Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

I agree. On top of this we are forced to drop Herring and Kelleher in cold. Injury fecked us and I feel this is where we fall short. While both hookers are grand and capable, the lack of other options is a problem. Nobody's fault really, it happens. It's watching the coin drop and for us it fell on the wrong side. Another issue for me is our discipline. How are we so undisciplined? We can blame the officials etc cetera, but we're unable to affect any change in the moment. I expect a better performance this week. But we can't gloss over the apparent problems within the entire group. That's coaching included.

Agreed, we clearly did have a plan to kick a lot.

Which, when you combine that with the issues at the ruck and our handling / unforced errors, I think is then harsh to put it on Crowley for not getting the attack going.

You’re forgetting Ben Murphy.

Well as I said yesterday on thread, it was evident from Farrell's quote that while he intended to kick a lot, he himself said he was frustrated with how few times we went through 3 phases or more and he put that on the out halves. When you couple that quote with hooking Crowley ashore after 57 mins, I think it's clear the coaches weren't thrilled with his performance and our attack.

I also think he didn't kick brilliantly during the game. Some of the contestables were just that yard or two too long, and allowed the Kiwi to come down and make a step to avoid the chase. Some of it was just how good Will Jordan in particular dealt with high balls though.

About lunchtime.

Just watched the game back (slow day at work). Crowley had a grand game and did what he could with the ball that he had. His up and unders were all contestable (bar the first one as you say), he passed/tackled well, kicked his points and made very few errors. Notably the knock on of course, but Bundee had a worse one earlier in the game and it's barely mentioned. Many of the ratings I've seen in the papers had him as the worst player on the paddock…I'm baffled by it, or maybe I just don't know much about out halfs!? Frawley just looked shell shocked, but I saw some flashes from him in-between the errors. Lovely little dink over the top late on that Mack should have taken, Murray was under the sticks if he had.

The amount of momentum killers Ireland had was what was so frustrating on second viewing. Be it handling error, fluffed line out or penalty against (some dubious ones there). Meant they could never get into their stride at all and get the attack moving. It's not all doom and gloom. We played well in patches and our defence was solid. If we can cut down on the error count, work on the discipline (get a ref that looks at both sides) and fix the lineout we'd be motoring….!😅

I read today about ‘home truths’ in the camp

If we pick basically the same team and beat Argentina what will have we learnt, for me the lesson learnt will be nothing.

We cannot hope to get to a World Cup semi or final if we continue down this route of not giving plenty of game time to at least 35 to 40 players.
if we continue to concentrate game time to the same core of players we are not preparing properly.

All it takes is a few injuries and poor form to some of those key players in 2026 and 2027 and we are goosed to fail.
For me we have to stop with this nonsense of having some players who are treated like the golden calves.

For example Sexton retires and we are told we cannot easily replace such an important playmaker, for me this is a weakness not a strength.
no one player should be allowed to have such a power hold on the international team - that is why team rotation is so important regardless of perceived quality if the squad.

Rugby is a very physical and technical game - it makes no sense not to build an experienced squad.

I’d agree with a lot of that tbh. I don’t think Crowley’s performance would even make a top 5 of issues we had on Friday.

And tbh, as poor as Frawley was, I’m not sure his was either.

i wouldn't be in favor of dropping any one just for the optics.

It’s Argentina we are playing who have beaten, NZ, aus, SA and France in the past 4 months .

Theres also the fact that they have never beaten ireland in Dublin, ever !

Id expect the strongest possible team to start and pick your optoins for the bench.

I'm not convinced that bringing POM back in will actually sort out Ireland's lineout issues. He has started plenty of games where we've struggled at set piece.at this stage it looks like a coaching issue.

would it not be a better tactic to retreat asap behind our kick receiver and hit hard if we’re not the winner of the high ball contest a bit like the backup to kickoff receiver is there in case the catch is missed, rather than hang around in a potentially penalty conceding position. I never played so maybe this is naive thinking but we look caught between what we used to do and what’s now required by refs.

I'm not reading anything into it - this is the specific excerpt from Farrell:

Frawley will come under consideration for his first Test start at outhalf after a contest that called into question Ireland’s game management as they adjust to life after the generational player that was Johnny Sexton.

“Game-management is not just down to them, it’s down to others helping with the calls and seeing the space,” said Farrell of his inexperienced outhalves. “But, having said that, if you are playing you would expect yourself to hold on to the ball for more than a couple of phases, which we didn’t do at times.”

He's clearly speaking specifically about the outhalves, the question is about them. The "them" here is Crowley and Frawley - so when he says "you would expect yourself to hold onto the ball for more than a couple of phases…" he's clearly laying that at the feet of the two 10s.