Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

How do the Irish hookers rate as scrummagers? Spotlight usually falls on props, even on locks but no one seems to mention a hookers impact.

Has Sheahan put on a few kgs?

James Tracy commented before in the context of the Leinster hookers (who he would have trained alongside), and said Ronan Kelleher was the strongest scrummager of that bunch; which stands to reason. He's a bit shorter and squatter than Sheehan, and seems very powerful. Believe Rob Herring is also a very powerful scrummaging hooker.

Gus McCarthy doesn't strike me as an especially powerful scrummager, and would say the same for the likes of Tom Stewart, Lee Barron & Diarmuid Barron.

With both Ulster and Munster not qualifying for the last 16 of the Heineken we need a dose of reality, our expectations should be realistic. Very few Irish players made teams of the week or created headlines. The URC performances are not close to test level. Andy Farrell will not pick players to go to Paris because they looked good in a few URC games. He will stick with guys who he trusts away to France especially given our front row issues. France will go after the scrum, they smell blood.

Is the Champions Cup group stage a great barometer these days? In fairness the Leinster La Rochelle match was a proper game, so the Leinster players who played well there should be in credit. But a lot of the pool stage games are half baked now which saddens me greatly.

Ok, but if we focus on Lowe, it's fairly obvious he is not doing the business

Again, 'fairly obvious' is entirely subjective.

He was crap in the AIs and his limitations were on full display.

I don't think he was crap tbh. A few wayward kicks aside, which he has always been prone to, I thought he had a decent series. Brainfarts are not a recent development for him, they're part of the reason he's been so good.

Lowe is rapidly running out of credit in the bank.

With Farrell? I'm not so sure tbh. But look, Ward and Kenny will get a run-out next week, Stockdale probably won't be needed at FB so he's an option for left wing in Paris. If Lowe is so bad and the alternatives are so good, his days are numbered.

It's genuinely crazy how when you look down the depth charts at LHP across all four provinces how poorly the other three have done at developing any options at all.

Of all the minutes the 4 provinces have given to LHPs this season, the only minutes given to players with zero development link to Leinster Rugby pathways is 857 mins given by Ulster to Angus Bell (255), Sam Crean (456) and Callum Reid (146), and of those, only Reid was developed in Ireland.

The remaining minutes, 3,410 (80%) all went to players who have development links to Leinster:

• Jeremy Loughman - from Athy, Kildare, went to Blackrock College (ex Leinster Academy)
• Michael Milne - from Birr, Offaly, went to Cistercian, Roscrea (ex Leinster Academy)
• Josh Wycherley - from Bantry, Cork, went to Cistercian, Roscrea
• Peter Dooley - from Birr, Offaly, went to St Brendan's, Birr
• Jordan Duggan - from Newbridge, Kildare, went to Newbridge College
• Billy Bohan - from Newbridge, Kildare, went to Newbridge College
• Denis Buckley - from Roscommon, went to Blackrock College
• Eric O'Sullivan - from Dublin, went to Templeogue College

including the 5 at Leinster:

• Paddy McCarthy - from Dublin, went to Blackrock College
• Jack Boyle - from Dublin, went to St Michael's College
• Andrew Porter - from Dublin, went to St Andrew's College
• Alex Usanov - from Dublin, went to Belvedere College
• Jerry Cahir - from Roscrea, went to Cistercian, Roscrea

Outside of this - you have Temi Lasisi (from Enniscorthy, ex Leinster) injured atm in Connacht, and George Hadden (from Gorey) in the Munster Academy.

The situation isn't miles different at THP either.

Again you're falling into your trap of hinting that Andy Farrell is infallible

Conversely, you've again fallen into your trap of dismissing any defence of him as saying he's infallible.

I don't think he's infallible, but I do recognise the arguments against Lowe's selection as the same ones we've seen about any number of different players, either being picked or their replacements being overlooked, going back several years now.

I believe he's fallible, I just don't think he could be as fallible as he's made out to be here and still be as successful as he has been.

On Lowe, I think he had a decent AI, particularly against SA and Australia. He's 33 so he's on borrowed time no matter what, but a winger who was never reliant on blinding pace might eke out a year or two more than one who was. When there's someone better, I'm confident that guy will get the jersey, I just don't think we're quite there yet.

Very Interesting stats from Opta

Players with 5+ retained kicks in the 2025 M6N:

13 - Sam Prendergast

10 - Alex Mitchell, Jamison Gibson-Park

9 - Paolo Garbisi

8 - Antoine Dupont, Tomos Williams

6 - Ben White

5 - Fin Smith, Gareth Anscombe, Martin Page-Relo