He had a significant neck injury after the RWC and missed 5-6 months of that season including the entire 2024 6N. He was excellent off the bench against NZ and if he'd carried on fit and in that form I'd bet he would have been comfortably ahead of Nash for the 2024 6N. It took him quite a while to regain his mojo after that injury, and tbh not sure he has fully regained it.
Farrell just seems to love centres on the bench. I don't get it but it is just one of those things that I have come to accept. For me JOB on the bench makes far more sense in terms of being able to come on without disruption.
Maybe he just sees it much more important to have a centre on the bench. JGP/Ringrose/hansen on the wing is better than JOB having to fill in at centre.
Have you seen South Africa before? This guff about tiring legs and disjointed packs just doesn't apply to them. If anything they get stronger as the game goes on.
I don't think having to change our scrumhalf is better than moving JOB to centre. And Crowley can still cover centre, whereas now he is covering fullback (and basically wing by proxy if Hansen moves to the wing).
Fair enough.
I think Casey to scrum half and JGP to wing is better than JOB in the centre. But I expect I'm in the minority.
they didn't in the WC. Etzebeth lasted less than 50mins
Like fair enough, but JOB also wouldn't go to centre anyway. Crowley would. Right now any injury in the back 3 and we'd see Crowley moving to fullback. He is more likely to have to come on out of position with a centre on the bench than with a flexible outside back.
If Crowley isn't picked at 10 he should just be benched until last 15mins as usual. Why play him out of position. Erm he nailed everything when he came on against Australia, far from easy conversions. Munster destroyed Leinster in Dublin recently yet 1 player makes the grade. Tbh Prendegast getting the call is the best news ever for Crowley if things go wrong like some fear
if JOB were on the bench i think its more likely that he would be covering 12 & 13 - at straight swap at 13 and putting GR to 12 if thats what was needed
he isnt on the bench so its moot either way
13 I think it is more likely Aki would move out and Crowley come on but maybe.
It is moot, but I have never understood Farrell's obsession with having a centre at 23. It boggles my mind.
If job doesn't cover centre then he isn't a utility back on the bench . He is a winger.
So then the conversation is a winger or a centre on the bench.
So having a centre on the bench:
Centre gets injured then a straight swap.
Full back gets injured then crowley to full
Wing gets injured then hansen to wing and crowley to full.
Job on the bench:
Wing gets injured then job to wing
Full gets injured then job/Crowley to full.
Centre gets injured then crowley / job to centre
The centre on the bench option looks better to me because I think a specialist centre is more important than a specialist wing
JOB covers the back 3 - which is 3 times as many positions as Farrell covers. Not to mention that JOB is a better centre than Farrell would be a back 3 player. JOB has started 12 pro matches at 13 after all (most recently in 2024).
I also think not having the option of playing Crowley at 10 is a negative. I don't understand how, at least from a cover perspective, JOB isn't a clearly obviously better option. Now if you think Farrell is fundamentally a better player fine, but I think that is arguable as well.
its a few years ago at this stage but in the 2022 game JOB came on and Ringrose moved into 12, i think that would still be the case now although JOB hasnt played centre that much recently afaik
i also dunno if AF sees Crowley as much of an option at centre to be honest (could sh!t-stir and say he doesnt see him as much of an option at 10 either), i think the only time he has played centre for ireland was the france game in the 6Ns and that was really only down to injuries. I imagine JC is viewed as 10/back 3 cover only hence why there is usually a centre on the bench
Ringrose is only back from injury and Aki doesn’t look like he can do 80 minutes any longer. Chances are we’ll need a sub in the centre.
Prendergast is on his second season of senior rugby
Finn Russell is 33 and at the end of his career and still a headless chicken
Not sure you can make that comparison, all young players make mistakes.
That's fair enough, but let's not pretend this isn't a long running preference of Farrell. It is not a situational decision.
Aye, but according to reports Hansen is carrying a knock himself so full back cover may be needed as well.
Anyway it is what it is now, but it is one of Farrells little selection quirks. Sure he did it with the Lions in the 1st Test as well when he had any number of options available to him.
Deniability. That's why. "But he got x minutes" - like we had to listen to all through the 6 nations. No mention that they were mostly out of position. Its become a habit with this Ireland setup, - when in doubt, pick the Leinster player, and throw the Munster player in some other position so that they can keep him as an injury backup or slate his performances and drop him. "Beirne at 6" until "Big Joe" got injured. Its sickening.
Crowley started the first two games
What did you think of his performances in both those games?
If both players are going after the 10 role, four games, two starts each, would that not make it fairly even?
Perfect example of what I was saying...
Nope, not biting thanks all the same.
A centre on the bench has worked out well for Farrell in the past. Aki spent years coming on and making hay.
Crowley's out of hand kicking in Chicago might have hurt him, you could say no-one was firing and the pack was under pressure but some of those kicks were pressure free and just inaccurate. Against the ABs it cost us a lot of territory and against the bokkes it's very dangerous. But let's face it, there's very little between these two 10s at the moment. They both have discrete upsides in their games but other than SPs defensive lapses their respective strengths and weaknesses are exagerated. I expect the jersey to go back and forth and both to get a ton of experience over the next couple of seasons. We can move on to debating the merits of whoever pops up as number 3, as they may have something to say about the WC.
I really liked seeing Conan and Doris on the field together. People will object to Doris at 7 but against the likes of SA that is a model back row, VDF coming off the bench is the cherry on top.
I did. You asked who is JGeP. That's JGP minus the e.
Please don't tell me that you couldn't work that out.
Farrell putting a centre at 23 is like Rassie going 7-1. It's fine until it goes wrong, and then it will go catastrophically wrong. It introduces the potential for pushing multiple players out of their best positions due to the limitations of Aki or Henshaw, and a top team could really punish us.
Is Crowley suffering more as a bench option as he can cover more options than SP and in what may become an attritional game that will be important.
The post I responded to asked who JGeP was. Not me. So I'm not sure why you jumped on my post.
Anyway I'm going to leave it here as I know you'll argue away about this and ruin the thread.
I think Farrell's tetchiness yesterday in his reply about Sam's defensive frailties indicates that Sam is his No1 and Jack is the No2, which in one way is probably no harm as it tells the players themselves where they stand in his view.
How does it indicate that?
He's simply answered the question (a leading, loaded question) he was asked, and defending one of his players.
You're reading into it (and not for the first time) the message you want to read.
You are aware by replying you are "biting"
All you had to say was you have no good answer and just throwing your toys out of pram because your favourite is not starting
If that was the case wouldn't he have started all the games?
I think he'd act the very same way as regards anybody in the squad.
Last year it looked like Sam was the man but Crowley starting against New Zealand suggested it's not a done deal for either of them.
