Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Perhaps they plan to sub Beirne and want to avoid having Edogbo and McCarthy in the second row together. If there's an injury, I think Beirne/Ryan is better balanced than Edogbo/McCarthy.

it has the record try scorer and former player of the tournament in it.

O’Brien is in form also.

so no.

"Can't even control a game at home against Castres at the moment" as if any old 10 with an ounce of ability should be able to do it without thinking…

It's way over-stating it.

6-2 split for the French too

FRANCE: 

Thomas Ramos; Théo Attissogbe, Nicolas Depoortere, Yoram Moefana, Louis Bielle-Biarrey; Matthieu Jalibert, Antoine Dupont (capt); Jean-Baptiste Gros, Julien Marchand, Dorian Aldegheri; Charles Ollivon, Michael Guillard, Francois Cros, Oscar Jegou, Anthony Jelonch

Replacements:

Peato Mauvaka, Rodrigue Neti, Régis Montagne, Hugo Auradou, Emmanuel Meafou, Lenni Nouchi, Baptiste Serin, Kalvin Gourgues.

Are we really pretending that picking Stockdale on the wing, who turns 30 in a couple of months, is some ballsy selection? For all the chat about his form, he's only scored in one game this season. He's also failed to score in his last 5 Ireland caps, all of which were against tier 2 nations. He's only there because he can boot the leather off the ball, same as Osborne. If we were really looking to attack, we'd have put Stockdale at 15 (where he's actually been playing this season) and Ward or Kenny on the wing. Osborne offers zero counter-attacking threat or playmaking ability from 15. And Farrell is still doing nothing about our aging midfield. We're probably looking at JGP playing 80.

We'd be less f*cked at LH had Farrell not insisted on playing Porter for 70+ minutes every game for the last 4 years. Cian Prendergast starting at 6 I actually do rate, but I feel we've missed out on the one-two punch of having McCarthy play 50 minutes before unleashing Edogbo.

He is the same guy that if you look at our top ten all time try scorers - has the best scoring average per game.

He hasnt had a decent run of games in years, he deserves a shot.

Does the acceptance of JVDF in the team really sum up the lack of talent coming through in Ireland, Timoney is 30 with 6 caps and Conan is 33

Turning 33 this year can anybody say the last really good performance he has had

Look at England's with Pepper and Pollock now blooded internationals at aged 21 and 23

Curry Earl Underhill are then only 28/29

On Crowley's current game form I'd largely agree with this statement and dropping him. Not sure Prendergast is the man for the job either though, I'd sooner have put a Harry Byrne/Jake Flannery combo out there to see how they get on against the big boys.

Beirne is a stranger call considering his recent destruction of Munster scorelines via silly yellow cards. I'd like to see his indiscipline punished at national level until he relearns the rules

Jake Flannery?!

He's closer to a guy who is lucky to have a pro contract than anywhere on the spectrum of international consideration.

I presume he means Jack Murphy

So what happens when Harry Byrne and Jack murphy (Who I assume you meant) look capable like they are decent but need more exposure to Test rugby. Then we have 4 Outhalfs and none of them nailed on