Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

no worries petal..

Tbh, I think it's a bit of a myth that Coombes lacks consistency and hasn't done it against the big teams or Leinster. (Tbh, if anything, Coombes is the definition of consistency).

This season has seen 2 of his poorer performances against Leinster, where he was decent. But prior to that he's had excellent performances against them:

• Nov 23, Coombes put in a serious shift, 16 carries, 18 tackles and I specifically remember his rucking was outstanding in this game.
• May 23, against a 2nd string Leinster, but Coombes was excellent 20 carries, 17 tackles and his defensive linespeed went a long wide towards shutting down Leinster's desire to go wide
• Oct 22, was excellent in a makeshift Munster team, got his customary double figure tackles and carries, but also scored a try and had a brilliant assist too.
• Apr 22, went off injured after 27 minutes but managed 14 tackles in that time and was the best back-row on the pitch in his time on it for my money.

He's also played brilliantly against the likes of Toulouse in Europe in recent seasons. There's plenty of evidence he can do it against the top teams at this stage.

Over the last 4-5 seasons, I'd argue Coombes has been Munster's most consistent performer only behind Tadhg Beirne.

The argument against Coombes for Ireland was that he wasn't quick enough or linked the play well enough to play Ireland's high-tempo, high number of ruck, possession-based game.

Ireland are now transitioning to a game, with fewer rucks, fewer phases, fewer passes per phases, where we kick earlier and more frequently. We've also looked under-powered at times culminating in being held up over the line a high number of times during the 6N. Couple this with POM retiring and Baird not really taking his chances, and Coombes has to start seeing more game time for Ireland, imo.

It'd be a mistake to continue to overlook him.

Plus there's also been some games where Leinster have been more fully stack then Munster. It's a misnomer that he's often been up against a 2nd string Leinster.

And better try-scoring record and hands.

great table very helpful, lots of gaps for the next generation of talent to play for

and the munster front 5 were on a treatment table..

do keep up ladies.

No idea about Conan's likely longevity but I can say with certainty that Conan is far more likely to make it to the WC than POM is.

Not sure why there is pushback on me pointing out the contradiction of the same poster repeatedly posting their frustration about the lack of opportunities for two players, while a few posts later defending playing the oldest direct competitor to both guys.

I understand the perspective of the coaching team about POM - I am not the poster who was moaning about other players getting chances while defending him being in the side.

If POM isn't in the squad everyone moves up a position - Conan could start and then it opens up a bench slot (whether it be Coombes or any of the other backrow options that people want to see get more game time).

Something I've been ruminating on all week, after 4 good performances from the provinces last weekend, is what the heck happened to Ireland as the 6N went on? There's absolutely no way that team was playing to its ability, players looked a bit like they didn't want to be there by the final whistle against Italy, so what went wrong? The Leinster players looked rejuvenated, for Munster you had Beirne, Nash and Crowley playing way better than anything we saw in the 6N, Ulster were slightly outmatched but absolutely went out on their shields with a lot of good individual performances.

(I didn't see the Connacht game, sorry Connacht, but good result at least).

Did we totally underestimate the impact of Farrell not being there? Did the players carry their provincial form into camp but that faded as the tournament continued? It's worrying either way.

Ireland were poor in November as well when Farrell was there.

Yeah, tend to agree with this with the footnote that Ireland tend not to hand out heavy beatings regardless of the opposition, but Wales and Italy were schooled by strong teams in the 6N while Ireland squeezed by them. And giving England two late scores in the 6N was very expensive and basically unforgivable. On current trajectory I'm expecting NZ to absolutely demolish us in Nov. All that said, there's been a lot of churn in the provinces w coaching changes and different styles of play being introduced so the overall consistency that we had between provinces and the Irish team has been quite disrupted this season, with the absence of Farrell adding too that. Our playing pool is very strong and the Irish team is still one of the best around on their day/ It's just a pity the coaching ticket is not as gold plated as it's been, I feel like Felix and Flan were two that got away.