachiever in world rugby than France, so whatever they’ve been doing they should strongly reconsider it.

Yeah, it’s almost like all these countries have different systems of play and different levels of playing depth.

The constant reference to the QF is the single most tiresome reference in Irish sports, and the last refuge of people who’ve run out of actual substantive points to make.