Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

That's just your opinion, so firstly at least have the humility & self realisation to state it as such in your post maybe !?

MOD EDIT

There's a lot to support my contention that Ireland's top XV (& 23) were a bit flat & over played versus New Zealand at RWC23 imho. Firstly Rassie Erasmus even did a table showing how rotated & less played players from sides like SA were versus over played sides like Ireland, by the RWC QF stage!! Google it maybe!!!

I even posted this up the thread for posters such as yourself to perhaps consider before typing your usual mantra.

Secondly, NZ faced a minnow (Uruguay) with a seconds squad the week before facing Ireland, before that Italy & before that Namibia, so they had 2 weeks full run in with a fighting fit & fresh top 23 ready & primed to face Ireland.

Ireland on the other hand faced Scotland, who they felt they had to respect by playing their top 23, and so played all their front liners including 38 yo Johnny Sexton, POM & the other hugely overplayed back rows & front rows, and other players who in an ideal world would have been kept fresher to face NZ in 7 days, imho.

Thirdly, Ireland performed like they were flat & a bit jaded imho. Going 13 -0 down within 20 minutes in a RWC QF is typical sign of a side slightly off the pace due to fatigue. There were other telltale signs also e.g. Sexton was gassed by the last 15mins, Beirne had literally & figuratively run himself to a stand still, other Irish players were out on their feet also. This wasn't the first time an Irish side had appeared so flat footed & fatigued at a RWC QF either, as we're unfortunately far too accustomed to seeing over played, jaded Irish squads trying to rouse themselves to compete with fresher opposition by QF stage imho.

At least the new RWC format may assist in other sides also playing a full match 23 the week before a RWC QF. That will help squads like Ireland who've always done this regardless...

2011 was a strange one. We weren't coming into that World Cup in particularly good form but that Australia result really seemed to energised the squad.

Ultimately we had a decent squad that was poorly coached and we paid for it. It's made we kept on with Kidney for as long as we did after that.

How minutes had they played the week before facing Ireland!?

Freshness is a function of time/ recency also. That's obvious isn't it!?

Fact is that NZ 23 had a 2 week window to prepare beat Ireland with a fighting fresh, rested & fully rotated squad. They then utilised this by going 13-0 up early on, doing things like scoring tries off first phase ball from 50 m out and outlasting the exhausted Irish players to the 80 minute mark. In comparison, Ireland who were probably the better side having won a test series in NZ a year previously, looked flat & a bit jaded. That was all evident from even a cursory look at the QF match imho.

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?