Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Not to speak for 50HX, but I think his point is that this…

Interestingly I don't remember many calls outside leinster for Milne to be included before now… although I'm sure it would be the same for Mccarthy if it was him that had moved south.

… is a bullsh*t argument.

Which is fine.

But the OP is clearly saying there are only calls for him to be included now cos he “moved south”.

Which is clearly a bullshit provincialist argument.

Lee Barron “moved south” at the exact same time and I haven’t seen a single call for him to included.

Lee Barron has Sheehan, Kelleher, Mccarthy, Herring, Stewart and Heffernan ahead of him so no I don't think it would be like for like to call for Barrons inclusion.

There's more than a slight element of the pot calling the kettle black on the provincialist argument also.

Milne has been a fantastic addition to Munster and if he keeps playing as he has been then he will get a chance. More broadly, players who take the jump in spreading talent across the country should have some ‘credit in the Bank’ especially if they are starting week in and week out against quality opposition and are battle hardened through matches and not training sessions.

Aki only played 60 minutes tonight and looked poor - granted he's just back from the summer but I would be very concerned with how he will progress over the season from an Ireland perspective.

And you can indeed call for Milne to be included and not be motivated provincially.

You can even not bring any provincialism into it whatsoever, but that rather depends on the individual, I suppose.

More's the pity.

Do you really think Milne is a better prospect for Ireland than Mccarthy? If we're planning for the future do you believe Milne has a higher ceiling? Milne is a good prop, particularly as a ball carrier but hes not a strong scrumager against decent opposition.

I'll answer this in good faith since it's actually getting to the interesting part of the discussion.

Better prospect? Probably McCarthy from the little I've seen of him and the huge amount of praise he's getting from the odd pundit who's opinion I would respect. But who's the better player currently? That seems a lot closer and open to debate.

Generally, I'm happier for the 3rd choice player to be the younger prospect - and I've no problem with McCarthy being in the squad on these ground - but in this case with Healy having retired and Boyle not having gotten a lof of opportunities up to now, I think there's a case that Milne could've been favoured over McCarthy.

Bearing in mind, Boyle is someone I've previously argued should've seen more gametime last season (#provincialm).

But my main point overall here is that this is all a discussion that could've been had without any need for "moved south" rubbish at the start of all of this.

Delusional take, please touch grass.

Mod Edit

Warning issued.

..

stealing this from a post on this site 15 years ago

Connacht is an Irish province containing Counties Galway, Mayo, Sligo, Roscommon and Leitrim.

Connaught is a hotel in London.