Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

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.

Of course, by contrast, Ruddock frequently outplayed his peers in red when they faced each other in derbies

Ruddock made plenty of international teams, he was cursed with injuries at the worst time. To call him a mere provincial level player is to do him a massive disservice.

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).

I would have my doubts. Like Deegan, I think he will be unlucky to fall between generations. There's going to be a lot of talent coming through behind him, that will supersede him by the time the guys ahead of him retire

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.

it was handled very badly alright. They should have started with Crowley and over the championship if prendergast had surpassed Crowley than fair enough.
They should have let it happen naturally, instead they tried to force it and they made a complete balls of it.
They even had ex players and the media saying prendergast has overtaken Crowley , trying to sell it.

Do not be surprised if prendergast goes to the lions, farrell has the arrogance to double down on his error.

Agree they should have started with Crowley and let Sam impress with his minutes off the bench. There would have been no controversy if he won his way into the team from the bench. Dropping a player who was part of a six nations winning team the previous season and bringing in a young man with very questionable defensive ability was never going to sit well with a lot of people.