I don't entirely disagree, but Farrell's response would probably be he's not the one picking the team at the provincial level.
Also - FWIW, Connacht have played two games this season and Blade started the first one at 9.
I rate Ben Murphy really highly, but he picked a terrible moment to have one of his worst games in a Connacht shirt on Saturday night.
Farrell will be confident that if Casey can't go v NZ, that Blade won't be overawed sitting on the bench given he came off the bench in Durban and did a good job. He doesn't have that confidence yet in the others.
I still think some of them will get their chance over this series - guys like Tom Clarkson and Gus McCarthy weren't named in this original squad 12 months ago and both went on to feature in 2 games over that November.
As far as I'm aware, the upper-end of Casey's injury prognosis still has him back for the NZ game. He's an outside chance to play vs Leinster this weekend.
Also worth mentioning, JGP's average number of minutes last season was 72 minutes.
In that context I don't think it'd have been a huge risk to call up one of the younger guys ahead of Blade.
It's odd to pick a player for their experience, when their recent experience is playing from the bench for their province. If a young lad is getting picked ahead of someone at club level, then they're the ones who need to get experience now.
I think it's possibly, at most, around 24?
It doesn't leave us very much time.
The concern here is around Casey specifically though - I think the worry is Casey won't be available for the NZ game potentially, so regardless of how much time he'd given Casey he was going to want more experience in the 3rd scrum half role here, rather than throwing Devine or Murphy or Gunne in.
I don't see how giving more gametime to Casey previously has an impact on him carrying an injury now. I think Casey's injury is what has necessitated Blade's inclusion.
It's not the selection I'd have made (I'd have gone for Ben Murphy).
Edogbo, Gleeson, and Bolton kinda are as they are travelling to Chicago with the squad.
fair
Did we though?
The lack of game time given to Crowley (or any other alternative 10 ) meant that we left a completely gassed Sexton on the pitch in the QF when he should have come off after an hour, or he could/should have had a lot less minutes in his legs in the preceding games but we used him far more than we should have in those games because his back-up only had a handful of starts under his belt.
As @aloooof says , delaying giving the younger guys experience carries forward to the 3rd/4th choice as well.
We NEED to be going into the next World Cup with every player and their backup having 20+ caps with at least half of those being starts in meaningful games.
I haven't looked exactly , but we likely have at most 30 games left until the next world cup excluding warm-ups , so time is NOT on our side.
surprised they haven’t gone with the training panelist’s again like before
11 of those guys will be 34+ come the next RWC . It's becoming a big problem tbh.
Blade is a very disappointing and honestly bizarre pick. Otherwise it's a good squad.
Don’t disagree with this either but changing for age is a tricky decision, Henshaw a good example who could have a massive role to play despite him getting older and slower. I always think about how we prematurely wrote off Sexton too early
The point being, if he had given Casey more gametime and experience, it would've freed him up to select a young guy in that 3rd choice role, which is kinda what you want.
Any of Murphy, Devine, Gunne or Doak could've been selected and it would be preferable.
The conservatism with Casey had prompted further conservatism with Blade.
Whatever about Henshaw and Henderson (I don't agree with either being picked), having Blade in the squad is crazy stuff. Is he not 3rd choice 9 now at Connacht? Any 1 of Gunne, Murphy, Devine, Doak, even Ethan Coughlan who had a good 30 minutes last week should be there ahead.
I'd go for something like
In terms of young players specifically, I'd like to see the young centres rewarded. Gavin, Cooney, Forde, Postlewaith. Backrow players like Soroka, Gleeson, Timony, and I'm sure there's others I'm not thinking of at the moment. Some of the SHs, like Gunne, Murphy and Devine.
You have to assume he will bring other players in for e.g. Japan, but if he is going to announce this as the squad for the 4 test series why not include one other young 9? Just have 4 of them if you really think you need the mature backup.
I don't see what the point of the 4 octogenarian centres and Frawley is. Just leave Henshaw out, he doesn't deserve to be there (and he absolutely can not cover 13 anymore).
Unless Murphy is injured, I presume Blade is there for an experienced head who can cover against the ABs in a pinch (which he did quite well against SA last year, in fairness to him).
As for "so many guys tearing it up, that are just being ignored again", I'm not sure there are many tbh.
Andy and the friends he's made along the way :D Any chance of DJ Church for the banging tunes?
It's a great point. Younger guys don't get picked, due to lack of experience, so they never get experience. I like Blade a lot, but he's really unlikely to challenging for a starting berth in 2 years. Casey should be, one of the younger guys could be too.
Picking players in their 30's who are not going to make a first choice 23 is not balance. Its bizarre
They do make it hard to get excited about Irish rugby don’t they
Presumably he feels he needs some experience at SH, with Murray retiring; but I go back to the point I made about Casey only getting 22 mins vs Tier 1 Nations last Autumn. He was unlucky to be injured during the 6N's, but if he had gotten more game time and experience in the AI's (and he's been excellent for 12-18 months now) it might've freed Farrell up to selected Murphy, Devine or Gunne as the 3rd choice now.
And therein lies a broader point; conservatism can compound further down the line.
It's a pretty underwhelming squad, tbh, and not all that surprising.
Where is Blade coming from? No shade to him, but seems very left field. I'd have brought Harry over Frawley too tbh.
1 new player in the backs is crazy imo. There's so many guys tearing it up, that are just being ignored again. There's what, 20ish games before the WC, and we're wasting a fifth of them without any real changes. I don't see what Stockdale has shown over JOB either for FB, not to mention Jimmy covers more positions.
Also:
The Ireland XV squad to face Spain on Saturday, 8 November in Leganés will be named next week.
Squad announcement also stressed that Keenan, Joe McCarthy, Izuchukwu and Nash are all unavailable due to injury.
I feel like chasing rankings is such a pointless exercise. We're not going to drop out of the top 6, being realistic. The way the draw works, there's always the likely hood that there's a team playing badly when the bands are finalised, that will be playing better come the WC, who gets thrown into a pool of death. There's too much vagary involved to stress about it.
To be brutal, it hasn't mattered when it's come to losing QFs what our ranking has been. We've been up, we've been down, the results have been the same. Perhaps it would be better to focus on building a better team, than chase ranking points.
Caolin Blade…..need to maximize the over 30's involved at this stage in the world cup cycle!
At least including Ahern and McCarthy is a positive i suppose
Shayne Bolton, Edwin Edogbo and Brian Gleeson travelling to Chicago as training panelists too.
Paddy McCarthy the big surprise obviously.
Blade is a bit of a head-scratcher.
