Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Tom Farrell is still in contention as well, but he's as old as the rest. I think it's a risk to have 4 or 5 players playing the same position over the age of 30 and with the exception of Ringrose well over 30. Given Aki is mainly a 12 who can play 13 I'd argue Postlethwaite is the most natural available replacement, but then he doesn't start ahead of Hume and McCloskey at Ulster so that might count against him.

I think Postlethwaite is a natural 12, and behind the best 12 on the island. He'll start to feature in squads the way that Kelleher features behind Sheehan, but not this 6N.

Looks like Casey will be grand for the 6N anyway so panic over, but still need one of the other lads to stake a claim as 3rd choice

Predicting the 36 man squad:

Forwards

• Props: Andrew Porter (potentially injured), Jack Boyle (potentially injured), Paddy McCarthy (potentially injured), Tadhg Furlong, Finlay Bealham, Thomas Clarkson, → Tom O’Toole & Scott Wilson (if other players are injured) ←
• Hookers: Dan Sheehan, Rónan Kelleher, Tom Stewart
• Locks: James Ryan, Tadhg Beirne, Edwin Edogbo, Joe McCarthy
• Back Row: Caelan Doris, Josh van der Flier, Jack Conan, Nick Timoney, Cian Prendergast, Tom Ahern

Scrumhalves:

• 1st choice- Jamison Gibson-Park,
• 2nd choice- Nathan Doak
• 3rd choice- Craig Casey

Fly-halves:

• 1st choice- Harry Byrne
• 2nd choice- Sam Prendergast
• 3rd choice- Jack Crowley

Centres

• Garry Ringrose, James Hume, Robbie Henshaw, Stuart McCloskey

Back Three / Wings / Fullback

• James Lowe, Rob Baloucoune, Jacob Stockdale, Michael Lowry, Tommy O’Brien, JJ Kenny, Zac Ward, Ciaran Frawley

Training Panelist’s

• Jude Postlethwaite
• Alex Soroka
• Dave McCann
• Harry Sheridan
• Bryn Ward

oops forgot him, added him in

Doak before Casey doesn’t make any sense except for injury worry

Doak is the most inform scrum half in Ireland, Casey’s struggled with form and injury

Casey had a solid game last week before his injury

I'm probably biased but I think Casey has comfortably the best pass of any of our 9s, it's a bullet and he has great range. His running lines are much improved and his box kicking too (especially) compared to when he first came through but JGP still has the edge in those two aspects in terms of consistency. Some of JGP's clearance kicking in the AIs was absolutely superb (peak Conor Murray-esque!).

As well as being there to finish off a move I think Casey's great for a snipe, he's averaging a try every five matches in red, virtually identical to JGP in blue. He can choose the wrong time to snipe the odd time would be a bit of a criticism.

I'd have no issues with him at 9 but I think there's a drop-off to 3rd choice, or at least we need to see more live options there. JGP appears to be fit as a fiddle but once the legs go they go fast.

In terms of the wider squad, I really hope Farrell shakes things up a little with an eye on 2027

Casey clearly isn’t the player you think he is.

he is yet to put in a performance at international level to screams ‘top international halfback’.

I think Casey this season isn't quite where he was last season, when he was excellent. Imo, he was extremely unfortunate with the timing of his injury to miss the 6 Nations and I think he would've featured more heavily there if fit.

I'd be in agreement (and have been saying for a long time) that the quality of his pass is the best on the island.

We've seen some good performances from him in green, Fiji being the obvious one while he was also good in SA prior to his injury, but he's also struggled for minutes against Tier 1 teams.

He also brings a leadership element, which this team seems to lack on occasion, since the retirement of big characters like Sexton and POM.

With JPG pushing on, I think he's the natural sucessor and needs to start seeing more game time, imo.

Competent but limited is how I would describe him. I like him but hes not keeping the opposition international coaches up at night wondering how they will counteract his brilliance.

People say “oh we can’t play Casey or Doak because they’re not good at X or Y and they’re not as good as JGP”.

Did anyone actually say that?

Pretty sure the OP means inexperienced at international level. Which is kinda the point.