Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

James Ryan when he came on showed a level of dog and grit and didn't take a backwards step. No one is going to replace Sexton when it comes to leadership and driving standards but for me right now Ryan has to be captain and on the pitch for 80mins. Huge Doris fan BTW.

Are we really at the stage where suggesting players make different defensive reads based on who is playing inside or outside them is seen as controversial? 

By this logic, no 13 would ever shoot out of the line; they’d simply line up their own man, under the guise of “well, I did my job, and tackled my man. It’s not my job to pre-emptively cover for someone else i.e. make a defensive read”.

The point is, sometimes your job is to make a read to pre-emptively cover for someone else. We saw it a number of times in this game with others narrowing in around Prendergast, particularly on first phase.

Now, TOB’s execution was awful. But that’s entirely different from his decision to shoot.

And based on the quality of Prendergast’s subsequent tackle on Jalibert, you’d be hard pushed to say it was a bad decision.

France may well have scored anyway. But he has to do better there.

But - going back to the original point - can we equally say “Crowley has to do better there” for his missed tackle on Attisogbe?

A totally accurate assessment of the state Irish rugby and one that I'm sure will ruffle a few feathers on here.

There just isn't the same affluence and private school system in Munster and Connacht to emulate the blueprint for Leinster's success. That private school system does exist to some extent in and around Belfast but it's not producing enough top talent at the moment.

20 years ago Munster were successful based off the produce of AIL club teams. That has diminished massively now and needs to be reinvigorated. It's the model too that should be followed in Connacht.

We're also not getting much in the way of GAA converts anymore. And it's showing in terms of catching and kicking skills. We benefited massively over the years from the likes of Shaggy, Kearney and Bowe in this regard. Multi sport athletes have a more rounded skillset.

The stats doing the rounds about the contestables are that there were 19, Ireland won 4 and Francce won 15. Damning.

I must’ve this a listen when I get a chance. For me, Madigan is the best pundit around at the moment.

Farrell Is in a tough position , lose to either Italy, wales or Scotland and I think he will definitely be replaced.
if we finish outside the top 3 the IRFU will have no choice but to make a change.

He will pick as experienced as he can for all the games now, he has no choice as he will know that his job is on the line.

The reality Is Farrell brought this all on himself, giving jobs to paul O’Connell and sexton was bizarre and no way to run a serious set up. You hire the best coaches you can get, and you also need an assistant who is the bad guy and will give the players and other coaching staff plenty of guff. He can say and do things that Farrell can’t.

Farrell does not have that and he is now paying the price.

Conservative coaches, not blooding enough of these ex u20s to provinces or national team, or maybe they never progressed further.

'The IRFU will have no choice but to make a change'????????????

Seriously? Have you thought for one second about that?

I go back to what I said earlier....the issue so much isn't the coaching ticket in terms of focus, skill set and ability to man manage and deliver. At some point though (probably during the Schmidt era) the 15men on the pitch lost or the responsibility for the game plan was taken away from them and put on the shoulder of the head coach...the issue here is that the head coach can only do so much from the stands.

We need to be able to be dynamic, change based on what works and doesn't in the first 5mins and continue to re-evaluate and implement based on what happens, not just wait for halftime or the subs to come on. We need someone who can read a game...not just implement a plan who is on the pitch. There are probably one or two I can think of, but no one does...they need to take some responsibility to change dynamically.

The worrying factor is the coaching teams only tactic is " the team to show more character " 🙄