Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Yeah, he's a complete space cadet.

The officials are doing their best. It genuinely mystifies me how much abuse they get, especially the psychotic stuff about corruption. Is all this seeping in from soccer or what?

Mange tout Del Boy, mange tout.

Aki-gate certainly is causing a wild variety of opinions from the learned rugby scribes tonight.

Rud O'Connor in the Indo describing, more or less, how Aki had it coming, for a years-long record of insolence and insubordination, to both officials and coaches alike within the Irish system.

Mr Thornley, in the paper of record, crying foul, not just of the preemptive and anticipatory nature of the Union ban ahead of the League disciplinary, but that all of Connacht are entitled to be paranoid at how harshly their men are treated for complaining about how leniently Leinster, in particular, are treated in turn by officials on the pitch for high hits and what not.

Further, he says it would be bordering on a criminal way to end the international career of "the most popular player in Ireland" should he never be selected again.

All joking aside, its one of the worst pieces of Thornley's I have ever read, peevish and subjective, barely giving any weight to the grim record of Aki's conduct with officialdom on and off the field, which is well documented and unavoidable.

The interpretation of Thornley's article posted earlier is a bit biased.

It leaves out things like below which was just after saying a sad way to end the career

"Of course, by the same token, the IRFU has to defend its referees and match officials as well as its players, and there’s a line that the latter cannot cross. The game needs characters, it’s true, but it needs referees even more.

And on Connacht

"There has long been a widespread belief among supporters, players, coaches et al in Connacht that they receive an unfair crack of the whip from officialdom".

Sympathize with Aki he does as you say but he also makes it clear that the suspension is right.

I think we'll almost certainly still see Aki towards the back-end of the 6 Nations when his ban is over.

We know Farrell very much values vibes in camp, and puts significance into milestones etc. so I think we'll, at a minimum, see him off the bench vs Wales or Scotland.

This is undoubtedly a black mark against him, but for me, he'll go down as a legend of Irish rugby. Best 12 of the pro era?

Memory failing me here, but wasn't it also Paddy Wallace that gave away that penalty vs Wales in the 09 Grand Slam?

Yeah, a ridiculously overrated 23-year-old who is 6ft 4ins tall, well over 105kgs, capable of playing well in both centre positions, pacy, strong and with a good footballing ability too.

Utterly nonsensical take.

How have you gotten a raw deal lately? Why don't you cite some specific examples?

Bundee was a prior offender with a bad disciplinary record (multiple red cards throughout his career, abused a ref in 2017 and refused to leave the field originally when carded against the Stormers in SA a few years back). He's absolutely blessed to have gotten the suspension he got.

Oh dear. The Sexton case is different. Obviously

sssssh!🤫 No need to bring that up

How does that have any bearing on it whatsoever?