Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

I personally don't think who starts more or plays more should really be that important a factor. I'd expect Stewart to wrest back the third hooker spot because he's a better player, and has started this season very well. But it shouldn't be because he has more minutes under his belt.

I’d drop one just to prove it’s Ireland, not Leinster in green.

Plenty of options around, it’s not like Sheahan and kelleher were on top form and Gus McCarthy was incognito.

And This idea that Leinster players are so much better then the rest, hard to make that argument when Ireland are losing so much against the big boys.

Plenty of options around,

Once again (trying my best to not sound like a f*cking owl at this stage)…..who?

People keep saying there’s loads of quality options out there, but nearly always fail to actually name any.

I’d be confident that Stewart will be back in come the 6N if he continues his injury free run. But you can’t criticise a coach for not picking a guy who started one game all of last season because he was injured.

Our discipline really was poor. 10 scrum penalties is a staggering amount. 3 offsides, 4 maul penalties and 5 breakdown penalties. Would love to see the numbers from SA perspective.

Interesting to see Carley didn’t penalise us once in the last 17mins. Our discipline suddenly improving hugely or Carley deciding that he needed to even out the penalty count to make it look like he was reffing both teams equally on paper. I know what I think. Conor Murray referring to him yesterday as a ‘snowball referee’ was as critical as the Irish media tend to get on refereeing performances.

And possible yellows for SFM and PsDT when the game was in the balance. The PsDT one being overlooked was particularly interesting seeing as he carded Crowley for a similar offence just minutes later. It was interesting what Conor Murray and Gerry Thornley had to say in their articles yesterday in the Irish Times. The penalty timeline does nothing to dispel the perception of him as a ‘snowball referee’. He did the exact same thing against Fiji when they played Wales in RWC2023.

By the letter of the law, Matthew Carley can argue that his five yellow cards were legitimate.

I’ve tried talking to Carley in games when he has decided to repeatedly penalise Munster. Too many times, I’ve been waved away without a proper explanation.

The same frustration was visible on Caelan Doris’s face as the Ireland captain sought to engage with the English referee. Nothing was coming back.

I call him a snowball ref. He rolls with decisions made in the opening minutes, even if they don’t apply by the hour mark. One slow call in particular got under my skin. In the second-half Ireland held up the South Africa maul. Before giving the most obvious call – “Scrum Ireland” – Carley ran around the other side, almost looking to reward the Boks.

True, it was yet another bad month for World Rugby’s foul play processes, and the officiating of said processes. Three rescinded cards should not be happening with up to five officials adjudicating on each instance, any more than Matthew Carley and his officials coming to the wrong conclusion that Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s high hit on Tommy O’Brien didn’t warrant a card. In seemingly letting Rassie Erasmus get inside their heads, both the TMO and Carley were far too hasty in wrongly decreeing that the initial contact was to the chest and there was no evidence the Boks outhalf didn’t attempt to use his arms.

It was an infuriating decision. It incensed the crowd and had a seismic affect on both Carley’s refereeing thereafter and perceptions of it, as when not yellow carding Pieter-Steph du Toit before doing so to Jack Crowley three minutes later for an identical offence. Carley did similar when Toulouse beat Leinster after extra time, hastily binning James Lowe for batting the ball out of play having not come to the same decision when Anthony Jelonch committed the same offence to deny Dan Sheehan a try early on.

Yet English pundits believe Carley had a great game on both occasions.Murray’s description of Carley as a snowball referee seems apt. What made Carley’s decision on Feinberg-Mngomezulu even more ridiculous was that he had the cop-out of a yellow card and referring the incident to the bunker review for a possible 20-mintue red card.

McCarthy will still be involved as a 24th man for Leinster's European Cup games, and will be straight into the XXIII if there's an injury to Sheehan or Kelleher. And even if he doesn't appear in these game he'll still be doing the warmup.

Bit of a strange one considering they only signed Lee Baron 6 months ago. It’s not a great message to be sending out to IQ players when the IRFU is trying to encourage them to switch province for regular game time.

Hmmm, I don't know about Wilson. He looks good and has played a lot, but I don't think Farrell's all that keen.

It might be better to keep Bealham involved for a while longer and bring Niall Smyth in as a training panellist. Then Smyth will be good to go in a year or two's time.

You did actually.

Exactly, so you did bring it up as a possibility. I’m not sure why you’re asking someone on a forum why they’re quoting and replying to you about something you’ve posted it. It’s probably best to not act like you’ve never brought it up though.

good idea as well, smyth ticks all the boxes and would be familiar with the other 8 front rowers. He would know the ropes etc . Safer bet than picking Wilson I feel