Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

That is correct, although you'll always have the odd late bloomer. Most schools players who start in a particular position for their school continue in that position afterwards, whether in club or professional. There are obvious exceptions, Brian O'Driscoll played scrum half in school for example and wasn't considered big enough to have a career outside school. Lol.

Props tend to stay being props, same with locks although there is some interchange with back rows and backs tend to stay as backs although again, some back rows can end up as backs. Jack Conan was a number 8 in school and has only recently switched between that and 6 or even 7. But always in the back row.

Reffell and Morgan are both excellent poachers so your expect Wales to use similar tactics to England and steal as much ball as possible. It was a successful tactic for at least the opening 30 minutes of that game.

They don't have as much power up front as England though. Their relative dominance in that half was based on a pressure game where they disrupted or stoke our ball, won collisions and kicked intelligently behind our defence. I can't see Wales having that same success rate at the gain line.

They'll be fired up for this game especially. They didn't give up on Gatland, but it was clear they weren't getting anywhere with his gameplay and morale was on the floor. They'll be horsing into every contact this weekend and the first quarter will be a shitshow I imagine. Ireland should win. We have a better squad, a successful game plan and we aren't prone to having long patches on bad play in game. But if Wales get an early lead and keep that into the second half all bets are off.

id say that didnt happen to be honest or at worse there was a bit of ribbing. actual abuse is almost impossibly unlikely though

I’m long enough in the tooth to know the difference between a bit of ribbing and abuse. The sh1t that was hurled that day was nasty.

will we all be listing nonsense?

Can I tell my tall tale next?

Haha, very good. Won’t clog up the thread getting into this with you of all people.

enjoyable enough game, Wales played well, much improved from Gats.
think if it wasn’t for the 20 minute red rule that could have been a loss.

DOris has his knee in a brace which is a major concern