Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

You’ll forgive me for defending my position after being told I “desperately want Prendergast to fail”, FTD.

Well if he did he made the wrong choice and that isn’t on Sam. Sam was doing his job.

You "get that obviously", yet you saw fit to thank a post claiming I'm desperate for him to fail… cheers FTD…

The focus is because of this:

Crowley and Prendergast's tackle success rate from last night is similar, if that's how you want to compare the two.

Do you think the quality of their missed tackles was broadly comparable? I don't.

We have nothing of note coming through .

Before the game, the camera panned to the Senior Irish coaches and they were all laughing and joking, didn't seem worried. I did notice though during the game when the camera panned to Farrell he didn't look happy at all. They are only snapshots of course .

Ireland defence was on the back foot. France attacked at pace. A player like Jalibert stepping a defender unable to come forward is only gonna end one way.

Ireland defence was retreating the whole night because France had immense gainline success in contact. And quick ruck ball. And their players were coming onto the ball at pace.

I agree with all of that.

And I still think drawing an equivalence between Prendergast and Crowley because their tackle success %’s were similar is flawed.

That 'A' game was a hard watch. Whatever is in the senior camp right now is the hand we have to play with. Hopefully the long term outlook isn't as bad as it seems after the last 2 evenings.

I'll give some modicum of credit to Byrn Ward, Brian Gleeson and James Hume. After that it was dire. Cathal Forde looked decent too I suppose.

What worries me most is the tight 5 were hopeless. Both the 5 that started and the 5 that ended the game. We'd better hope we don't ship any injuries in that area of the field over the next few weeks.

I need an Italy or a Wales win tomorrow to rescue this weekend for me.

French result was coming. Munster, Connacht and Leinster have been poor at URC level. Ireland peaked in 2022 and have been declining since. Sexton & O'Mahoney retiring, Furlong, Conan, Henshaw, VDF, Lowe, JGP getting older. Loss of form for Doris, Sheehan, Ringrose. Injuries to Keenan, Baird, Hansen and props.

In some ways, Ireland are finding their real level. Given their resources, France and England should be hockeying Ireland every year. We should be in a contest with Scotland and Wales for 3rd, 4th and 5th place. The results and performance against France and England A are worrying

Ireland got lucky with a golden crop of players. Blessed to have coaches such as Schmidt, Lancaster, Mike Catt and Farrell. Cursed to have Nienbarr who has overseen our backs going backwards

I like Farrell but every coach has a lifespan. He needs a new attack coach.

On a positive note, we still have a lot of good players. Every bounce of the ball and the balance of refereeing decisions went with France.

iit happens somewhat regularly, its generally with backrows or centres

i dunno if it applies specifically to this situation but it does happen

These boards become an endless provincial row and in many ways that is inevitable and it's a good sign, we are all wedded to our provinces , loyal to them and love them and see the good and less of the bad when looking at the Ireland selections for our provincial players. It becomes even more obvious when we enter a period of step down rather than step up. We are clearly well off France now and I would suspect England will move well well past us this year leaving us probably scrapping with Scotland for third at best. We are well off the pace of the best 5-6 teams in the world now and that has happened quickly. We went into the 2023 WCUP with a genuine chance to win it, I think we have no chance in 2027.

I don't think anyone can honestly say we are in a good place at the moment, stallwarts like Sexton, Henshaw, Ryan, VDF, Furlong, Lowe, Conan, POM, JGP, Ringers, Aki, Beirne, Murray, Etc etc are all either gone or on the wrong side now of the age profile window.

We at some point were always likely to reach a point like this.

This won't go down well here maybe but for me the fundamental problem in Irish Rugby and it's an IRFU failing is the failure to develop decent sources of players outside of a handful of wealthy Leinster schools. Munster and Ulster's production line coming through Munster schools & clubs and Ulster schools & clubs is poor and ineffectual now and in essence what we have now is Leinster getting first dibs at the South county Dublin schools production line and then the rest go south, west or north. The IRFU has sat on this and yes mixed in a few project players from NZ etc to fill in gaps be it JGP or Lowe etc but they haven't done anything to address the problem. The problem is to prop up these provinces the IRFU has actively encouraged Leinster offcasts to move and every one who does is a blocker for any local development and it also allows the IRFU to ignore the failure of a Connacht, Munster or Ulster production line , schools and clubs. It isn't any surprise to me that as Leinster have effectively become the Irish team it risks a period of stagnation as we go through windows where not even the vaunted Leinster schools can turn out multitudes of generational players like Sexton or BOD. The structures and net has to be wider in a tiny country like Ireland. You can't focus down even further to a handful of schools in one corner on the country.

While it's great to have St.Michaels, Rock, Clongowes, Belvo and the rest it has become a crutch for the IRFU and I have little doubt that they have allowed the IRFU to sit back and let a handful of schools feed the game.

Until the IRFU recognises their failings I don't think anything will change. We need more Wallace's, O'Connell's, Bowe's and Best's as until Ireland is the best team once again of an entire island rather than half a dozen schools in Leinster we will have very fallow periods.

We will beat Italy and Wales, probably battle past Scotland and England will wipe the floor with us but what is ahead is a World Cup where we will manage decline as best we can and won't beat the best teams and hope that Rock and Michaels up their game and by 2031 the next Sexton and BOD has appeared and a few more besides.

Yeah, we’ve been blessed w back to back excellent teams for the last 15 years, even going back to 2007 when we were pipped by a Vincent clerc classic. Incredible run that is winding down. Even w excellent players we also had an incredible run of coaches who professionalised the set up to a degree that outdid most other test sides. Getting the better of England for a decade and going toe to toe consistently w France is not something Ireland should be expected to achieve. Rebuilding in all aspects, including management and how province’s are optimised and coordinated is overdue.