Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

If you think Osbourne did better than Bundee I'd guess you don't watch, or understand, the game.

Osbourne was very poor but he tried really hard which he deserved kudos for.

I hope with the Lions etc this Summer that the coaching team are looking to introduce a lot of new talent. We are 2 years out from the world cup and 2 six nations tournaments.

In all reality we are an ageing team and a substantial rebuild will need to begin this summer.

Bedhlam, Beirne, Conan, Van der Flier, Furlong, Aki, Henshaw will be 33 or older by then. Furlong will be 34 but has a dreadful recent injury record. Not to mention Gibson Park will be 35 and Lowe 34.

We looked a slow team on sat and none of the lads mentioned above are going to get any faster.

No, I'm talking about Ireland in general, Lowe is very important to how we play but he has his weaknesses too, Aki is like a forward in defence and can challenge anyone in attack and JGP is probably the second best scrumhalf in the world.

Did you watch the match? Took too long to decide about things and made a mistake when Penaud came at him, an awful kick to Dupont not giving any time for somebody to get up the field, had an opportunity to pass but decided to keep running up a blind alley and got shoved out. There was loads more.

ah in fairness Nash only found out he was playing right before the game.

He wasn’t even in the 23 😁

Talk about being thrown into a game 😂

I’d say he was looking forward to having a few pints and watching the game like the rest of us 😂

Nash was poor on Saturday, the whole team was. Nash also played all (?) the 6Ns last season and we won that so he's not as poor as some would portray or hope.

Nash apparently carried an injury into training last week and he spent the full week as the opposition winger rather than training to be playing for Ireland, again, if this is true then it's poor management as anyone that is in the matchday 23+ should be doing Irish drills and just being opposition player or tackle bags.

In saying that, he should have been better and might have let his chance slide as it seems those on the peripheral of the squad can drop off it a lot faster than those in the starting 15.

I'd give Nash a break on much of his performance, not sure he would have been running in any of the prep over last week, its a very tall order to come in cold on the wing against France. The card was on him but I wouldn't be holding his feet to the fire over much else given his prep.

Poor show all around and then some poor fortune no to get over the line early on, though some of the decisions there lacked the kind of patience Ireland of a couple of years ago were so good at. I've no doubt we aren't the team we were for obvious reasons, but Saturday's team was sub optimal even for where we are at. Aki taking a bad knock early on, Rinigrose absent, Nash a very late call up compounding a very novice Osborne on the other wing. And French tactics absolutely spot on, plus their spirit and work rate was insane and pitch perfect for the full match.

For me I wish Crowley had more time at ten, but it's been clear for a couple of years that he is not trusted fully by Farrell. That's been obvious since the 1/4 when he was left on the bench. He has been used at ten where there was no real alternative but once Prendergast was judged to be even nearly ready he was moved aside, for good or bad. That was Australia and since then they've nailed their colours to the mast with him. Fair enough, it's why a lot of us are often disappointed about when young players don't get promoted as quickly as they might. Longer term I hope it doesn't mean Crowley is no longer given opportunities there as he does have qualities that make him a better selection is some cases than Prendergast, though I don't think it would have changed the outcome on Saturday. France have better players and our game was off across the team at the weekend, tiny margins in some cases but enough to compound French advantages in personnel.

Overall there are a few real alarm bells ringing for Ireland. Our bench is full of guys who are Leinster subs, its noones fault that the second or 3rd best in any position is behind their Leinster team mate so we are relying on guys who don't play much high level rugby. Our attack hasn't been great this tournament, even against weaker teams. We have never been a team to tear the opposition teams but we aren't getting bonus points at the rate we were, these are trends and they bode ill for the future. We need a big reset before the next WC which is happening one way or another due to a large number of players aging out. The next few years might be ugly.