Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

I've followed Murphy's career since he was in school. Very talented but I think he is a step below the other two in terms of floor and ceiling.

Not a slight on him at all, it says more about Prendergast and Crowley.

In fairness I posted the above before watching Prendergast and Crowley yesterday who were both excellent. So there's no doubt he has a bit to go to get to their level. But he is a year younger than Prendergast and maybe 4 years younger than Crowley so he'll hopefully move in that direction, how far down the road he gets remains to be seen.

Sam was excellent at home against a very weak Premiership 2nds team . Crowley won a down to the wire nail biter with a touch of absolute class away to a Top 14 off form giant. Murphy is some distance from both but shows promise

Gavin Coombes with yet again another stellar performance for Munster in a huge game. Won his battle with the French captain Aldritt and made meters all day against a monster pack. Showed his skills too scoring his try. Not saying he should be ahead of Doris but there isn't another backrow player in Ireland like him. It's criminal that he didn't see game time in this 6N from the bench.

We need to stop picking flat track bullies like Baird and get the likes of Coombes into the squad.

He is the perfect player to fill to no.20 shirt going forward. Would offer huge impact off the bench. But I won't hold my brearth on it happening. Baird and Cian P seem to be ahead of him in Farrell's eyes despite not having near the same form at club level. It seems like Farrell has some issues with Coombes' personality and that's what's preventing him getting time in a green shirt. Something stemming back to an Ireland camp in 2023. Time to move on from that and do what's best for Ireland heading into RWC 2027.

 Farrell has some issues with Coombes' personality and that's what's preventing him getting time in a green shirt. Something stemming back to an Ireland camp in 2023. 


That’s literally the first time anything has been suggested about any incident in camp, two years after the fact? I think the truth is probably far more mundane, that they have preferred other players like Timoney, Prendergast and Izuchukwu.

But Coombes was back in the squad this past 6N, he's a cert to go to Portugal and Georgia and if he can back up Saturday's performance with more of the same this weekend and in the business end of the URC, he'll be in a great position for 'proper' caps come the Autumn.

Not the first time an incident in camp has been mentioned here. I gave out about Coombes not getting into match day squads in the past and was alerted to the rumour of an incident that occurred in a camp post Munster's 2023 URC win that involved Coombes and how Farrell took a very dim view of it.

It is however a rumour but I've seen the same rumour on Reddit also.

And yes Farrell may have preferred other regardless, despite Coombes consistently out performing them all in the URC and Champions Cup. As the manager he is entitled to do so.

It was something to that effect alright, and yes it could be nonsense.

But it also could explain why one of the best backrows in the country with the last 2-3 yeats who is also try scoring machine doesn't get a look in with the current management.

If Coombes had done something in camp that crossed the line for Farrell then he simply wouldnt be brought into camps over and over again.

To me Coombes has historically been more of a bully against weaker sides and had much quieter games against the true top end teams. For example, how many times has he had great games against Leinster, even the non-fully loaded Leinster sides he usually faces? Sure an excuse can be made about a beaten pack holding him back but contrast his against the performances of the Munster guys getting Irish caps during that time, like POM and Beirne who can play well no matter the situation.

Coombes played very well at the weekend and if he keeps up that level of performance in more knockout games he is definitely putting himself in the right place for more caps, especially with POM out of the picture.

Not really that much of a damning indictment when you look at what the coaches have told us, that after JDF their preference was POM and Doris.

They clearly want the best 3 guys on the pitch, rather than focusing on a pure 7 who isnt as good of a player.

Dont feel prior to the 6 nations any other 7 was truly putting their hand up and demanding to get minutes. Hodnett for example started one of the CC pool games and didn't start a match for Munster from before Christmas until the last day of February - not exactly forcing their hand.

Again, POM departing should open up a lot of opportunity.

To address the consistency angle of your post, and the posts of others, in fairness we at Munster haven't been anywhere near consistent in the last 2 years. We in fact could be labelled consistently inconsistent. Even in the 2023 URC win, we started the season very poorly and built from there.

Coombes has been a victim of that. As pointed out by another poster, look how much better Josh Wycherley scrummaged when he had his 1st choice 2nd row pairing behind him. Same goes for Coombes, he had to play no.4 several times last season with the injury crisis. And play 80 mins on consecutive weekends over long periods for the same reason. And yet I'd argue his contributions have been very consistent, consistently leading carry numbers, tackles and breakdown involvements. Not to mention consistency scoring tries. How much more consistent does he have to be? He blocked down a kick that lead to a try in the URC 2023 final and did so again this weekend, scoring the try himself this time. That sounds like consistency to me…..