Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

This was the week to start James Ryan ahead of McCarthy. At least Ryan can do the basics of lock forward play without giving away brain dead penalties and getting sin binned.

I'm beyond incensed about 'Big Joe'. He needs the hair dryer treatment. Bags of ability and physicality but his attitude, mentality and workrate are miles off. He's been bigged up by the media and has failed to deliver in a big way in the last 12 months.

James Ryan is criminally underrated. Him and Beirne work so well together as a lock pairing because Ryan is willing to roll up his sleeves and melt into rucks and tackles for every game which allows Beirne to loiter for the poach. Big Joe is doing his best Neil Francis impression at ruck time.

Ultimately what has happened him and other prospects in the 3 non Leinster provinces is that they are playing in poor teams who are being beaten regularly. It's hard to measure up to the competition in blue when your team is struggling.

Munster and Ulster in particular are in the mire. Both former European champions and both are so far from that standard now it's frightening. Us down in Munster are lauding the signing of a new coach but I fear he's in for a rough ride because we don't have the players.

Connacht historically have struggled and that's why their current performance looks favourable in comparison to the other 2 provinces. Munster and Ulster have fallen further back than Connacht have advanced.

All the eggs are in one basket and it has paid off overall in the past 10 years with 6N success. We need four proud provinces though if we wish to go to the next level.

Case in point is Jamie Osborne. Clearly a real prospect for the centre. But not a winger. But because the other 3 provinces are struggling to produce it appears to be the best option to select the man in blue well out of position.

Osborne was one of the better players in the backline lads. Seriously the hyperbole is off the charts.

That seems to be a thing with Ulster though. So many talented players who have been coming through there seem to get a lot of injuries.

But again he's not a winger lacks that pace, he's the ideal 23 as he can cover multiple positions but he can be world class in fullback or centre. I know we had injuries but the fact that we still hadn't a proper winger brought in is telling.

I'd like to see Bolton, prioritised as he's got that power, Tommy O'brien if he can stay fit is a serious option.

I know he's not an out-and-out winger but people are using that as a stick to beat him with which is getting my back up.

I fully agree with you about Tommy O'Brien. If he could stay fit I think he has all of the talent to be the real deal.

I haven't seen much of Shane Bolton but from what I have seen, he definitely looks to have something about him. It will be be hard to replace Lowe though. Very few in world rugby has the raw strength he has.

Today has been in the post for McCarthy.

He had a strong start to his 18 caps, but when is the last time he put in a > 7/10 performance? You're probably going back 6 or 7 games at this point.

Yet he was given a CC regardless. 14 tackles over his last two games. Those are shocking numbers for a lock.

Oh definitely not criticising Osborne, too me it's the coaches have to take the criticism and it's the same with Healy, O'Mahony selected, I'm not blaming the players but like FFS the coaches should be getting stick for not bringing in Boyle, Healy well past it. O,Mahony with age lacks that power for a blindside, this is where Izuchukwu should be giving the chance.

In Ireland we seem to have a bad habit of failing to move on from players past their sell by date or even when they're injured and way off form, we love beating the dead horse.

I think the coaching team have got a lot wrong this season. Objectively looking at this season, we had a few outstanding individual performances cover up poor tactics and poor selection decisions. JGP, Lowe, and Doris have been outstanding. This will go down as a missed opportunity.

I am not revisiting the contentious player selections, but our media have a lot to answer for in bigging up players.

I don’t think it has been mentioned much but I thought Keenan had a good game (I was worried he was off the boil a bit) and had a fantastic 50-22.

it was a terrible selection by the management. They make their mind up about players and don’t look at what is happening on the field.

I take your point that we revert back to the trusted few quite quickly if a newcomer makes some mistakes.

But SA and NZ do the same. And both select workhorse type players. NZ won the WC with a 36 year old workhorse named Brad Thorn in the 2nd row. And SA won it with a 36 year old Duane Vermuelen starting at no.8.

I am not revisiting the contentious player selections, but our media have a lot to answer for in bigging up players.

One of the weirdest things driving the anti-Ireland sentiments on this board is the unshakeable conviction that the "media" influences selections. Absolutely bizarre.