Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

That’s the crux of it all, we are presented with the opportunity to succeed…and have chosen to fail.

Has He linked back up with the squad or is he out of the squad because of the concussion?

I'd love to see him come on against a tiring Japan and have a stormer. Really make it easy for farrell to have him on the bench for the 6N.

Second Row isn't an area of weakness with Beirne, Ryan and McCarthy, but Edogbo is a real prospect so I hope he can reach his potential

I think calling Coombs a try scoring machine is a bit of hyperbole. Last season he scored 8 tries in 22 games for Munster, Doris scored 5 tries in 11 games for Leinster and 3 from 8 games for Ireland. Conan scored 5 from 18 for Leinster and 3 tries from 5 games for Ireland. So not a massively different try scoring rates, but you need to consider that Doris probably played against more difficult opposition compared to Coombs scoring 2 tries against Zebre. 23/24 season matches up pretty evenly on tries scored too. Doris also has a better all around game so I don't understand the calls for Coombs to be brought into the Irish team on the basis of being a try scoring machine.

Coombes is a better passer than Doris; he passes more often, he offloads more often and he has fewer bad passes when he does pass. Whenever Doris goes over 400 minutes or so in a competition he pass accuracy usually reverts below 90%. Doris has had 300 minute runs or so where he passed above 90% but has had some terrible runs where he was below 80% pass accuracy too. Coombes can go 1,000 minutes played, go way over 100 passes and stay in the low 90's pass accuracy and has had small sample size champions cup runs where he went 97% pass accuracy. On the eye test, he tries way more audacious passes than Doris, while keeping his stats higher, like you rarely, if ever, see Doris attempting passes like these:

he's a good lad, Beauden…

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/0UjYG7_b5PU

I know there are certainly Prendergast and Crowley 'Camps' who are over the top in each direction but from what i observe (as a connacht supporter who thinks they're both decent with significant holes in their game)- crowley gets nowhere near the same foaming at the mouth vitriolic abuse online that Prendergast got this year. Moreso twitter than here but some of it was genuinely disgusting and wrapped up in the excuse of 'i just hate that he is so overhyped' etc. And again, I think Crowley is better at the moment but not sure he has improved a lot in the 2 years he's been with the ireland team, while Prendergast just has more road in front of him

Fwiw, Boards point of difference is that it isn't Twitter, that long-form discussions can be had. (I never go near the place tbh, it's toxic).

But even at that, I think it's fair to say they both attract nonsense on here at times. There's plenty from both that is hard to take at face value.

Conan should be fine for the next RWC as a replacement for Doris but we should be planning for afterwards and for an injury to either of them. That's why I think someone like Gleeson who is at the start of their career, and is arguably as good as Coombs, should be taking that 3rd spot with an eye to develop further. It's unfortunate for Coombs but that's professional sport and you could probably put the likes of Deegan in that bracket too of players who are capable but the chance has alluded them to lock down a permanent spot on the Irish squad early enough in their career.

This wasn't the point of the argument at all. The poster above specifically used examples of passes against Zebre or Scarlets to demonstrate why Coombes was a better passer in his view. That's what I was responding to. I never said Coombes only did it against weaker teams.

I'm now tempted to stick a tenner on Coombes to start against SA…. 😉

We actually don't.

Please don't put words in my mouth.

If Coonan is still playing to his current level in 2 years I wouldn't have a problem with a 35 year old no.8 in the RWC squad. Look at Vermeulen started and won a RWC final at 37!

I think Gleeson currently looks to be in prime position for the 3rd spot and he seems to have a strong all around game. Whether I would want him playing in a RWC QF via South Africa if it was played tomorrow is another matter so it's either get him game time at the expense of Coombs/Deegan or abandon the development of a young no.8 until after the RWC.

That said, with an injury to Doris or Conan, or both, leading up to the RWC and Coombs could easily build upon his caps, as could Deegan. 2 years is along time in a game as attritional as rugby where Conan could easily have ended his career a year early like Heaslip in 2018.