Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Farrell's job isn't to placate fans from any given province, it's to win games of rugby. The NZ game isn't exactly a long time ago in the career of a rugby player or the lifecycle of a team.

Since the NZ game you mention I'd look at it as we've brought through, developed, or confirmed all the following are proper options for Ireland:

TOB, Crowley, Casey, Joe McCarthy (was in the 23 for NZ but very green), Baird, Paddy McCarthy, Prendergast. And maybe I've forgotten someone.

Further to that, the NZ team from that 2023 QF was as follows:

B Barrett; Jordan, Ioane, J Barrett, Fainga'anuku; Mo'unga, Smith; De Groot, Taylor, Lomax, Retallick, S Barrett, Frizell, Cane (capt), Savea.

Crossed out have retired or gone to Japan. Bolded are still starting regularly for NZ. Italicised seem to have dropped down the pecking order for them or fallen away as a purely selection decision. It's two one players, and I'm not even sure about Lomax because he was their first choice TH all through last season so he could be just injured.

(edit - Lomax is injured, switched him to bold because he would be there).

So can you tell us please, what exactly do you want? How many players is an acceptable number for an international team to turn over in 2 years? What would your XV for this weekend be?

I will still support whichever one man team gets picked. Sam or Jack either way they will have their hands pretty full taking on this SA team all on their own. Give it a rest lads, both are ok and will do fine if selected and neither will be the winning or losing of this game or any other game.

Ireland by 4 followed by 6 months of SA fans tears.

"Changes only happening because of injury and retirement" is an old fallacy that is constantly thrown out in irish rugby. The fact is innjuries and reirements are part of the constant churrn of the team. If we still had Sexton at 10, there would be much more scope for change at 12 and 13 etc etc. If, for example, Sheehan and Kelleher been at retirement age and packed it in after the world cup, then we'd have Gus McCArthy starting and it would be much harder to give Paddy such a high profile start las week. If we just threw out whoever was the young up and comer at every position then no one would go to these gaems and Irish rugby would be bankrupt in a few years. There's a balance to be found. As I've said many times on here in the last few weeks, I'm not sure we have the balance quiet right so far this cycle but a decent result Saturday with good performances frrom TOB, Mac, Baird and Paddy being trusted with real minutes and I'll feel pretty good about things.

If all of those were to happen and whoever starts at 10 has a really strong game then I'll be in full on "We are peaking too early" mode 🤣

Bench? My guess:

McCarthy, Kelleher, Clarkson, Conan, Timoney, Casey, Crowley, Farrell

I'd rather Prendergast ahead of Timoney though

Indeed, we can conclude Crowley was absolutely rubbish against NZ and significantly worse than SP against Japan and Aus.

To be fair to Farrell, I think we're seeing more change in this set of AI's than we did this time last year, and that's a positive thing (where last year I thought he was far too conservative).

Springbok team to face Ireland in Dublin:

15 Damian Willemse (DHL Stormers) – 47 caps, 66 pts (6t, 9c, 4p, 2dg)
14 Canan Moodie (Vodacom Bulls) – 20 caps, 40 pts (8t)
13 Jesse Kriel (Canon Eagles) – 86 caps, 100 pts (20t)
12 Damian de Allende (Wild Knights) – 95 caps, 55 pts (11t)
11 Cheslin Kolbe (Tokyo Sungoliath) – 48 caps, 126 pts (21t, 3c, 5p)
10 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu (DHL Stormers) – 17 caps, 137 pts (6t, 34c, 13p)
9 Cobus Reinach (DHL Stormers) – 48 caps, 90 pts (18t)

8 Jasper Wiese (Urayasu D-Rocks) – 41 caps, 10 pts (2t)
7 Pieter-Steph du Toit (Toyota Verblitz) – 94 caps, 70 pts (14t)
6 Siya Kolisi (captain, Hollywoodbets Sharks) – 101 caps, 70 pts (14t)
5 Ruan Nortje (Vodacom Bulls) – 16 caps, 0 pts
4 Eben Etzebeth (Hollywoodbets Sharks) – 139 caps, 35 pts (7t)
3 Thomas du Toit (Bath) – 31 caps, 5 pts (1t)
2 Malcolm Marx (Kubota Spears) – 86 caps, 135 pts (27t)
1 Boan Venter (Edinburgh) – 7 caps, 5 pts (1t)

Replacements:

16 Johan Grobbelaar (Vodacom Bulls) – 6 caps, 0 pts
17 Gerhard Steenekamp (Vodacom Bulls) – 14 caps, 5 pts (1t)
18 Wilco Louw (Vodacom Bulls) – 27 caps, 5 pts (1t)
19 RG Snyman (Leinster) – 49 caps, 15 points (3t)
20 Kwagga Smith (Shizuoka Blue Revs) – 61 caps, 55 pts (11t)
21 Andre Esterhuizen (Hollywoodbets Sharks) – 27 caps, 20 pts (4t)
22 Grant Williams (Hollywoodbets Sharks) – 27 caps, 35 pts (7t)
23 Manie Libbok (Kintetsu Liners) – 27 caps, 145 pts (2t, 48c, 13p)

Mad that 9 of their 23 are based in Japan. You'd think it would affect their game, not playing to the higher standard of the URC on a consistent basis.

It suits them very well - the Japanese season only starts in December and ends in June, so even guys like Malcolm Marx, who played a relatively full season last year domestically, hasn't had any club games since June.

Pieter Steph du Toit hasn't played a domestic game since 5th May 2024 (566 days by the time the game kicks off on Saturday).

TBF most of the others played relatively full schedules in Japan, but it almost certainly isn't taking as much of a toll on their bodies as playing Top14 or URC would.

Yeah, this is it really.

I really dislike Rassie and the way he operates, but it's impossible not to respect just how good he is at his job. He is world class at connecting with his players, getting the best out of them and generally motivating them. Their mental strength is off the charts.

In the event of Aki getting injured, I wonder who'd cover 12; you'd presumably have an option of Farrell, Ringrose or Crowley. I wonder if we could see the latter there.

I don't get Tom Farrell on the bench at all, other than the fact we know Farrell likes a centre in the 23 jersey. Jimmy O'Brien or Jacob Stockdale make more sense. Who is covering Full Back? Crowley? Who is covering the wing? Ringrose? Either O'Brien or Stockdale would have made a lot more sense.