Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Goodman and O'Connell have no place in the Irish setup if we're serious about keeping the foot on the pedal in international terms.

Eddie O’Sullivan said on the Indo Sport podcast last week that both were “world class”.

You should see the age profile of the SA side before worrying about our age profile.

If we get the Jack Crowley from the recent Munster leinster game, I would have no fear for the next 2 games.

Best part of the Japan game was the return of peak Doris, he was immense. great to see it.

The Ireland A vs Spain game is available to watch free on RugbyPass tv: it's worth a look.

https://rugbypass.tv/video/881696?t=0

I was pretty frustrated watching Ireland yesterday but it's interesting seeing the reaction to England's 38 18 win over Fiji compared to our 41 10 win over Japan. Apparently England's bench "powered" them home in a "hard fought win". BBCs words.

Bear in mind that Fiji beat Japan by just 6 points in September.

Maybe we aren't giving Japan enough credit.

South Africa have lost as many games as we have in 2025. In fact Australia beat them by 16 points in Ellis Park back in August.

There's been question marks over them a couple of times this year, but they've come good in the end. While I think we've clearly taken a step back since 2023 Iet's see where we are in two weeks after we've played Australia (Italy beat them yesterday) and South Africa. We might surprises ourselves yet. It was admittedly sporadic, but there was some very good rugby yesterday (see Crowley's try).

This was always going to be a tough season for Ireland given the comedown from the Lions and then the fact we are away to both England and France. I think we have to accept that we have to play the long game with Ireland. The good news is that having watched the As yesterday and having seen the early season form of particularly Munster and Ulster there are a number of players on the outside that are ready to step up, it's up to Farrell to be prepared to pick them.

Eddie O'Sullivan, with the greatest of respect to him, needs to go back to bed.

yes real flair but has been susceptible to repeated injuries unsure if linked or not but highly rated and was one of the stars on a team of stars for the 6N 2023 Grand Slam & World final . He may well move but selfishly as a Leinster fan I hope he stays and hits breakthrough soon

No more than declaring Osbourne an international fullback after one (very promising) performance against South Africa, I don't know is it wise to write off Casey just yet. He's only got 9 starts and is averaging half an hour on the pitch. He had a very poor first half yesterday but a tidier second half.

As for Osbourne, I think he can do a job at 15 in a pinch (no more than Crowley could for e.g.) but not sure back 3 is his calling. A good few posters have all their eggs at 12 for him for the future, I'd argue there are other incumbents at the other provinces that have more experience in that position and are looking promising. I think Leinster need to nail him down to a position otherwise he'll end up like Frawley being a master of none and a bench option rather than a starter. He's 24 next weekend so still time.

Outhalf - Crowley did well, Sam did very well off the bench. Was a nice confidence builder for him, he wasn't really challenged defensively and pulled the strings well against a tired Japan. Still don't want him starting against Australia or SA but if I was to pick one I'd go Australia.

Centres - Farrell performed well I thought, our second highest carrier and passer behind the halfbacks. Three offloads too. Now, it's only Japan and I doubt you'd see those numbers against the ABs but he offered something different to Ringrose. Henshaw did okay too but I feel we need to start looking at other options there (Osbourne/Kelly/Ulster/Connacht options).

Wings - both turned over a lot of ball, both made a lot of ground and breaks. It's great that we've got TOB as an option and he's showing up well, I think we need to move on from James Lowe personally. Looking at other teams our lack of pace in the backline is pretty stark.

15 - can we bring in an actual fullback please and not shoe-horn in non-15s. Lowry gets my vote.

I think Osborne suffered a dislocation yesterday. He will probably be unavailable next weekend.

Lowry got subbed early in the game, could be 24th man for next week.

Postlethwaite and Kelly were excellent yesterday, admittedly it was Spain, but thyey were class.

Baloucoune and Bolton were a constant menace on their wings, they have serious gas. Again, they are worth alook compared to the incumbents.

I’m not sure there’s a lot to learn from such a one sided game v Spain. 9 tries scored and 4 tries conceded. Same v Portugal which from memory was 80/90 points to zero. Easier to look good at individual level. A year back we played England and were well under par at A level, would have been more beneficial to play them again after the Spanish warm up game. But agree, Harry Byrne was absolutely standout.

Wish I could find the piece that mentioned this, so I could credit them, but I was wondering with the team selection and substitution’s is Farrell tinkering with moving Caelan Doris to 7 going forward as a means of getting Jack Conan in at 8?

When you watch the game yesterday it makes sense, Doris played very similar to what you expect you’re 7 to play.

The attack is at least a work in progress, so it’s unlikely Goodman will change. POC on the other hand has to go.

ROG as well, he talked about him and see him as a top coach and thought he would be snapped up quickly by NZ because Robertson really rates him

Even people now in NZ think Robertson will try to sign him once the current season is over

I seem to remember a lot of comments about how useless Catt at the start.