Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Lowe is significantly better. Do you not think so?

I'm only going on what I saw in the Leinster v Munster game a few weeks back and JOB looked very ordinary that night. Worse still, James Lowe was worse than ordinary.

Haven't seen Ulster play yet this season so can't comment on Lowry. But he does fit the bill for the 23 shirt through versatility alone.

JOB is the best 15 option left available

Osborne is the best 12 option available

Leinsters more than questionable selection choices have ruined those options.

Brilliant as Lowry is he’s not left footed and a bit taller….if you know what I mean?

JOB is a decent player but versatility aside, he’s not a fraction of the player that Aki is, even at his advanced age. A reshuffled backline featuring Aki is better than an unreshuffled one with JOB in it.

If the guy in the 23 jersey is the biggest complaint people have, then I’ll call that a win.

Not denying that Lowe was terrible on the Lions tour and has been poor so far this season. But saying he's living off past glories, while making a case for Jacob Stockdale of all people, who has been living off past glories for the past 7 years is quite funny.

Stockdale (much like H Byrne) seems to have one massive brain fart in him per game. Fine at club level but not at international as that tends to be what loses you the game.

Lowe was very good against Stormers and less impressive against Munster as was everyone in blue. He wasn’t at his best for the Lions in the summer but created a try for Beirne in the test series with a lovely bit of handling. A lot of the criticism of him came from the British media who wanted Kinghorn in. Put it another way, take Lowe out of that backline and where’s the game breaking spark coming from?

Decent team but the leader in this pack is Beirne who should be the captain! Anyway that's not for now, c'mon Ireland!!

That sounds like more of this Pollocking Borthball talk in the news across the way. I’ve often wondered how rugby might be radically changed but didn’t imagine it would come for us wings.

he really, really isn’t.

Lowe has major weaknesses in his game, particularly top end speed and defensively. He isn’t improving at 33 either.

Stockdale has been consistently one of the top wingers in the URC and Europe when he has been fit in the past 24months and has already proven himself at international rugby, scoring iconic individual tries that Lowe could only dream of scoring.

lowe was a bag of turnips on the Lions tour. Deservedly dropped.

I've never liked head-to-head comparisons on things like try-scoring records for individual players when they play in diametrically opposite performing teams.

Here's my take; imo, in the last 12-18 months, Stockdale when fit is probably in his best spell of form since 2018. Lowe, on the other hand had a really poor set of Autumn International's last year, for example (particularly defensively imo). And a poor Lions tour and start to this season.

Lowe is getting on in age, but he still has that physicality that none of our other wingers have. His left boot too is a huge asset, particularly if we are continuing to transition to a kick-heavy gameplan. (You do want speed for the kick-chase tho, which Lowe has never had).

Lowe is in the driving seat, but I don't think it'd be a complete shock if Stockdale leapfrogs him in the next 12 months, say. Imo, a lot of it will come down to what we want to do / the form of Hansen and TOB.

Hansen, for me, is the first choice wing when everyone is fit. He also has the versatility to play either wing so it broadens the options behind him.

I think come 6 Nations time or, say, next AI's, it could be Mack Hansen plus one of TOB or Stockdale tbh (if they maintain their current form). There'd definitely a discussion to be had there at least.