Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Henderson is 33, if he's well past it then about half a dozen others are as well

My goodness. If that were the squad, even without any endless, tedious comparisons of new caps, I might think Farrell were "conservative".

To be clear, Thornley was been way off the mark. I suspect it's just outright wrong, when it comes to fringe selection.

I count 33 names in that squad. Considering we have two games a week apart on different continents, I would expect either a lot more to be named tomorrow or another announcement to supplement the squad in a week or two.

So maybe not worth freaking out just yet

I’m saving that til after the AI’s, Paul. The goalposts might become more difficult to shift 😉

If the above is true (and I'll withhold full judgment until then) I'm surprised AF is at least not having a look at Tom Farrell, best player for Munster last year. Maybe his age is going against him and he's thinking of the future. From a Munster point of view Coombes and Tom Aherne could be considered hard done by also. Nash appears to have been leap-frogged without having done a whole pile wrong, TOB has been in good form mind.

Edogbo's time will come if he stays fit, but now is not that time. Let him build up a body of work and maybe sneak in to a wider 6N squad for experience or injuries move him up the pecking order.

Don't see the point in Henshaw or Henderson at this stage. Both would owe a performance if they are called on, been a while.

I agree with this on Farrell - his performances have been good enough to warrant inclusion. He's 32, so he's not going to have a long career in green, but he could easily still be there and performing at a high level through the next RWC, and he's ahead for me of the likes of Hume, and a long way ahead of Hugh Gavin or Hugh Cooney right now.

Dan Kelly is the outlier though - I suspect at a minimum he'll be playing for the A side against Spain.

I think Nash might lose out to Tommy O'Brien - they are both predominantly right wingers.

No real point in rehashing the Coombes discussion right now - I think Gleeson could well be involved against Spain though. Agreed it'll be too early for Edogbo right now.

I think we feasibly could, but we would need to lose to all three of NZ, SA and Australia.

Let's wait until the squad is actually picked, but fundamentally agree that Henderson would be a strange pick, and Henshaw doesn't have the form. Heard the Molecast comparing Henshaw to Rooney, in that he's one of four teenage debutants for Ireland in the pro era. He's played a huge amount of abrasive, high-level rugby. His 32 year-old body is probably several years 'older' than Beirne's 33 year-old body in terms of how much it has endured.

Would like to see Osbourne at 12 for a tier one game, with JOB / Mack at 15 and TOB on the wing - but Osbourne at 15 for Leinster doesn't fill me with hope on this.

An Osbourne/Gavin centre partnership vs. Japan would be ideal.

Also hoping to see Clarkson start vs. one or two of NZ, Aus and SA. Would be grand if Casey is fit to do the same.

Not as if porter is a destructive scrummager either. We need to find depth behind porter and if that's milne and Boyle so be it. Far too long was spent topping up healys pension to the detriment of developing any meaningful depth in the position.

Porter has his moments where he struggles in the scrum, but I think Milne is particularly poor at that aspect and lags far behind the former. I've watched him for years and he just hasn't improved. Which is a shame because he's an excellent ball carrier, especially close to the line.

I've more hope for Boyle as he's younger and has more time to improve. Struggled a lot against Wales in last seasons Six Nations, but you'd hope he can get better. Still only 23.

As for not developing depth, I think Healy was still a better loose head than either until last season. Definitely a more solid scrummager at the very least.

I wouldn't be at all surprised to see a squad that conservative. Id imagine any of the young guns will be held for the A game.

Third hooker and third nine could be changed but don't see much outside of that. Agree Henderson probably shouldn't be there but also think he probably will be

Great to see us planning for the future. Only way it seems to break into the squad now is if someone in your position is injured or retires

On the point that ranking may be the priority. Even a worst case scenario where we lose to NZ, Aus and SA by > 15 points, we would still need either Argentina to beat England or Scotland to beat NZ to drop out of the top 6

Rotating a squad too soon doesn’t sound like a great idea either. Balance is essential