Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

i completely agree tbh, at the time he moved to munster i honestly would have preferred to have gotten ross byrne as i thought he would have suited us more. to be fair carbery played quite well at times but i always thought he was better at 15

I think Carbery would be a good backup at Munster, dont think he left on terrible terms and now new coach in place, not sure his injury profile fits anywhere though, guy is just made of glass…

I’m not sure it was that black and white. When Carbery was at Leinster, Sexton was there and Ross Byrne (who was the same age as Carbery) was also coming through and playing very well if I remember correctly. 15 was a means of getting Carbery onto the field and he had a skill set that lent itself very well to that position. Lancaster liked him at 15 and he was used there But I don’t think it’s as straightforward as “he thinks he’s a 15”. He played a lot at 10 under Lancaster.

Tbh I wouldn’t really be to keen on the IRFU bringing him back. I’m open to correction from those who watch the Top14 more regularly than me, but I don’t think he’s been showing any stellar form at Bordeaux. He was signed as a steady experienced backup for Jalibert and I’m not sure he’s been much more than that. Leinster and Munster both have good depth charts at 10. Ulster have a very good young 10 in Murphy who they should keep investing in. Maybe going to Connacht as an IQ replacement for Ioane makes sense but I’m not sure what his contract situation is. And they have a couple of good young 10s there as well. So yeah I’m not sure I see massive upside in the IRFU bringing him back.

I'd like to have him back in the country, just to have him as an option if we were to get an injury pre-world cup. I don't think he'd overtake Crowley or Prendergast, but It's a pretty imaginable situation where we are going into a world cup game with Harry Byrne and Ciaran Frawley as our two options at 10.

So either I'd like to see Frawley move to Connacht (even just a loan deal in the year leading up to the world cup) with a view to getting him some meaningful game time at 10, or bring Carbery in to have another option.

Sean Naughton looks good, but from an irish perspective I don't think that there is time for him to become established, experienced and to make it into the Irish team consideration. I just can't see Andy Farrell choosing him over Frawley by the time the WC comes around.

Jack Murphy is a bit ahead there so he could be in with a shot if he kicks on a bit at the right time.

In fairness I'd also prefer as a connacht fan I'd prefer we focus on naughton but it's not with the national team in mind. No shot he makes the world cup and its true to say from an Ireland point of view it would probably be beneficial to have Frawley or Carbery playing 10 in case of an emergency

Injury has been a huge problem for Frawley, once he gets some form etc he breaks down with injury.

That has been a problem for a number of years. He broke his cheek at one stage and I think again etc. Just bad luck

Same last year he picked up injury and then struggled when he returned

Not sure you can claim he is going backwards, he is still in the Ireland squad. He played in AI last year and then got injured. His form when he returned meant he wasn't getting into Leinster team. That was form and also recovering from injury

This year his form is better and he is back in Ireland squad.

Would any of the above have changed if he was at another province?

Lancaster played him at 10 early on in his career and then moved him to 12 as the second play maker role, moving him to play under Lancaster again I don't see why he would move him back to playing 10

Is it not patently clear that the only 10 to challenge Crowley & Prendergast into RWC 27 is Harry Byrne ? 3 games like he had in his past 2 and he’s right up there in contention I would have thought well ahead of all others mentioned

If he does it will be at the expense of one-off the two current incumbents. I don't see us ever starting 3 10s in the 6 Nations unless injury is a factor.

He's playing well though, it will be interesting to see what happens at Leinster over the next two months.

Currently, I don't think any of Crowley, Prendergast, Frawley, Carbery or H. Byrne are good enough to get us through to the pointy end of RWC knockout games. I think we'd be much better off working out a play style around that, rather than endlessly trying tens until they each prove they're not the finished article. A number of those players are quite young, and you'd expect will improve (or need to improve) some aspects of their game.

its a while since i read it but as far as i remember, in rob kearneys book he said JC was becoming the preferred option at 15 for the leinster coaches but Schmidt preferred Kearney, it was hinted there was some IRFU intervention and JC then went back to covering 10 from the bench

Harry Byrne had the humility to go to Bristol and benefited from it. He's playing really well since he returned, and looks like a guy who has changed his attitude. It's insane to write him off.