Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

I’d be willing to forgive defensive frailties at 10 if the rest was right. That’s not the main job there, in my ignorant opinion.

He was really good off the bench against England. And good off the bench vs Australia.

He was really good in the first half against Argentina.

He was excellent in Marseille.

I’m sure there are more (particularly in his first 6 Nations).

In short, he has had quality performances for Ireland.

He is not up to standard at this level

I think the whole Jack vs. Sam thing is a natural reaction to the fact that neither are Sexton and both are very unlikely to ever be as good as him. That's fine too, if one or preferably both of them, can improve the weaknesses in their game and become an high standard international fly half then we'll be fine.

There have been plenty of teams who've been successful without a superstar at 10. We have a weird obsession in Irish rugby with the fly half position.

Dan Carter himself or prime Wilkinson could have played 10 for Ireland yesterday and we still would have lost. A shambles of a lineout and a weak scrum can't be overcome by the fly half alone.

And you agree that Sam's attack scored zero points against the Stormers? And that some players from that team are capped? I feel like I need to use baby steps..

What metric did Andy use to justify picking these guys?

Their personalities?

The Force?

I think Andy needs to read this, it's nice and short with no big words.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Moved_My_Cheese%3F

After yesterday I’d have concerns way beyond 10. Even Sheehan has work to do (with the other forwards) to sort out the lineout immediately and JGP had a mediocre performance by his own lofty standards.

I don’t think I am. But ok. I treat concussions seriously.
I didn’t say you didn’t know of, or about concussion.
I wish you and your wife well.

Sincerely

I think the whole Jack vs. Sam thing is a natural reaction to the fact that neither are Sexton 

I think this is right. We also went from Humphreys to ROG to Sexton so we had quality options at 10 for over 20 years and maybe subconsciously we assume that, well, we must have one now, and so if it’s not Prendergast it must be Crowley or vice versa. As of now, that doesn’t look a great bet

We might be in for a lean few years if one of these guys can’t improve significantly.

Fair point, and I don’t need reminding of the 90s, I lived every mediocre moment of it.

I celebrated the Triple Crown of 2004 like it was the birth of my first child, but the 2025 version barely registered with me (like the birth of my last child). Our expectations have moved on massively and let’s be honest, the last 18 months haven’t blown us away. I’m not blaming either Crowley or Prendergast for that but if we want a ten who can drive a team on to victory, I’m not seeing it from either one yet. SP is still only 22 and JC only 25 so its not time to panic yet.

people talking about Ireland doing very well for 60 minutes and being ahead are tripping. We were defensively very good in the first half when NZ were shambolic. I dont think I’ve ever seen NZ crumble and make so many mistakes before, granted Ireland disrupted their game very well. 13 points from that is a very, very poor return. Yes, it’s the first game, and we missed Beirne enormously. But I couldn’t see what our strategy was to score, no out the back passes, brief periods of a short passing game (worked ok) and then a lot of incoherent, inaccurate and aimless kicking, box kicks, grubbers, chips, etc. so lots of tactics but it wasn’t clear to me that their was a gameplan that the team were playing to. A lot of poor decisions and execution flowed from that.
mcCloskey was great but what is the point in bringing in. a 32 year old now? Problems all over the field Lineout shambles, scrum penalties go lór. Bad start and definitely going backwards.

Except he wasn't 'that poor'. He was average. Considering we had poor set piece with a malfunctioning lineout, scrum not in great shape, pedestrian backs and a 13 who passed once, average wasn't 'that poor' a performance all things considered.

If he's 'that poor' with a decent platform then it's a whole other conversation, I'd agree.

I salute you Sir for trying to move the conversation on. Alas..................