Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Munster were a group of 23 all fully dialled in with Crowley & Beirne leading from the front with passion and precision. Leinster were disjointed and didn’t turn up at the collision front. Ireland will be more Munster than Leinster when it comes to Autumn despite the numbers and I suspect Beirne & Crowley will once again lead

what should happen is they both start 2 games each regardless of how they go

I have no problem with Pendergast starting New Zealand and South Africa and Crowley Australia and Japan.

Same across the squad. Farrell must rotate. I would like to see him try things even our own version of the bomb squad against South Africa.

I think you're right and Farrell will do something along those lines.

Early days but his kicking %’s off the tee this season have improved on last.

I actually think the penalty last night to go 17 ahead was the winning of the game. Before that I was always wary as Leinster are capable of putting 14+ points on you inside 15 mins, but that pushed it out to a 3 score game.

It wasn’t the easiest kick either and he nailed it.

His footwork as well was excellent last night, but it was his decision making and kicking from hand that were the highlight.

I think the issue there is that place kicking is a much easier fix than issues like a player's baseline agility or their willingness to tackle. That's not to say Prendergast won't improve, he's still young, but I don't ever see him being a real attacking threat on the line or a lad who monsters an opposition centre. He's actually a lot closer to O'Gara in style than any other fly half we've had since and if he ends up anywhere close to him that's great but this season is very important for him you imagine.

why not against Australia go for 9 Casey 10 prendergast 12 Crowley

You will learn a lot about players, systems, partnerships in training but the only real test is in battle.

Ireland have failed to get past the quarter final of a World Cup and we need to change that. That’s is the most important and only objective Irish rugby needs to achieve. Nothing else matters.

I don’t care if the whole Irish team World Cup panel is from one province , we need to make that semi final.

and to do that we need to go to the next World Cup with a panel with test minutes spread evenly across the squad.

I know very little about rugby but I do know a lot about risk management.
We cannot go to the next World Cup and repeat the same exact mistakes of previous world cups .
We must end the days of the inner circle being a closed off shop, it must evolve with competition, rotation and transparency.

Why not play Crowley at 12? Because he's not a 12, would be my first answer. Ireland has better options at 12, would be my second answer. But basically the same reasons I wouldn't put Prendergast at 12

Given the structure of the next WC with 6 groups of 4 I wonder just how significant the seedings will be. Obviously a top 6 seeding is preferable. Is there any scenario where we could fall below 6th in the rankings by the end of November?

You can’t pick the national team based on current provincial form because you’d have a different Ireland team every week.

Aki and Henshaw aren’t keeping Tom Farrell out of the national squad. That’s a common misconception here; if the first two got hit by a bus tomorrow, Farrell still wouldn’t be going to Chicago on Tuesday.

While I can see the logic of not selecting Tom Farrell given his age, it’s not as though the calls for his inclusion are based on one game. He’s been the form 13 in Ireland for the last 12 months.

Nobody is arguing that the 23 picked for Ireland is whoever played well for their province the previous week, but rather that provincial form over a prolonged period is rewarded, and that there should be a clear pathway from province to Ireland team. Because right now, there isn’t. Right now, being 3rd choice for Leinster gives you a better chance at being picked than playing well week in week out for Munster/Ulster/Connacht.

And a common misconception here is that people are calling for the entire Ireland team / squad to be picked on form.

But with such a short lead in time to Chicago, particularly for the returning Lions players, could / should some of the closer calls have been selected on form? I think so. There’s a pretty reasonable justification for it.

Fine. But for the actual Test?