Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

wrong thread

Harry Byrne running the show on A with Baloucoune showing proper pace and strength

Took the dog for a walk there and was thinking about our lineout woes. Came to the conclusion that POC's position cannot be tenable going into the 6N.

Our lineout was poor in the 2023 RWC group stages. We patched it up vs. SA and beat them. But it faltered badly agaisnt NZ in the QF and was a key contributor to us coming up short yet again.

We won the subsequent 6N but lost to an average England side. I don't recall the lineout being an issue that day but either way we left a GS after us.

The following AI series our lineout was again an issue vs. NZ and Aus.

The 6N just gone it improved a lot but we were forced into throwing to 2 a lot and our platform in attack as a result suffered.

And now we're worse than ever. And you can see it's a psychological issue for the players. The first lineout each game so far was a joke. And it cost us big time vs. NZ as we kept turning the ball over on our throw when in good positions and when dominant in the game.

Can Farrell be ruthless and do the necessary before the 6N? It's his coaching staff and he needs to drop non performing members of it.

nothing wrong with the lineout when Gus was playing… go take the dog for a walk again.

maybe it's not just coaching.

It feels like that Podge. In fact it feels longer

exactly

Wrong, what you see today is him getting minutes. You've immediately pivoted in your next post to saying he hasn't gotten minutes against 'decent opposition' as if that would affect his ability to perform against Japan. Then you claim people expect him to be on a bar with JGP which no one does.

Another example of people wanting their favourites to be handled with kid gloves rather than earn their time in the team and it leads to some awful bullsh!t being spouted

Indeed.all to their own. Thought Tommy O Brien was given space but he's too light. Robbie really is heading to end of career fast. Kelleher is as normal. Porter is as normal. Ryan is as normal. And normal really doesn't cut it these days. Folks talk about age profile but it clearly hits you in the face with Ireland. Andy has a job on his hands just to change his perspective. The team will change if he just allows it to change.

Kelleher has been bang average for years. It's farcical that in all these years that no coach has sorted out his throwing technique. His technique leads to in consistency in the throw. He's a poor scrummager and is also fond of giving away the needless penalty. Time we moved on from him. He's had more than enough opportunities and at 27, with zero improvement now likely, it's time we gave Gus McCarthy or Tom Stewart a proper run and look.

Crowley was poor today and I wouldn't be surprised if prendergast comes in to start next week.

Made the mistake of reading the comments on the irfu Instagram post for the match.

It's depressing to see that even after his good performance today, there are still some people bitching about Sam Prendergast, often in quite a personal way too. I'd say Sexton and ROG must be glad they broke through prior to social media.