Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Stockdale doesn’t need to get back to his 2018 form, where he was probably the best finisher in world rugby.

He just needs to be better than Lowe, and that isn’t too much of obstacle

I’m not sure any of the other options have Lowe’s physical abilities to break tackles and finish tries. He may have lost some pace but his finishing and kicking abilities are hard to replace, and his defence is fine.

He never had any pace so losing pace is a problem. And his defense is not fine. Or at least it wasn't on Friday for the Stewart try. He had 2 attempts at tackling Stewart and got brushed off both times.

he missed the first tackle, and that was that. Hustling to get another crack just shows how slow steward is! Show me another Leinster winger who hasn’t missed a tackle. And we are talking about wing options for Ireland, Lowes defence for Ireland has been more than adequate for years.

And now trying to put the emphasis on Steward for being too slow. That's an odd take.

Lowe is … lazy.

He often gives up the chase too easily.

Give us two examples of this. Should be easy for you.

Calling a very high achieving, Lion, Irish International and Leinster player lazy without producing any proof is lazy! If you don't like him that is fine but you seem to be portraying a personal animosity towards him.

I'd argue, with Stockdale's improved form and Lowe's dis-improved form over the last 12-18 months, that Stockdale has made a strong case, tbh. All things being equal, I wouldn't have been at all surprised to see Stockdale leapfrog Lowe by the end of the 6 Nations, for example. But that's probably a moot point now with the Hansen and Keenan injuries.

Also think "Some guys grab their chances, others don’t." is far too simplistic a reading of the situation, when you include injuries in the whole context - both to Stockdale and the incumbents tbh. It also begs the question but for the injury, would TOB have gotten his chance at all.

It can't be the case that, when a player gets an opportunity because of injury and then plays well, that he has "seized the opportunity", but in other positions when there are no injuries to the incumbents, that the guys outside the 23 aren't good enough.

They can be plenty good enough but just not getting an opportunity, due to injuries or otherwise.

I absolutely don't think it's clear that Lowe is out best left-winger any more.

Agreed. At the moment, everyone fit and healthy, I'd probably swap Hansen to Lowe's wing and play Keenan, TOB and Hansen with Stockdale in the 23 jersey.

But with the way the injuries have gone, I expect Stockdale to get some gametime for us during the 6N and I expect he'll do well for us.

It's the defensive side of the game that's the issue tho, and his stats there bear that out too in the last 2 games with regards turnovers lost and tackles missed, say.

We also saw his relative lack of pace in the Leicester game. He never was particularly quick, but he seems to be slowing down further, imo.

Stockdale’s superior pace alone gives him an edge in that regard, imo.

I think there’s a decent chance he’d have caught Radwan, for example.

He got an opportunity and he took it, to the point where Farrell was happy to leave him at 14 and move Hansen to 15

Which again overlooks the point that both Keenan and Osborne were injured.

"Took his opportunity" is too simplistic in that context.

The post you’re objecting to literally says that he’s keeping Hansen’s jersey warm. But we could still have picked JOB or Frawley at Fb, or indeed Stockdale, but we didn’t. Considering how much stick Farrell gets for being conservative, playing the novice at wing and moving your best wing to FB was a ballsy move.

In fairness, if you think a guy who made his debut in the summer and went on to start all four November tests did not take his opportunity, then it’s no wonder we disagree on literally everything.