Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

There is zero logical argument for claiming the Irish team were fatigued going into the NZ game. As many of us have shown here multiple times now, on average players in our 23 had played just over 2 games in 5 weeks coming in to that match (an average of less than 3 games in 5 weeks for the starting 15).

I'd say without a doubt the pressure and the expectations got to them, allied with the somewhat claustrophobic atmosphere perhaps of being in camp etc, and all those things combined to see us freeze like a deer in the headlights and basically not fire a shot for the first 20 mins, but the notion we were "fatigued" doesn't wash with me at all.

I do think some of our players will be a little undercooked going into the NZ game, but, worth noting NZ last played on October 4th, so won't have played any rugby in 4 weeks by the time we kick off in Chicago.

So from that list 4 out of the 6 will be bang in their prime for the RWC

That’s brilliant!

I'm loathe to get into this for the reasons you've mentioned ionad - I don't have a strong opinion at all one way or the other (even tho I think do think Crowley should've been on the field) - but I do have a memory that our starters had fairly significantly more minutes played going into that QF than NZ (and other teams too).

But as you say, moving on; I think the undercooked element means I think there's more of a case to pick certain positions / players on form for this reason.

It's a real shame Izuchukwu is injured, was really looking forward to seeing him involved again and think he could put his hand up for the 6 jersey. Baird finished the last season well, but that seems like the most open jersey in the starting 15. Looking forward to seeing what TOB can do, he deserves a good spell injury free.

Mod Edit

Warning issued.

With Keenan out and with little rugby being played so far I think NZL is the game for continuity, I would keep Hansen and Lowe in the XV anyway and slot Osborne into 15. After that we go into Japan where I think we can look at more options and then Australia might be the game for TOB to come straight in.

I don't disagree by the end of the game virtually everyone on the pitch looked tired (including NZ), but as I said above, I think it's more to do with the intensity of the fixture itself, the quality of the rugby, the level of multi-phase attack we'd gone through to try and get back into the game.

I also think the sheer weight of expectations was a factor in all of that - Ireland genuinely could have won that RWC (best chance we've ever had, and likely will ever have for a while IMO), and I think the players knew that better than anyone.

But it's a game of rugby lots of neutral fans still rave about frequently as one of the best quality games of recent years, an instant classic. That to me is why the players were spent afterwards, it's not how much rugby they'd played in the 5 weeks before it.

There's a stronger argument we likely didn't have the squad depth to go deep in the well two more weekends again after that, and likely would still have been turned over by a deeper, more savvy SA team in the final anyway, but we'll never know I guess.

i think that missed kick gets forgotten about in alot of the discourse about the game, but it was a massive element of the eventual loss to be honest

My heart sank when he missed it. You can't be giving up easy points like that in a game like that.