Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Ya they have comparable minutes to other players or lower in some cases. I agree they should be picked. As I said it makes sense having 8/9 FRs from the one team. You can't replicate that scrum familiarity if you had more players from different teams.

In hindsight I think Boyle may not have been selected, form not great this season and v low minutes. But as you pointed out there is no one else in the other provinces who could do the same job as Boyle did this Autumn, not one.

I would have liked Stewart to have been involved, but again who do you drop? None of them. There is also the risk the lineout may not function as well with a different hooker. Maybe Stewart might get a chance in the A game next spring, all going well.

Loughman has done really well against the same TH Wilco Louw that destroyed the Irish scrum. He will be packing down against Thomas Du Toit for Bath in a few weeks. Before you guys come in with the "who would you drop?" reductive reasoning, or Loughman is not test level. He's test level at scrummaging and head and shoulders above the current options at scrummaging. Getting an international call up isn't about dropping guys, it's about options!

Jager at 130kg and 6'4 is the biggest, heaviest TH in Ireland. So you'd be looking at Loughman (6'1) Sheehan (6'3) and Jager (6'4) is a lot better than Furlong (6ft), Sheehan (6'3) and Porter (5'11 on his tippy toes). That means Sheehan is no longer sticking out like the tip of a spear.

That's hilarious, Munster won all of their scrums and 2 of the Bulls scrums were also won by Munster. And of course, Munster also won that game..

https://www.espn.com/rugby/matchstats/_/gameId/598034/league/270557

Ya exactly a greater body of work from Boyle. 110 minutes this season so far, all for Leinster, 0 for Ireland. Define a greater body of work though? 51mins v Stormers getting smashed 35-0? But I get it, there is absolutely no alternative LHP outside of Leinster right now who could compare to this incredible body of work.

Same at hooker. The top 3 have done a lot more all season long than any other hooker in Ireland. But Imagine if Stewart gets back to form and is involved in the next 10 Ulster match day squads. Roughly 500 minutes. Would that be enough of a body of work to oust the #3 Leinster Hooker. Or is there a threshold of body of work to reach I wonder?

there is absolutely no alternative LHP outside of Leinster right now who could compare to this incredible body of work.

About 10 posts of you ranting and raving and you haven’t actually named anyone.

Who are these amazing loosehead props all over the country that are getting shafted by the Ireland selectors?

I'm saying that you do not need to reduce a selection down to your best 23. Isn't it obvious? And compared to the guys already in the team, he's positively youthful. SA train scrum religiously, constant live sessions and the pecking order changes constantly depending on who does best.

Given the squad size I doubt we even do that. There's very little competition for places going on in Ireland.

Who are these amazing loosehead props all over the country that are getting shafted by the Ireland selectors?

There aren't any. While Saturday night was a disaster, there's no prop out there that we could have parachuted in to solve things. Porter might have his issues but he's by some distance our best LH.

Whatever you might want to say about Farrell, no-one can deny that he and his coaches have done their best to look at pretty much every loosehead on the island.

Jeremy Loughman is being touted here as some overlooked titan of the scrum, nearly two years after his last cap. He was in and around the squad for the guts of two years, he toured NZ, he played in the RWC, I think people have forgotten that. Whatever he can or cannot bring to the table, he's had plenty of opportunity to show it.

[no, I'm not saying the coaches are infallible]

I think international coaches know how to run a training session.

And guess what it also shows, the the Bulls didn't retain 2 of their scrums.. So Munster retained 100% of their scrums and the Bulls did not. You just made up the whole story or you might have some unconscious bias against Munster that if affecting your very thought process.

We’ve still yet to hear which props are unfairly being overlooked who would have saved our scrum against South Africa

I can't think of any front rowers from the other provinces who should be given a chance to stake a claim. I was thinking maybe Wilson at THP (apprentice type player), Stewart at Hooker, maybe Milne over Boyle. Milne had shown a bit more form than Boyle earlier maybe.

But they are risky choices. I doubt those 3 could get up to speed quickly enough. Who could you drop? Bealham? You couldn't drop any of the 8 from Leinster. Would lose so much scrum cohesion and scrum familiarity from the squad.

That's why I was thinking should Andy look further down the Leinster depth chart, Smyth at THP? fast track him over Bealham? McKee at hooker, Cahir/Usanov at LHP, not sure are they a major upgrade on the existing lads

Exciting times..