Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

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.

Neither have I.

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.

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.

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.

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.

what do people think the primary centre partnership will be in three years time?

In my defence, you said that Farrell's tenure could not 'gloss over' the RWC result. "Glossing over" means something superficial is masking something much more important and substantial.

I personally don't think back-to-back 6N championships, 18 successive test wins, a prolonged and deserved reign as #1 in the world, a first ever win in NZ and a series win in NZ, a drawn series in South Africa, beating SA at the RWC and a victorious Lions series are gloss at all, I think it's a phenomenal set of achievements that any coach would be immensely proud of.

A better run in the RWC would have been the icing on top of a very successful cake in my opinion, and losing to NZ by a single score in one match is only a part of the overall consideration of whether he's been a success or not.

postlewaithe-Osbourne

Strongly agreed - he's struggled to break into Terenure's AIL side this year, never mind coming anywhere close in the medium term to the Irish 12 jersey.

He's turned 22 and hasn't gotten a minute so far for Connacht - the only other starter from that U20s RWC Final side who hasn't yet made his senior debut for his province is James Nicholson.

Some of the others have Ireland caps (Paddy McCarthy - 4, Gus McCarthy - 7, Sam Prendergast - 13 and Hugh Gavin - 1), and lots of players have substantial minutes at a provincial level (Diarmuid Mangan - 24 games, 1,160 mins, James McNabney - 20 games, 1,325 mins, Ruadhan Quinn - 23 games, 618 mins, Fintan Gunne - 24 games, 621 mins, Andrew Osborne - 17 games, 916 mins and Brian Gleeson - 25 games, 635 mins). There's a strong argument McNabney and Gleeson might well have been internationally capped too but for injuries.

There's a strong argument John Devine's development has been one of the most disappointing of that good U20s team in reality.

I am familiar with Farrell's results, as I think every poster here is. The WC hodoo is a real thing in Irish rugby and as some reminded us above breaking through the 1/4 is a high level must have in the IRFU plans, not one to be 'glossed over'. Joe, Farrell and everyone else has failed to achieve it. Lots of posters don't think it's important, fair enough. But I guarantee you that Farrell and his employers think it's important.

He probably emerged at the worst time and worst position of any Connacht player ever, in another era he would have debuted straight out of school. It's a tough one - on the one hand he's too talented for a team of our resources to not utilise, on the other he's not better now than about 4 players ahead of him and perhaps not a bigger long term prospect than Seán Walsh.

Like a lot of talented footballers who lack a bit of athleticism at the top level (Lucas Berti, Ethan McIlroy, Mike Lowry, Rob Lyttle, Chris Cosgrave are a few others off the top of my head), imo he should have been moved to 9 early enough to learn the position.

I feel like with Lowry. If you’re going to be 5’7 and <80kg and make it at international level in any position other than scrum half, you need to be Shane Williams/Cheslin Kolbe levels of outstanding. And while he’s a very good player, he just isn’t that.