Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Even, the clue is in your own post.... Do you not see a link between 'not being fully mentally switched on', as you put it, & fatigue perhaps!? No!?

Because any top level coach, or sports physiologist, will tell you, there is a massive link between the two.

P.s. Rassie Erasmus went as far as publishing a table at the RWC to show how he had kept his players fresh for the fight in the knock out stages by rotating & resting his players, versus sides like Ireland who had overplayed & fatigued their players by the end of the group stages. I mean all ye have to do is maybe learn from what a RWC winning coach is trying to tell ye perhaps!?

Well OK, we'll simply have to agree to disagree so.

Essentially, I contend that that Irish squad of 23 who lined out versus NZ by that QF, were relatively fatigued & a bit jaded versus the fully rotated & rested, fighting fit NZ squad, and that this played out in that QF also. Some here disagree, that's fine, it's a discussion forum after all...

New Zealand's squad against Ireland had played an average of 37 mins the week before, whereas Ireland's squad v New Zealand had played an average of 44 mins. NZ's players had also played the week before that, when Ireland had the week off.

So, New Zealand's players had played an average of 79.7 minutes in the preceding three weeks, whereas Ireland's tally was still just 44 mins.

So, if freshness is a function of time / recency - where is the evidence of New Zealand being materially fresher (if at all) than Ireland?

If Ireland were so fatigued, then how come we were the team who finished the game stronger? We were the team who looked like if the game went on another 10 minutes then we would have won it.

Ireland’s problems are mental prep, not exhaustion or rotation or even depth, frankly. Depth might well come into it in a semi or a final but it’s not been an issue thus far in a WC, AFs lack of faith in Crowley notwithstanding. A serious example was pouring so much into beating SA in a nothing pool game last time. Everyone reacted like we’d won the whole thing and I expect that inside the group it was also a bit like that. It was a good win but we’d have been in the same position if we’d lost. I doubt SA or NZ or even England would invest so much in a game with such low stakes.

South Africa went all out to beat us - no matter what they would subsequently claim. They were at full strength (bar injuries).

NZ equally went all out to beat France in the opener.

I don't really know in a tournament how you do otherwise - you risk sending the absolute wrong message to the dressing room if you're not trying to win every game.

Broken down by position:

LHPs: Michael Milne, Alex Usanov

Hookers: Tom Stewart, Lee Barron, John McKee

THPs: Tom O'Toole, Scott Wilson, Sam Illo

Locks: Diarmuid Mangan, Darragh Murray, Evan O'Connell,

Back Row: Alex Soroka, Ruadhan Quinn, David McCann, Sean Jansen, James Culhane

Scrum Halves: Nathan Doak, Fintan Gunne, Ben Murphy

Out Halves: Harry Byrne, Jack Murphy

Centres: Cathal Forde, Dan Kelly, Jude Postlethwaite

Back Three: Robert Baloucoune, Shayne Bolton, Michael Lowry, Zac Ward

Break down by province:

Ulster: 10

Munster: 5

Leinster: 7

Connacht: 6

Most surprising guys to miss out for me: James Hume, Hugh Gavin, Hugh Cooney. Would guess Edwin Edogbo might be involved if he recovers from his HIA (or might get a cap for the full international team v Japan that day hopefully).

Strong team and Ulster dominant

Hume is a capped international and a very experienced provincial player, he may be in the same category as Coombes?

It's Boyle I'm mainly thinking of. If he isn't involved against NZ, he'll be thrown into the Japan game very cold and then might not be involved the following two weekends after. If that were to be the case, I think he'd be better off actually playing some matches rather than just being part of a squad.

Sounds like one of the more interesting rugby books out this year, but I just know I'll still have Conor Murray's book coming my way Christmas morning instead….

It's relatively dull, but same could be said for the overwhelming majority of rugby player autobiographies I've read in the past 10-15 years I'd say.

Only really insightful ones to me are the guys who are coming from less conventional backgrounds to the sport; so found Trevor Brennan's book and Keith Earls' ones very interesting reads, but can't say the same for the books by Brian O'Driscoll (x2), Paul O'Connell, Rob Kearney, Ronan O'Gara, Jonathan Sexton (x2), Joe Schmidt etc.

I've mentioned it before but one of the best rugby books I've ever read is This Is Your Everest by Tom English. Brilliant access and detail on one of the defining moments in rugby turning professional IMO, and some incredible background on the many many characters on both the Lions side and the SA side.

Murray Kinsella is in Chicago to cover the match. He's saying Doris is in line to start against New Zealand.