Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Of the penalties Ireland gave away.

4 were for offside. 2 for Doris, 1 for Henshaw and a blatant offside by McCarthy. Thought 1 of the offsides was marginal. But no need for any of the offsides. Poor disclipine.

1 scrum penalty. No issue with this. Could have been a second penaltyagainst us.

2 for Holding on. Both on Osborne, not his fault. I thought we might get away with the first one as hands were on the ball for only a fraction of a second before McCarthy clearout.

1 for crossing, correct decision.

Croc roll.

Hit in air by Crowley. Poor penalty to give away

Thrown across line, Beirne.

James Ryan rips the ball fractionally before ref calls tackle. Ref says he called tackle before rip. Replay shows ref incorrect.

Push in back by Lowe. Argentinian player should have been penalised for protecting catcher.

Generally Argentinian disclipine much better than Ireland. Should have been penalised for offside jumping across a ruck to tackle Casey. Also a couple of times for obstructing the path in front of catcher

Are you sure it wasn't this one by Crowley, where he finishes for a try? 2 min 38s in.

Y'know, I'm aware they're different people. I just thought you might be mixing the break up given the similarities… U20's, Scotland, 80m etc…

Edit: If you change the x to twitter in the link, it will embed.

Crowley was pretty angry with himself for the contact in the air.

Ryan’s one was very harsh, at worst he was in the motion of stripping the ball when the ref called tackle. That was a real momentum shift I felt at the time.

At the end of the day, Ireland are making the same mistakes they make in every world cup cycle. They keep playing the first 15, game after game, regardless of inconsequential it is. Very few new players being integrated or blooded.

The international team creates the revenue so it's important for them to be successful and keep the crowds coming, money rolling in. But it's at the expense of development. You should be willing to take two poor years in order to have a squad with genuine depth in years 3 and 4. Winning November internationals and even a 6N is almost meaningless at this stage. The goal needs to be peaking for the next WC, not being world "No 1" for 3 years and falling at the QF again.

The seasoned players need rest and competition in order to keep them fresh as long as possible and put their position in jeopardy.

There's only one currency that matters for Ireland at this stage. There was no debuts against NZ or even newer players given a chance. They'll chance a couple of lads against perceived weaker teams but come 6N it'll be back to first 15 again, even against Italy.

And building for the future isn't writing off 75% of the rugby calendar. It's investment in the future. It's why we've never progressed.

Thought we were up n down. Good 1st half. Awful 2nd. Still sloppy and slightly off. I thought Henshaw or Ringer were motm. Big Joe was fairly average.

We look slow to get set for the lineout which gives the defending team an opportunity to line us up. I’d be telling them to speed it up which might also take the pressure off the thrower.

We’ve won 5 out of the last 11 6N tournaments. That’s some going.