Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

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.

Apparently so, yep.

I'd imagine your assumptions are correct; Crowley covering FB, and Ringrose (or even JGP in a pinch) covering wing.

As happy as I am for Farrell to pick up his 2nd cap, I think I'd have favoured Stockdale too tbh. But my guess is he's favoured Farrell as a consequence of Aki's poor form.

Henshaw has an injury

John O'Sullivan has it in the IT - https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/2025/11/20/ireland-v-south-africa-team-announcement-live-who-will-make-andy-farrells-team/

I agree with Sam's selection for this very reason. We need to see can he do what he did vs. Aus against a top team like SA. Can he pick apart their blitz defence? Can his physicality stand up to what SA will throw at him? Have to put him in at the deep end and see if he can produce the goods. These series are the opportunity to try these things.

Crowley in many ways is the steady Eddie, the safe bet. We know he'll be able to handle the Boks physically. But won't have quite the same guile as Sam in attack. It's up to Sam to prove he can handle a hugely physical game and still influence the game with his tactical kicking and passing talents.

Fwiw, I think Baird's performances have most likely put to bed the possibility of Beirne at 6 going forward (which I'm pretty glad about, however well it went for the Lions).

Imo the most likely knock-on effect is that James Ryan will be the one to drop out of the starting 15 when McCarthy returns. As important as Ryan is for us, I don't think he's turned out to be the generational player we all hoped he'd be when he burst onto the scene as far back as 2018.

A side note to this, and probably premature, but with Farrell recently preferring 2 back-rows on the bench with Baird as the 2nd row cover, could Henderson have played his last game for Ireland? Always thought he'd hit the 100 caps.

You're last paragraph is funny as I said almost the exact same thing to someone last weekend that I see Prendergast like a Finn Russell. Can do magic things but also can do something crazy and be flakey. Luckily he has time on his side.

Where I said Crowley is more like a George Ford. Solid, won't let you down, but doesn't have the same ability to do something brilliant to change the game.

Both good players, hopefully both are given the time to prove themselves for Ireland but I'm excited to see if Prendergast can back up last week with a step up in opposition this week. That said, really hope he can stand up in defence as it's a glaring area that SA will target.

With Stockdale on the bench, then it'd likely be Crowley to 12 with Aki to 13, which is obviously far from ideal either (to say the least).

It's a difficult one, you're never going to cover all positions to a reasonable degree. I guess that's the case for JOB, but he seems out of favour at the moment.

Dissappianingly regressive selection after what was a more progressive team that played very well last week.

Lowry is not even in the squad, and realistically only plays 15. I don't see how he does much for us either in the 23 shirt.

Out of curiosity, did you read the post I responded to?