Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

It's an interesting one. What Ireland probably don't have relative to France is a lot of young tyros - players 23 and under - who are first choice or thereabouts for their province/club, i.e. getting enough exposure to come into consideration for international selection at a young age. There are a few in Ulster because of how much turnover there's been in the squad and them not having much money for signings. McNabney and Jack Murphy look to be starters outright, and Postlethwaite and Wilson are probably close enough for it not to make much difference. But across the other provinces there's probably only Sam Prendergast and Hugh Gavin (although Jamie Osborne is also seeing enough high level gametime to be a really good option). On the other side of this there'd probably be a fair few cases like Matthew Devine stuck as third choice and not getting a huge amount of exposure. Charlie Tector and Hugh Cooney would have a hard time breaking into the Leinster first XXIII for a big game with Leinster opting to go to the market and bring in Ioane. If Devine came through in France maybe he would have spent the season before last on loan in ProD2 and then returned to his original club and played a lot as first or second choice.

It's true that there have been no shows from the A team the last two times they've played but the scratch nature of those teams does make it difficult. I look at the Ireland and France lineups from last weekend and for a lot of the head-to-heads I'm thinking Ireland should be competitive - Tixeront v Timoney, Tom Spring v TOB, Slimani v Clarkson, le Garrec v Casey, etc.

My read on it is there are enough players getting provincial gametime for Ireland to be able to field good quality second and third strings. Obviously if you went down to 10th choice French selection versus 10th choice Irish France would have the better readiness by probably a long way. Ireland 2nds of course would be more susceptible to key injuries having a detrimental effect. France have a lot more options if they're looking for a particular profile of player, which is probably especially relevant in the front five.

The guy says his vision is a municipal stadium. He doesn’t say anything about Cork GAA giving up ownership.

If you pressed him on it, I’d bet his actual vision is to host more regular non-GAA events with more regular rent being paid to the Cork county board.

I presume when the Aviva sponsorship deals are being re-negotiated, the deal could include full international games in Cork long term.

It might be a pipe dream but this isn't any ordinary Gaa member with a vision for a municipal stadium this is Cork Gaa's CEO. I doubt he would say it without some backing. Don't forget the Taoiseach's son plays in goal for Cork footballers. Cork are after getting Munster (European Cup game there this December), women's international soccer, Celtic fc matches there. The next step would obviously be full Ireland Soccer / Rugby internationals.

It would be a big coup for Cork Gaa if they could convince the Government to take over a loss making stadium.

the cork GAA CEO snd even the government have nothing to do with where the irfu put their matches unless the irfu ask. This is fanciful stuff. The stadium isn’t suitable for an international match anyway. Sounds more like him selling the idea of things to sucker in some money

I wasn't expecting wholesale changes but am surprised they've gone for so few - only four unforced changes?