Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

There seems to be lots of comments about Farrell and selection for the last Six Nations and the Summer Tour when Farrell was on sabatical for the last year with Easterby acting as interim head coach and then Paul O'Connell running the summer tour. The Summer Tour was a good chance to see whether anybody could force their way into the AI squad and a few did.

I dont see why we need to compare ourselves to other countries when we dont have similar playing numbers. What they do is irrelevant to Ireland

We dont need to compare ourselves to anyone to be honest. Just what works for Ireland. Not what someone else is doing

I think, could be wrong, the premise here is that putting players into the international team will make them better? I dont think that happens. If it was the case then international coachs would just keep on firing in new players and have a squad full of stars.

Also as we seen last year, fans don't want to see new players in if the team loses. Just look at the reaction to Prendergast going into the team, he was slaughtered when Ireland lost to France and in reality the issue was in the forward. No 10 was going to change that result

People want new players into the team, then Ireland loses a game and they go after the player. Prendergast, P Jackson and many more have had the same happen to them.

In terms of Farrell, if he done a France on it, dropped all the senior players, put in a load of young players, he would be sacked if Ireland has a terrible 6 nations and autumn

This is also a great point and part of the reason management (rightly) don't give a toss about what is said outside the camp. Lowe struggled a little in his first 6 Nations and there was a cohort who wanted him booted back to leinster. we're 2 Six Nations removed from the world cup and have had 2 different starting tens go through a full tournament (Bar the last italy game) and somehow that's wrong as well for some people.

The team will be working on a wider plan for the world cup. (Maybe it's a sh!te plan, who knows) but we'll find out over the next 2 years. So far in the post world cup years we have a Six Nations title (with McCarthy/ Crowley being new starters) and a drawn series in SA (Casey and Crowley and Osborne starting, Frawley being the hero)- Then a really poor Six Nations and 2 bad losses to the All Blacks, so a very mixed bag of a 24 Months . At the moment it seems like the general trend of the team is downwards, but maybe this is the time for that?

I refer to this post which done the work for me

The stats don't back up this so called "issue"

Anyway it's been done to death

The fact is "fans" don't want players or new players in the team, this has been proven with prendergast and others over the years. They want players from their province and then dress it up as wanting rotation.

If the player rotated out of the team is from their province, even if not playing well, they want that player back in

We can't live our life just constantly focusing on RWCs.

There were Grand Slams and 6 Nations' Championships there to be won in both years, and we haven't won enough of them to turn our nose up at them now.

This window now - 2 years out from the next RWC, is time enough IMO to start focusing on what the team will look like by then, and I'm hoping we'll see some options emerge over the next few weeks.

I genuinely don't think we're overrun with excellent options though.

Ire

Irrelevant, you can only pick 23 players er squad.

It’s hard to tell what player has been ignored because how many have been given a chance?

We whinge about “a lack of pace” yet select Lowe and Osborne in the back three and send someone like Baloucoune, who has insane wheels, with the A squad…and the likes of Stockdale in the stands…so maybe start there.

Here’s a mad thought, if you want pace in the team…stop picking players that aren’t…you know…quick.

There was absolutely no one good enough to take Healy's shirt. It was a huge position of weakness across the provinces, and arguably we've rushed two guys in Boyle and McCarthy to this point.

Henderson hasn't featured a lot since the RWC - he hasn't started once for Ireland since then, and has played under 200 minutes across 7 appearances off the bench; mostly driven by injury to Ryan & McCarthy at different times.

They clearly were keen to get the likes of Tom Ahern involved, but every time they called him into a squad he got injured.

I would have liked to see Craig Casey and the likes of Baird/Izuchukwu/Prendergast get more minutes from Murray & O'Mahony over the past couple of seasons, but I think both of them were playing well right up to the end.

They are gradually rotating and evolving the squad - it's just not always with the players certain people want to see.

The team that started last weekend had 7 changes in the starting XV from the team that played NZ 12 months ago, and another 5 changes on the bench. We had Jamie Osborne starting at 15, Tommy O'Brien making just his third cap on the right wing, McCloskey & Crowley's form rewarded at 12 & 10; a debutant 22-year-old loosehead prop on the bench.

It's not wholesale changes, but this notion that we're making no changes isn't the case either.

2 things in your posts I'd like to challenge.

First is that bringing in Ross Byrne or Crowley for the last 15 mins against NZ wouldn't have sparked anything to get us over the line. It would have had a better chance of doing so if either or both of those guys had seen some decent match time in that tournament or in the 12 months leading up to it. But we kept using Sexton in every game where we wanted a result. Not to mention that it was a free roll of the dice even with those players not having seen much prior game time. Why? Because Sexton could barely walk in the last 15mins of that game.

Secondly, you are correct in saying that Cian P is ahead of Coombes in Farrell's books. I'm questioning why? Cian P is a good player but I think its fair to say he hasn't had the same consistent impact as Coombes at URC and CC level over the past 2-3 seasons. It's clear he does something in camp that Farrell prefers to Coombes and their in lies my issue. The coach prioritises what happens in camp over what guys are doing on the pitch with their provinces. And on top of that Cian P hasn't played a game of note with Ireland since the 2023 6N. He too is a victim of the selection policy.