Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

@Podge_irl writes:

...They started slow because they mentally shat the bed. The selection in the group stages had nothing to do with it."

You do realise that nerves are hugely accentuated by fatigue & being over played don't you!?.....

Teams that come out & go 0-13 down to a side they are probably better than is sure sign of side that has been over played & are a bit flat imho.

To be fair, I think even the most staunch Prendergast defender will admit his tackling isn’t good enough and his completion percentage’s and tackle totals are likely to be a good bit behind Crowley.

(I think it’s roughly in the 60% vs 80% range, so I don’t think it’ll tell us anything we don’t already know).

For me tho, there are also occasions where Sam doesn’t get a hand on someone, and that won’t show up in the tackle stats. His chase back on kick-return imo, isn’t where it needs to be either.

It's poor defending like this that won't show up in missed tackle stats. -not criticising the blocked kick that led to it. I don't blame him for trying the kick.

I think he has no interest in attempting to make contact with the player running towards him.

I think he takes a change in direction as an excuse to avoid contact. This is an example.

Really? Do you see a man who really wants to make a tackle?

If you do, then it's genuinely fascinating how we can see such different things

The video you posted disproves whatever argument you were making. He tracked across to make the tackle, planted his feet and was ran around. The biggest error he makes in that sequence, besides the kick, was not anticipating where the contact area would be. It's absolutely bad decision making all round.

But saying he's actively avoiding contact is ludicrous. And it certainly is not evident on the face of this video.

I’m struggling to see what’s so bad there. He could have done better but it’s hardly damning and there are plenty of worse examples of Prendergast missing tackles.

But also, that’s the only video that “John McGrath” has ever posted. Clearly he’s very exercised by a pretty nondescript passage of play.

I’m just not sure why the Prendergast debate has to be so vindictive and nasty.

Fwiw, I actually pulled the Scottish data together that was being requested (Townsend is indeed one of Farrell's peers). To try add some context, and not just straight totals for every game, due to very different fixture lists, I've filtered out the following games:

• For Ireland: Georgia & Portugal
• For Scotland: Canada, Chile, Maori All Blacks, Portugal, USA and Uruguay

So new caps since the RWC, excluding the above games, have gotten the following:

So Scotland have given more minutes in fewer games. Everything so far has just reinforced what my initial perception was.

It's a fair bit of work, but if there's any interest, I'll try pull the full data set together for everyone and exclude all those lower ranked teams.

You're accepting half of my point. I'll take that

Yeah, i also said poor defending like that won't show up in missed tackle stats. I'm not doing pages and pages arguing about it.

We just have different opinions on the clip

Sure I can. I'm not going to do the pages and pages of absolute guff that's come before this.

There's no need to be cross that someone thinks something different from you. You could, just accept it. Or argue about it on your own, I don't mind.

Feel free to have the last word and we'll end it there.

Sorry, but no. You posted about being able to read a players mind and are now running away from what you've started.

It's not being "cross" or whatever you want to think. You're being asked to show how you know he's purposefully avoiding contact.

I think everyone knows he’s a poor tackler and it’s something that he needs to hugely improve. Luckily he has time. He’s got to get on with it himself. It won’t change overnight so anyone who was expecting a sudden change in the last 3 months is deluded or using it as a stick to beat him with.

It’s a crucial part of the game and a reason why someone like ROG will never be seen as an elite fly half by people outside of this country and why he never got selected as a starting 10 for the Lions. Luckily he had no competition for Ireland in that time. Prendergast doesn’t have that luxury.

The ‘ROG wasn’t a great defender but he was brave’ is one of the great myths of Irish rugby. A player picking out a weak defender and going straight at him doesn’t make that defender brave.

ROG had many talents on the pitch but physical bravery wasn’t one. Going in for a poach when you’re going to get cleared out of it is a better example of bravery than being a speed bump.