Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

as much as the overall discussion might be a bit hyperbolic, your assessment of SP's game is also a bit hyperbolic. He directed field position well at times but was equally anonymous at times - the 20min red card period being a particularly bad time as ireland tried to overplay in their own half. again, he had some great touches with the boot but he also had some very aimless kicks and the clearance he put out on the full was particularly bad.

i think the talk about his defence is a bit ott in general but he really was terrible today and just brushing it off as you are isnt doing him any favours either.

i think the idea that ireland look better in attack with SP isnt fully correct either. they didnt look that great today, against both australia and england the attack looked much better with JC so that just leaves the scotland game? went very well in fairness but scotland are a pretty poor team when it comes down to it

SP is obviously a great player but its getting to a stage where he is being judged under completely different criteria to any other options - he isnt infallible

show me you haven’t a rashers what a discussion forum is without telling me you haven’t a rashers what a discussion is .

haven't you said this today already, or was that when you said you were just taking a break from the forum?

Some Irish players were good, a lot of Irish players were bad, today.

this is where we discuss them.

I have to say I think I'm missing something about Sam Prendergast that a lot here seem to see?

You'd think he was having a stinker based on some of the comments here. I'm not seeing that at all. He's been absolutely fine while delivering some moments that show how good he really is.

Does he need to improve? Of course. He's 22, but he has such a high ceiling from what I can see.

fair comment

Two things on this

1. Some of the people that would have referred to ROG a speed bump are now praising Sam and talking up his ability to soak tackle players
2. ROG probably hadn't anyone close to his class (until Sexton came along), unlike Sam who currently isn't as good as Crowley

its interesting that people keep saying that the attack looks better with SP at 10 despite their being no evidence of this apart from the scotland game, the attack was pretty poor today - as it was against england, as it was against australia (and NZ to be fair)

not the right forum

The selections for the last 4 games would attest otherwise homie

JGP has been man of the championship so far. Without him we weee goosed. He was also the unnamed MOTM 2 weeks ago against the Scottish . Doris a giant also, but in terms of making the big moments it has been JGP

Its pointless discussing any players performance on any given day if people are just going to look through a blue/red lens and go full Maga.

Ok. He's excellent, best no 10 in the world. eva. Nothing to improve on, never has an off day,

Happy now?

Discussion finished.

Many thanks for proving my point.

Many thanks for proving my point

SP looks lost a bit when under the pump and he knows he has to tackle; look at his body language for about 30 seconds before the Welsh try at end of the first half.

With the play in hand he looks like he was born to do it; like he's playing a different game to everyone else.

Improving his tackling in the long term shouldn't be difficult. In the short term he's going to be targeted, just like ROG was. I think he's going to have a great career.

Isn't rugby great that it was a role for a player like SP, in the safe field as Joe McCarthy and Porter etc.

Delighted for Wales and the tournament in general. A big Irish win wouldn't have been good for either. The 6 Nations needs Wales going well.