Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

I think what the coaches need to do is stop relying on Leinster players so much. Once upon a time they were undoubtedly the strongest team in the British and Irish Isles and many of those players deserved their places at the time. Times have changed and it's time to diversify the Irish team if we want to start winning again

I'd imagine the thinking behind Tom Farrell is for the 2026 edition of the 6 Nations, I don't think he'll make the next world cup! I think somebody gave a statistic a few months back that finishing 3rd in the 6 nations is worth around the same as winning the world cup in financial terms so I'm glad to see evidence that they aren't trying to 'build towards the World Cup' at least

for me using the 6 nations to build for the World Cup is not the correct thing to do. They should have used the last 4 games to build for this 6 nations.

Also I have no problem on the team being mainly made up of Leinster team starters, but I do have a problem with them picking Leinster non starters for the Irish Squad even for development.

For example The sight of Sheehan kelleher and Gus McCarthy in the squad is wrong. It sends the wrong signal to the players in the other provinces.

I can make a very educated guess that Clegg, myself and many other Leinster fans on this site will have seen Michael Milne play exponentially more times than you have to make our own conclusions on him as a scrummager.

It's not too late for him, not by any means. However, right now, he's a crap scrummager and that is the reality for him. It is what it is.

For you to come in here and try to make it about criticism of him since he moved to Munster is trying to make this a provincial spat that it doesn't need to be.

The reason why its worth pointing out that he's a crap scrummager is because we're talking about him as an option in the Ireland squad following a match where our scrum got absolutely annihilated, so it is a relevant point whether it hurts your feelings or not.

If that's the line you want to go with, though, then I'll remember that next time you or anyone else brings up Sam Prendergast's defence.

No feelings hurt here Pete, don't worry about that, I appreciate your concern though! I couldn't really care less how he played 3 years ago for ye, only how he's going recently, so maybe search inside that great big lovely heart of yours and give him another chance. If Stephen Archer can lock out scrums in big games in South Africa having spent his early and mid-20s being a deckchair maybe Milne can learn and improve too…

You're entitled to your opinion, personally I'm seeing differently in his appearances for us… which is why I find it strange Clegg is constantly hammering the "crap/awful" scrummager line at every opportunity.

Milne looks solid enough in the scrum to my untrained eye, solid enough to be Munster first choice already, he's very good in the loose. Made a bigger impression than Lee Barron for sure down this way.

I wasn't talking about him in an international context btw, just on how he's 'awful' and 'crap' at scrummaging when I'm not seeing that. He's been in and around Ireland squads the last couple of years and played against Spain so he must have something going for him that the international coaches like. There's a plethora of props log-jammed behind Healy and Porter for almost the last decade so time will tell I guess on the Ireland front for Milne and others.

If he turns out to be crap at scrummaging, I'll do similar to Sam in defence and I'll hold my hands up!

Your first post in response to mine opened on a provincial argument. I've linked you to posts, when Milne was still a Leinster player, highlighting my reservations about him as a scrummager. You'll also see other posters issues as well. My position on him has been the same for years now.

You have ignored that and now gone on a different tangent. It's obvious what you're doing but whatever. You've worn down everyone with the usual nonsense. Have at it.

I would have thought from those posts that it was obvious I felt Milne's scrummaging was bad. In the space of a year he again failed to kick on and instead moved from competing with Healy for 2nd choice to falling to 4th choice.

These positions are in fact the same. And I'll ask you again, like I did in the Leinster thread before, to stop misrepresenting my positions.

It's entirely reasonable to hold these are the same position. Because they are. You're now just arguing over language because you don't have a point of substance to make.

It's pretty obvious from those posts that I thought his scrummaging was bad. It's a consistently held position.

For sure. If anything then financially speaking the World Cup should be used as a training session for the 6 Nations

For the sake of accuracy here, the extent to which I "jumped to Milne's defence when McCarthy was selected in the AI squad ahead of him"was to post the following in the Munster thread:

Coombes and Milne both unlucky to miss out. I think Ireland were held up over the line 5 times during the 6 Nations? You'd think those 2 would be handy additions to the squad…

That was the entirety of my comment on both Milne and McCarthy after the squad announcement until you posted the following rubbish 2 days later.

Interestingly I don't remember many calls outside leinster for Milne to be included before now… although I'm sure it would be the same for Mccarthy if it was him that had moved south

Which clearly just reads as you wanting to have a swipe at Munster fans more than anything else….

Enlighten me to the full extent of my comments then?

But who would you drop? Which of the 3?

Can’t drop Sheehan, no way

Kelleher is a lion

Gus Mac has been ear marked for a while now, has a few caps under his belt and has been in a few camps, where he gotten up to speed

which hooker in Ireland could compare with the 3?

For those who haven't seen it, James Tracy on the 42.ie has a good analysis of the Scrum issues against SA. It negates the overly simplistic notion that it's always Porters fault, and focuses instead on the hooker-tighthead bind as the problem. Maybe the height difference is an issue after all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVUsKMAGOjE