Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

oh my god stop hahahaha

Minutes played for their respective province last season

Clarkson : 819*

Bealham: 851

*including starts in the URC 1/4 final, 1/2 final and Final

In other words, Clarkson does play a lot for his province and in meaningful games. He’s not been plucked out of the sub academy by Farrell

He's where he is now on merit, and based on the quality of his performances. He played a lot of minutes for Leinster last season (18 games, 11 starts, 819 mins) and started every game of the URC run in (started from Rounds 14 through to the Grand Final). The season before that he played in 15 games, 10 starts, 581 mins.

He has looked largely pretty comfortable at an international level, in Europe and against some tough scrummaging teams in the URC.

His minutes for Leinster over the past 2 seasons are broadly comparable to any of the contenders for that #3 THP in the squad role - Clarkson has played 33 games, 21 starts for 1,400 mins over that period, versus the following other players in competition for the spot:

• Aungier - 38 games, 18 starts, 1,501 mins
• Jager - 27 games, 16 starts, 1,018 mins
• O'Toole - 35 games, 28 starts, 1,900 mins.

O'Toole is the more established of all those, he's the #1 choice at his province over that timeframe, and is someone the Irish coaches know very well, but it's not a crazy difference for all that. Clarkson isn't like Paddy McCarthy, someone who has just been highlighted but hasn't really delivered yet at a domestic level.

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]