Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Porter simply cannot hack it at this level, he is a liability.

Complete this sentence:

Porter cannot scrum. We should pick….

The issue is this mediocrity is now just spreading to other area’s of our game.

The ruck: I mean, we are less than 10 minutes into the game where we go into a ruck with only 1 player securing the ball and VDF just standing there and watching Wiese turn the ball over. It just set the tone that we had done f all at fixing our ruck issues.

The scrum: Looking at the pack today, you’ve got a pan approximately 923 kg…how tf is your scrum so poor? Against Australia as well, it’s like we always just about win our own ball and then get annihilated on the opposition ball…and that’s considered acceptable. The issue for me is there seems to be no effort to even try and be legal…the second SA went forward the likes of Porter were like “Yeah I’m done” and concedes the pen, same with Bealham who just flopped to the ground ever single time it was an SA put in.

The lineout/maul: To give them their dues, the lineout issues have been largely resolved…the issue remains the maul. The turning point try today right in half time came from Beirne not listening to the ref and moving away from the maul…this was an issue against Australia as well which contributes to Australia getting back into the game.

McCarthy came on tonight. How did he do?

Boyle is not as good as McCarthy, Milne is even worse. It’s not logical to suggest these guys as solutions.

This utter conviction that all our problems can be fixed by changing the personnel with inferior players is something I just don’t get.

The issue isn’t the players, it’s the quality of coaching. It doesn’t matter who comes in, the fact is areas such as scrum/lineout are areas the coaches clearly don’t focus on which is why we get such a bare minimum scrum/LO on match day and then when you come up against a side where it’s their bread and butter you get today’s rabble.

I'm personally starting to have reservations about Andy Farrell.

Happy to be proven wrong but, while the players deserve all the criticism they get for that performance, it is clear the coaching regime has completely lost it's way.

They need to have serious look at themselves and the personnel in the team, and make them all work for their jersey's again.

The atmosphere was pretty good tonight. There was no need to play Sweet Caroline but the IRFU seem terrified that any lull in play might result in swarms of punters heading to the bar or maybe starting a Mexican wave or something.

To be honest Barry Murphy doing a maudlin version of Zombie before kick off was worse. Particularly because the arsehole saffers have appropriated the song for themselves with their “Rassie, Rassie” chant so it wasn’t even inspiring from an Irish point of view

Porter has been one of the most penalised players in Europe for the last two seasons yet time and time again you will have supporters telling you it's down to incorrect interpretations by officials or, even more bizarrely, a grand conspiracy concocted by crooked referees. He cannot scrummage squarely. This should have been addressed after we lost the quarter final in '23 but as is always the case we buried our heads in the sand. I distinctly remember reading a quote from Sexton which proclaimed "We lost but we won".

We fronted up on goal line defence and should be proud of that. But the game was littered with coach killers that shouldn't be forgotten. I've mentioned the Cian Prendergast knock ons already. That Ryan clear out was unforgivable especially when we were so close to the Boks try line. And the Crowley slap down was thunderingly thick when we were already down to 13 men. Just don't compete and stay on the pitch. He let everyone down there, as did the aforementioned other players.

I'm sure there a dozen more that I've forgotten about.

Negatives are the set piece. Scrum folded against the Boks to an extent I didn't think was possible. In previous games against them we'd lose the battle, but not by much. Yesterday's fixture was utter domination. I'm not sure how we improve that either. The props selected are the best we have.

Lineout has been a shambles all series apart from the Australia game. POC needs to either improve his messaging or leave.

Some established players have clearly not hit their best form. Porter, Sheehan, Beirne, Ryan and Conan have all been well below peak performance. All of them played significant roles for the Lions so it could be a hangover from that. Does us no good though.

Centres is an area of concern. Aki, Henshaw and Ringrose never got going in attack. Only McCloskey looked capable of making the gainline and beyond.

We still haven't answered the 10 question either. Prendergast's performance against Oz was the best of either flyhalf, but there are enough doubts over his defence that he can't have nailed the position down. Crowley came into the November window as the first choice 10, but struggled against New Zealand and was just ok against Japan. Lost his spot to Prendergast again and hasn't done enough to reclaim it. South Africa game is a wash for both. Forwards were so comprehensively mangled that neither 10 had a chance to impose their game.

We definitely missed the extra bit of physicality that Joe McCarthy brings to the side. As soon as he's fit he slots back into the row alongside Beirne. Rugby has always been a physical game, but it seems like the 'meta' has tilted towards even more big hits and scrums, especially with the high kicking game to force knocks ons being en vogue.

It's a shame Edogbo was unavailable this series. We need another power second row. Probably wouldn't have played against the Boks but we could have seen what he's capable of against Japan at least.

The gig was up for Farrell at the end of the last world cup. At least he should have over hauled the coaching staff. That said hard to understand Ryans thinking or lack of. The South African non yellow as well was another joke. Ireland have tied with Fiji with 5 yellows in one game.

It won’t happen until after the next World Cup, but it would be great for the IRFU to make a play to get McNamara, Flannery and Jones into the Irish setup. In general Farrell has been brilliant for Ireland, but things look like they have naturally gone stale. An Irish head coach would be nice if someone is up to it tbh. Not sure if a Mark McCall would fit the bill but think changes are needed in the coaching team more than anything.