Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

I always assumed that CCs were designed, in part at least, to compensate provinces for the lack of the use of their own players due to IRFU player management. Leinster essentially need another 12 players to fill in for Ireland players who are unavailable for many of their league games. Spreading that money around more evenly just creates another financial problem. It comes down to funding for player development, but also some sort of system to hold provinces accountable for doing it badly. Do it well you end up with central contracts, do it badly and you're wasting money that other provinces are doing more with.

All players are IRFU players. I'm not sure CCs make any sense at this stage, or are anything other than a distraction.

There are plenty of players out there on PONI contracts, with the central IRFU paying varying amounts of the player's contract. There's no clear delineation, so why bother with these titles?

But regardless of what the funding is called its still likely to end up with the province supplying more player to Ireland being compensated more than the others. Ulster have a few players under an IRFU managed minutes regime while Leinster have a dozen+, meaning that province is having to find other players to cover at greater expense. This was the issue that undermined French rugby for years, and arguably English Rigby too. One way or another Leisnter will get more money out of any arrangement as long as they supply most of the players to the nat team. I do agree that the CC system is counter productive though, and well past its sell by date.

Right, and this begs the question, at what point do optics and fan sentiment determine how the IRFU approaches the funding problem, like how sensitive is the IRFU to public opinion? Thats a bit of a slippery slope because, yes, people are pissed off, but they also don't really know wtf they're talking about. The priority for the union is A) keep winning & B) keep building from the bottom up. I'm not sure where on the list ?) keep fans happy, is.

• Andy copied the Leinster head coach's homework, Lancaster's in this case.
• Andy is incapable to integrating players from other provinces, because he's a vibes guy.
• Lanny left, shortly followed by Catt.
• Andy is now copying Nienaber's homework (it's what he does) which is the 2019 Bok playbook.
• Irish players are now Boks light.
• Leinster will get pumped in the business end of the Champions cup
• IRFU will need to cancel Nienaber's contract and get Lanny back to Leinster, or pay Lanny a ransom to be an attack coach.
• Lanny tried an on-ball game with Owen Farrell at 10 (not good)
• Lanny wouldn't work as a national coach, because the Leinster guys need to rep his system constantly at their club to play at an acceptable level.
• Connacht and Munster play more like Ireland used to play than Leinster do now.
• Some hybrid of Lanny's system with a more kick focused game might work.
• Sam is an off-ball 10, Jack is an on-ball 10 they get selected according to the game plan.

Somebody has been on the sauce for a few days it seems.

Leisnter getting pumped in the Champions Cup final to peak saracens, LaR and toulouse is a damn side preferable to losing to the world powers zebre, edinburgh and castres.

I’d love if Farrell rang up Lancaster and got Him involved in some capacity. Would probably need him in for the summer to have a decent impact for RWC

Thats true but other countries are now beginning to see how to deal with our forward surges (other than Sheehan). It also makes for turgid viewing. I personally hate mauled tries. There should be some disincentive - maybe no conversion allowed?

I do actually. A better game to watch.