Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

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

personally I don’t think it’s about which hooker is better than McCarty or if Milne is better than the Leinster non starters. The point is that the best players on the island should be playing/starting as many games in the league/cup as possible. That will obviously be detrimental to Leinster but this is the Irish thread and as an Irish fan I think any other way of looking at it is perverse.

In an ideal world this should be the case, I agree. But you then have two options A. Force players to move. Or B. Select inferior players just because they play for a different province.

McCarthy v Stewart is one that’s been commonly brought up, with people saying Stewart should be there given he’s higher up his provinces depth chart. But McCarthy has actually played more rugby than Stewart since the start of last season. Stewart only managed to start 1 game last season. So if game time isn’t an issue for Stewart, it isn’t an issue for McCarthy.

I find the Michael Milne debate gas. Literally nobody was calling for his inclusion before April when he was 4th choice at Leinster (at best). But all of a sudden now he’s been shafted and would have saved our scrum v the Boks. Has driving down the M7 magically made him a better rugby player or something.

Is it ideal that our first three looseheads and hookers play for one province? Absolutely not. I’d much rather it wasn’t the case. But unless Stewart rediscovers his early career form and someone improves immensely at loosehead, that’s where we’re at. It’s not ideal by any means but the solution isn’t selecting worse players because they play for a different province.

I find the Michael Milne debate gas. Literally nobody was calling for his inclusion before April when he was 4th choice at Leinster (at best). But all of a sudden now he’s been shafted and would have saved our scrum v the Boks. Has driving down the M7 magically made him a better rugby player or something.

I'm not sure I've seen anyone make the claim that "he's been shafted and would have saved out scrum v the Boks"?

Another point is obviously Healy was in situ prior to April. His retirement naturally freed up a spot in the squad that Milne was competing for, so he was automatically one spot closer to inclusion just from that alone. That's part of the context of any calls for his inclusion.

Yeah I really like Stewart and think he's a really good prospect, and a decent run of fitness should give him the edge over McCarthy (who I also think is good).

I simply don't think anyone will be talking about Milne come the Six Nations.