Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Get this season started as soon as possible.

I took this list from a poster called mildlyinterested on babbling brook, the Leinster fan forum. System is actually working fairly well by the looks of it, though Leinster academy doing an awful lot of work on behalf of the other provinces.

Prop

Peter Dooley(Connacht)

Jack Aungier(Connacht)

Sam Illo(Connacht)

Jordan Duggan(Connacht)

Temi Lasisi(Connacht)

Billy Bohan(Connacht)

Oli Jager(Munster)

Jeremy Loughman(Munster)

George Hadden(Munster)

Ronan Foxe(Munster)

Michael Milne(Munster)

Eric O'Sullivan(Ulster)

Rory McGuire(Ulster)

Ed Byrne(Cardiff)

Oisín Heffernan (Bedford)

Vakh Abdaladze (Brive)

Oisín Michel (Cornish Pirates)

Hooker

Matthew Victory(Connacht)

Mikey Yarr(Connacht)

Lee Barron(Munster)

Tadgh McElroy (Sale)

Bryan Byrne (Newcastle)

Eoghan Clarke (Saracens)

Lock

Tadhg Beirne(Munster)

Cormac Izuchukwu(Ulster)

Oisin Dowling(Connacht)

David O'Connor(Connacht)

David Walsh(Connacht)

Ross Molony (Bath)

Cormac Daly (Yokohama Canon Eagles)

Backrow

Conor Oliver(Connacht)

Nick Timoney(Ulster)

Paul Boyle(Connacht)

Cian Prendergast(Connacht)

Josh Murphy(Connacht)

Sean O'Brien(Connacht)

Aaron O'Brien(Connacht)

Tom Brigg(Ulster)

Martin Moloney (Exeter)

Harrison Brewer (Kurita Water Gush)

Scrumhalf

Dave Shanahan(Ulster)

John Cooney (Brive)

Patrick Patterson(Munster)

Ben Murphy(Connacht)

Hugh O'Sullivan (Newcastle)

Outhalf

Ross Byrne (Gloucester)

Joey Carbery(Bordeaux)

Sean Naughton(Connacht)

Conor O'Shaughnessy(Connacht)

Jack Murphy(Ulster)

AJ MacGinty (Bristol)

Centre

Karl Martin(Montpellier)

Tom Farrell(Munster)

David Hawkshaw(Connacht)

Fionn Gibbons(Munster)

Sean O'Brien(Munster)

Wil De Klerk(Ulster)

Sam Berman(Ulster)

Ben Brownlee (North Harbour)

Liam Turner (Nevers)

Back Three

Andrew Smith(Munster)

Finn Treacy(Connacht)

James Nicholson(Connacht)

Daniel Ryan(Connacht)

Aitzol King(Ulster)

Robert Russell (Gloucester)

Chris Cosgrave (Urayasu D-Rocks)

Those are players "from" Leinster, not players who have been through Leinster Academy.

Leinster Academy has done zero for a number of those players.

That's not what I'm saying. I was just making Ersatz's analogy more accurate if he wants a system where academy entrants are directed where to go by the IRFU.

Some 'overseeing body' is literally how rugby works, and pretty much everything else. People are creating epistemological sand castles to argue that local kids have a right to be trained as professional rugby layers by the IRFU in a location of their choosing. Not how anything works in life.

I think you’ll find I didn’t say anything, the first post I responded to was your utterly nonsensical post that Leinster or the Academy had had nothing to do with the list provided, until I pointed out at least 32 of them had been through the Academy, so I think you’ll find I’m not the one being “fact checked” here.

Sorry, thought you were Ersatz, who said "Leinster academy doing an awful lot of work on behalf of the other provinces". Reading comprehension poor on my part

My point was simply that Ulster has one Leinster Academy graduate playing for us. I don't really care about the other 31.

Yeah, I absolutely don't disagree with your wider point at all.

But bear in mind, Ulster are infinitely more important to me than Leinster, so if I see something that's a misrepresentation of what's currently happening up here, especially based on something concrete like that list, I'll mention it.

I suppose we wait and see what happens with the investment in the underage pathways outside Leinster. I'm also hoping Dan Soper's new role drives standards up considerably North of the border.

Lad I don't believe those stats especially as I've been standing beside him before and trust me he ain't 6 foot, he's definitely smaller than the stats, I'd be surprised if he's even 100kg. Not powerful enough and isn't a threat at the breakdown.

35 odd players from the L academy at other provinces is quite a lot of work. 70 odd from Leinster schools/clubs starts to look like dependency. In reality using a provincial lens to understand this just invites resentment and pissing contests, it's pointless. Leinster has the lions share of population and certainly the most significant production line of players through its schools. Leinster rugby doesn't own that and it's basically fallen into its lap as an accident of geography. The IRFU does own it though, and it their responsibility to make the most of it.

"however we are talking about situations where both a player and their local province want him to play for them", is very straight forward except the IRFU is paying for it! I also want a house in Spain and an MBA from Harvard, will the IRFU fund it?

If you want to make a tangential point / broaden the context of a discussion, etc. by all means do so.

But you are objectively mis-quoting people while doing so.