the Italy game is the second fixture, and our first home fixture. We play France away before that. Either we get an unlikely win in Paris, and therefore see a championship/slam as a possibility, or more likely we get beat in Paris and need to get back on track. No matter which outcome, we’ll be fully loaded against Italy. No way will they tinker with the team. Any changes will be either injury enforced, or because someone played so badly against France that they get dropped.
The Joe era completely redefined what success meant in Irish rugby and Farrell has continued on in the same vein.
That people can look at Farrell’s record and question it is a testament to how successful he has been, he and Joe have totally changed perspectives and expectations for Irish rugby fans.
Absolutely, with the style of play in 22-23 being the pinnacle for me.
The NZ summer tour was a real highlight
Two questions around the midfield.
Is Osborne better at 12 or 15?
What's Bundee's contract situation?
12 but Farrell doesn't seem to agree.
13
23
The emergence of Zach Ward and JJ Kenny really shines a light for me on how utterly stupid a decision it was to get rid of the 7s programme.
It smacked to me of Humphreys trying to put his own stamp on things, and doing away with something that was a big pet project of his predecessor. It’s highly unlikely guys like Kenny, Ward, Izuchukwu, Andrew Smith etc have pro contracts right now if not for the 7s programme, and in Ward and Kenny we’ve found two prototypical guys who have what we ostensibly lack: size, power and speed.
I wasn’t a huge fan of 7s as a product to watch in and of itself, but believe it was a valuable player production pathway.
The rumoured annual savings from scrapping 7s are €500k, which seems a relatively immaterial saving in the context of the scale of the IRFUs finances. The IRFU keep dropping a million plus every time they can get their hands on a house in Havelock Square (and I get why they’re doing this obviously) but don’t have the money apparently for actual valuable rugby activities.
I don't know because he's never gotten an extended run in a position for club or country due to his versatility.
Ironically its this versatility that sees him in many match day 23's
Yea, what about it? You're **** on Tector and Forde as though they're both not very good players, and ignoring the fact that the incumbents are dinosaurs, playing like drains for the most part.
Farrell should have been aggressive in blooding lads in the centres. It's an area of particular weakness, and one with a lot of talent coming through. We also need to recognize that our attack has been struggling massively with an over reliance on our wings playmaking and creating line breaks, in no large part due to how abject our centres have been.
Again, Tector has been comfortably performing better than the corpse of Henshaw since last season. He wouldn't be my first call for replacing him, but given the injuries to Osborne etc, he's a solid option. Your opinion of Henshaw "playing well" reflecting games where he offered nothing in attack and wasn't an abject disaster in defense in the way Ringrose and Aki have been of late, is a pretty low bar.
That we can agree on. So why are we wasting caps on lads so clearly on the downward slope of their careers, who are clearly playing poorly, when there are any number of young lady who could be getting games?
I'm not debating aims and goals in reports. I'm saying the idea of an asterisk on a coaches record because he didn't win one knockout game is absurd. The coaches cannon of work is far more measurable
I don't disagree with that in fairness.
I'd always thought the point of an "asterisk" in that sense was when you did actually win something but there was a reason that it was easier than expected, or there were ameliorating factors. The first time I heard it was being applied to Ulster's 99 Heineken trophy, in that the England teams didn't play that year.
The poster I was replying to was stating Farrell will always have an asterisk because he didn't get Ireland past a quarter final. Which says more about the poster than Farrell IMHO.
Tector has barely featured this season. In recent weeks he’s been brutal against Ulster, unused sub against Munster and looked good against an awful Connacht team, even if he was totally gassed by the end.
He has on his bollix been outperforming Henshaw.
fair enough, I like rugby but don’t enough about it to make any statements like I do. My feeling is for a good years excluding Leinster the provinces are not producing enough talent to keep the international team going at the high level.
This is not me trying to cause a row and I accept that’s not Leinsters fault and have no idea really who is to blame , I assume the provinces themselves.
But if it’s a case that Leinster are producing all the talent and it’s being shipped to the other provinces I think that will cause serious problems in the long term for Irish rugby.
I get tha,t, just never heard the asterisk metaphor used that way before.
Neither have I.
Perhaps the fact he's barely featured might be a factor in his underperforming? One game of poor performance (according to you), and he's to be written off? Yet we have week after week of Henshaw turning in subpar performances, and that's grand yea? Fact is Tector was playing really well last season, and is playing well once again, in direct competition with Aki on the day. He showed more in that match than Henshaw has shown in about 2 years, in terms of attacking threat.
At the game last night and Tector was very good. He is a developing young player. Don't be too quick to write him off. Very intelligent running for the intercept try. He can also place kick and play out half. Some people write off young players too soon for making the odd mistake, that is part of the learning curve, it's how you improve.
Absolutely no one is writing Tector off FFS.
what people are challenging is the argument that he should have been starting 12 against Australia last November
TBF I don’t think Syd was writing him off, just saying he’s done nothing yet to warrant starting matches at 12 for Ireland.
strawman. Literally no one is ‘dismissing Farrell’s achievements”. Exaggeration as a form of argument is rampant in these kinds of discussions.
I can’t believe that even you are arguing that we should have picked Charlie Tector to start for Ireland. I simply don’t believe that you believe this.
If the choice was between one of the young lads I mentioned ( not just Tector, who you've focused on) vs Aki or Henshaw, then yes I would have preferred to see them given a chance. The original post referenced the Japan game, which absolutely should've been used for development.
Was Tom Farrell having his first start at 13 in that Japan game? Would it be wise starting a youngster at 12? Think that Japan game was a must win from a seedings point of view too.
Personally, I don't think we were in any danger of losing that match, nor should we be too worried about seeding.
what do people think the primary centre partnership will be in three years time?
12 Jamie Osborne 13 Hugh Gavin. Although I feel Gavin might be more suited to 12. Connacht are stacked with 12's at the moment. Would love to see a real pacey 13 who is also willing to involve the winger outside him come through.
Gavin was being looked at as a 12 but he's been exceptional at 13 and I don't see him ever moving back permanently. He's a bit like a young version of Henshaw except he's going to play 13 as his primary position.
Osbourne is being treated like many talented players who came before him, being thrown in everywhere. I don't think he's ever going to have a permanent position in the Irish set up. He's going to end up covering injuries, it's not right and it happens too often to talented players.
As you say, Connacht is stacked with 12s. Cathal Forde is at present the most talented but John Devine will challenge him for the starting spot soon I think. Devine might end up contending for the 12 jersey for Ireland if he continues to improve. He's 22 now, he's Matthews brother.
Matthew is a very talented scrum-half. Needs to improve his passing a bit but he has all those special moves that you rarely see.
