Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Moved to NZ thread

Well I'm glad Tommy put this one to bed. Getting done on the wing by 34 year old Beauden Barrett would be the definition of slow. We were also done on his wing multiple times.

Maybe going into a world cup 'under the rader' is best

It was a spirited performance tonight but you could see the AB onslaught coming sadly

Farrell needs to freshen up his coaching staff imho.

Replacing POC & Goodman with better coaches would go a long way to reviving Ireland's performances imho...

Crowley had no go forward options. NZ swamped us and we had nowhere to go.

JUst a bad day at the office for everyone. Especially Ringrose and Conan

There is no point picking out a poor player on one performance. But there is justification on picking out a player on many moderate performances. So the front row is a real worry. Other than Sheehan there isn't much. And when you add the replacements in it's actually worse. Second row is just a mess. Beirne isn't even a second row but he's doing his best to hold the second row together. Back row has always been an Irish strength but it can't work if the first and second row ain't working.

And if your heavies ain't working well then your scrum half/out half are flucked and your nippy wingers are pointless

Think most people on this forum and with any common sense knew that the scheduling of this game as irelands first game of the season with zero warm up was a terrible idea if we actually wanted to win a rugby game.

Having said that I thought we did well for 60 minutes and then lack of top end match fitness cost us aswell as a number of terrible Crowley errors (Prendergast was worse when he came on).

Problem is the stop start nature of the game actually helped Ireland and allowed us to take NZ's fluidity and pressure out of the game for the first hour but we just couldnt hang on.

I think we need to start bleeding more young guys in now with an eye to a world cup. Iain Henderson is not an international quality player anymore and was completley out of his depth around the park yesterday and needs to be moved on.

I think the integration of guys like Gleeson, Edogbo, Izuchukwku, mccarthy, Boyle and the rest of the talented u20s cohort of the last 5 years needs to start being prioritised more than it is in bigger international games, we want to avoid the slow slide of what happend with Schimidt leading into his last WC.

All this is easier said than done and injuries have hampered this integration.

Andrew Porter also pretty dissapointing and has been for quite a while, his ability is massive, but now he just doenst have those big game moments he used to have a couple years ago - turnovers, big carries/hits. Now he just seems satisfied with locking out scrums and thats it, same goes for Tadhg, when we were beating big teams like NZ guys like Porter and Furlong were playing out of their skin, winning scrum penalties and dominating in the loose, this just doesnt happen anymore.

Bright side, thought we hung in well and had good fight for 60mins, hopefully more match fitness can can make this an 80 minute thing. Doris back massive plus he showed glimpses of what he can do. tommy o'brien showed if youre in form pick them, zero experience in big internationals and looked like a a natural out there. Mccloskey epic. Ringrose some big shots in defence but still offering zero attacking threat.

Lowe fought hard and had good moments, Osbourne solid. Pack was largely solid and competed well but our outhalves have no ability to run a backline or get us posing any sort of threat and this has been a constant issue since Mike Catt left there has been zero inovation or attacking flare produced by our backline - very concerning and I dont think our backs coach is up to standard.

My XV for Japan

1 McCarthy

2 Sheehan

3 Furlong

4 Ahern

5 Ryan

6 Baird

7 Timoney

8 Doris

9 JGP

10 Prendergast

11 Stockdale

12 Osborne

13 Ringrose

14 O’Brien

15 O’Brien

Farrell has become too complacent imo . He's not going to rock the boat now, nice cushy number for the next 2 years and then sayonara

I think rugby has changed since RWC2023. Kicking has definitely come back into vogue with defenders no longer able to escort chasers. See what England did yesterday with (from memory) two of their tries coming from kick contestables where either the ball was won by the chaser or the attacking team won the breaking ball. Do we have the chasers (and the kicking accuracy) to play this game? The other two top teams, SA and France, are also happy enough to put boot to ball. It was something we used to excel at under Schmidt with Murray’s kick accuracy and the likes of Conway, Trimble, Bowe, Henshaw and Kearney all super at contesting.

Ringrose missed 7 tackles yesterday, 2 of which led directly to NZ tries. The shooting out of the line for the big hit needs to end. He was abysmal.

Great selection, not a hope it will happen though.

Only change I'd make is to stick with TOB on the wing and put Stockdale at 23.

Van Der Flier has not been 'out of form'.

Those two games against Curry and Morgan in the 6N, he was one of the three best players on the pitch, just in each time his opposite number would turn in POTM performances. Similarly against Pollock in the Champions Cup. He was probably Leinster's best player that day but yet he's the one that's held to the higher standard because his opposite number turns in a world-class performance.

We get this on a regular basis with Van Der Flier for a very bizarre reason. I was lambasted for saying he is one of the most under-appreciated Irish rugby players I can remember not so long ago. Any time he has a game that's slightly below his very high standard the knives are out for him. It happens every year.

One game. Let's keep the dramatics and hysteria aside for one series can we not?

Ringrose is another matter entirely. When previously he would shoot out of the line and smash lads, he's falling off them now. A big concern.