Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

just for completeness, he was also picked for the Lions in 2013 (but injured before the tests)

With the whole Crowley v Prendergast (v Frawley) debate it doesn’t have to be either or. We have been used to a dominant and clear winner for a long time. They all have their place and a good competitive environment can only be to the teams advantage. Depth ,as we have learned in the front row, is crucial. The next half dual not too far down the tracks, 2-3 years maybe, is for 9, Casey v Gunne v Murphy, as by that time JGP who has been a giant will be 35, same age as Murray ,another legend of the game, is now. Rotating in the year of a World Cup isn’t ideal but my bet is that JGP will still be world class as he is so strategic around the field and has a very athletic composure. This Autumn series has given rise to much helpful debate, and to have Sam & Gus integrated now can only be a step forward

Think people forget that ROG used to make a lot of breaks in his younger years.

Like this stuff to me is insane - Andy Farrell constantly comes across as incredibly genuine and honest in his comments, and his feedback. The players, largely to a man, absolutely love playing for him and you never hear the grumbles of discontent out of the playing group (that you heard frequently under both Kidney & Schmidt).

Why, if you accept the above premise, can you not just accept that in Farrell's eyes Crowley was poor against NZ? Yeah, the overall team were poor and made a lot of errors, but Farrell was patently unhappy with Crowley's performance.

FWIW - I have heard from people in camp that the constant work ons for Crowley in the Irish squad are his command of the detail and his organisation of the attack. He's in a difficult place because he's following on from one of the most detail-oriented players (maybe the most) in Irish rugby history in Johnny Sexton, but it is absolutely clear something that the Irish coaches want from a 10 is that absolute control of the entire team and the attacking shape.

We don't have elite athletes in our backline in Irish rugby - in fact we are probably athletically the poorest of all the top tier 1 nations (NZ, SA, France, England, Aus, maybe even Scotland), but we have still had one of the very best attacks in world rugby because we have had this really detailed and structured attack with a huge degree of precision. It is largely on the 10 to run that it seems in the Irish system.

Crowley is very clearly a really talented rugby player, and I love the aggressive and direct style he brings to the game, but, that is not exactly what Ireland seem to want from a 10. As good as I thought he was when he came on last night, and he was excellent IMO, there were still two or three occasions where it looked like the attack got confused and out of shape:

-look at the sequence around the 69 min mark - we put the ball into the line out on 68:36, get ball off the top at 2 to Beirne. Casey goes to pass instantly but reads well that the Aussie tail gunner has run through to cut off the pass in the first instance, so he holds briefly and then finds Crowley. Crowley goes short to Henshaw running a hard line back inside, we get quick ruck ball and then Casey hits Doris who tips on to Gus McCarthy for good centre field possession. Quick ruck ball again, and Casey then feeds Hansen, but for some reason, our attack has lost momentum, even though the two preceding carries made the gain line and had quick ruck ball. We run one more phase, and then from the ruck on exactly 69 mins it looks like we've fully lost our shape, Crowley is kind of directly behind the ruck, and he feeds back to POM (about a yard away from him) and they nearly run into each other. It's clear from several players reactions that our momentum has stalled. We end up winning a penalty though on the next phase.

A few mins later again, off a drop out and a carry up the middle from Doris - around the 71 min mark - we once again seem to have lost structure and Casey shapes to pass right, then has to check and go back inside to Henshaw (way behind the gainline) and our attack is kind of exchanging passes back and forth without momentum.

Maybe I'm just being extremely nitpicking here - but this was during a sequence when we were in the clear ascendancy and our pack were winning plenty of quick ruck ball, but for whatever reason we seemed unable to build a structured multi-phase attack, something that for the longest time was a massive strength of ours.

Very long post - but for me, these two microcosm examples (and both jumped out to me immediately watching the game yesterday) and very good examples of what I think the coaches are telling Crowley they need to seem him improving with.

I'm not obviously suggesting things were rosy with Sam leading the attack either yesterday (though he did have good sequences and I think this kind of structured multi-phase attack is a key strength of his). They're both really young and talented 10s who are still largely finding their feet at international level to a certain extent (Crowley obviously a year or more ahead of Prendergast right now), but for the multiple people asking what it is the coaches want to see more of from Crowley - this is what I think it is.

This has come up before, but there are countless examples of him where he's shown really good speed:

This clip in this post shows an 80m break he made while an U20 international against Scotland. Sure, it's not the most recent and it's not the best of opposition, but calling anyone who can make an 80m break at U20 International level "unathletic" is patently ridiculous.

I don't think he carried the ball well yesterday (despite the stats showing he had plenty of carrying metres), but the suggestion that he can't is not the case.

In either event - per my post above, I don't think it's necessarily a core skill we're looking for in our 10. Obviously it's a very nice to have, but it appears we would rather have someone with the distribution and organisation for the attack as the core piece more than just very strong carrying directly from 10.

Can the loss of shape in attack be partially attributed to the transition from Catt to Goodman as backs coach?

I think we had similar difficulties, initially, when Mike Catt first came on board.

for the record Ireland have 2 backs coaches. Goodman and sexton.

Farrell has made mistakes since he got the job and gets an easy ride from the media
His handling of the last World Cup would have seen him fired by any other T1 nation. Here he was defended by the media.

I would love to know what freedom easterby is being given for the 6 nations , I would assume none and Farrell will pick the team and be on the phone during games. Sexton probably his canary.

What are the facts

Goodman was appointed backs coach earlier this year.
sexton was added to the management ticket before the autumn tests and Farrell wants him kept on permanently.

That’s two back coaches. And only one is needed.
goodman sees the writing.

mentor to who

Crowley and Frawley don’t need mentoring , their grown men who are seasoned professionals. They both stood up in the 6 nations and in South Africa without sextons mentoring.

Is he there to mentor prendergast? Is that his one role. I don’t believe that. I don’t see Leinster hiring him to mentor prendergast or anyone else.

He is assisting with how our backs should play. His way. 10 controls everything by taking the ball to the line and releasing. Problem is the jig is up on that one play. We saw that in the World Cup quarter final.