Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Probably for the match thread when it goes up, but can anyone recommend a good pub in Amsterdam to watch the match on Saturday?

IT REPORTING Sheehan is captain this weekend

Keenan injured?

pretty decent team. Would've preferred to see Osborne get a start in the centre, and literally anyone over POM. Happy to see youth been given a chance in the front row.

Mate of mine plays with AAC rugby in the 'dam. They always go to O'Donnells odonnellsamsterdam.nl

It's really not a long way off to JC.

It's SP having a couple of poor games in a row/getting injured away.

The joys of having depth

I must say, I really like the way the selectors have gone about this 23.
This is a perfect example of keeping the spine of the team and absorbing a few changes without too much change to effect the performance hopefully.
Some rotation among quality players to keep a bit of freshness to the core of the team (Henshaw starts - Aki benches, Osborne starts - Keenan is rested), a couple of players out injured (Furlong and Doris) and a couple of players back in from injury (J McCarthy and Hansen), and giving some youth a chance in the starting 15 (Osborne for Keenan, Clarkson for Bealham) and some exciting new talent to get a cap off the bench (Boyle and G McCarthy). Still loads of experience in the starting 15 (Ringrose, Henshaw Lowe, JGP, POM, VdF, Beirne and more) and loads of experience on the bench (Bealham, Ryan, Murray and Aki) while maintaining a bench that will add some threat in attack when introduced (Ryan, Baird Prendergast and Aki should all bring a lot of energy with 25 mins to go).

While I think Wales are very vulnerable to getting smashed I'm still looking forward to this now. There are plenty of talking points with this selection, obviously the ongoing battle for the 10 jersey, Hansen under pressure for 14 jersey, Osborne to put his hand up, Conan has a great chance to get back in the starting pack for the French match, McCarthy will be put through a fitness test, VdF will be busy marking their best player, Jac Morgan, possibly with a view to the starting 7 jersey for the B&I Lions, Clarkson to hold the scrums together. It's going to be hugely entertaining regardless of the score, a tight battle wouldn't be so bad if Wales overperform and Ireland struggle with the changes to find their groove, but I suspect this could be Ireland close to 50 points, match over with 30 to go. I'd love to see Ireland open up and score ten tries, we really should be capable of it if we can get things to click. A good start, and I could see a try within 5 minutes and no let up allowed to the final whistle.

I haven't seen the weather forecast, so it'll be interesting if it's wet and windy and Wales try to kick a lot of contestables, and look to defend to keep the scoreline down. That'll test our aerial ability as well as push us into attacking a lot as I expect Ireland to have a lot of the possession.

Edit: I see Cian Prendergast was named ahead of Baird, that's a good call in my opinion. CP has been due an opportunity, really hope he gets on early and puts in a big performance.

Hadn't considered that, if closed it would suit us even more you'd imagine, so I'd think Wales will opt to keep it open.

9am tomorrow for the team announcement.

Thornley says sheehan is captain.

Good choice if true, will always be a starter when fit. Interested to see how he interacts with the referee.

Osborne's future is in the centre imo. If Barret hadn't come in this season, I think he'd have displaced one of Henshaw or Ringrose.

Poor provence performance doesn't really come into it that much.

It's constantly mentioned here it's how they perform in camp

While it's fair to say that no Ulster player has earned a place in the match day squads, I think the positives for including Izzy way outweigh the negatives. A space is open in the back row anyway, Okay POM is there but him collecting another cap is going to be meaningless this time next year. If we can't beat Wales without the "leadership" of POM then they should throw in the towel.

At least with Izzy (or Prendergast/Culhane/Gleason/McNabney), you have a guy who could potentially be the difference maker in next year's 6N and at a minimum could be pushing lads for a place at the next WC. The fallback position of going back to a legend whos best days are behind him has probably been the biggest impediment to the Irish rugby team for the last decade.