Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Osborne is well capable of playing either centre position, I think. He was nominated for European Player of the year as a 21 year old off the back of playing inside centre in the absence of Henshaw. But he also fills in well at 13 when Ringrose is unavailable. Thought he was excellent in the URC QF and SF last season playing outside centre.

His biggest problem is his versatility. He's well capable of playing anywhere from 11-15. His kicking and fielding also make him a decent fullback. I'd love to see him nail a starting spot at centre though. He's a big lad who can carry powerfully into contact, but also get his hands free to offload. His similar to McCloskey in that regard, although the latter definitely gets more metres in contact. Osborne has a good passing and kicking game and could be the happy medium between that front up basher and pivot that Leinster/Ireland desperately require.

Which has been acknowledged plenty of times.

However, that same player has completely stalled in his development since and, for two years in a row, has managed to completely drop his from in the important months leading to the Six Nations.

Same conversations over and over and over again.

Capped players from JWC squads since 2019

2019 - Craig Casey, Tom Ahern, Tom Clarkson, Ryan Baird, Michael Milne

2020 - Jack Crowley

2021 - Jack Boyle, Jamie Osborne

2022 - Sam Prendergast

2023 - Gus McCarthy, Paddy McCarthy, Sam Prendergast, Hugh Gavin

I don't think anyone else from the 2019 squad is going to be capped at this stage, although the likes of John Hodnett and David McCann maybe have merited a look, but I can't see it happening now.

The 2021 squad is interesting, Cathal Forde, Jude Postlethwaite, Nathan Doak, Alex Kendellan, Sam Illo, Alex Sororka and Darragh Murray all have test potential.

With regards to the 2022 squad I think James McNabney has a pretty good chance of a few caps, he was in the training squad in the summer before doing his ACL and for 2023 Brian Gleeson is bound to be capped.

I actually think a few of the 2024 squad have a chance, guys like Jack Murphy, definitely Bryn Ward and Evan O'Connell all have a chance, particularly Ward.

Not sure about the 2025 squad in fairness.

All the above has been done in 20 minutes so there may be inaccuracies, but anyway we have been capping players and there are more to come. Maybe Farrell does need to be a bit braver, but the A performance last night won't encourage to be less conservative with his selections, if he even is in the first place.

Stats make for interesting reading, and actually reassuring if you ignore the result. 100% scrum (I thought we lost one), 94% lineout, fairly equal on turnovers, only 6 penalties and no cards. Not bad for those of us who worried most about set piece and discipline, though discipline might have gone too far the other way. Big issue is intensity in the physical stakes and the lack of any kind of attacking creativity and dynamism. When we were rocking that was the big difference. Then fall off in the ball skills is really apparent, is this Nienbar's legacy at Leinster or something else?

https://www.rugbypass.com/live/france-vs-ireland/stats/

its only the same conversation because others keep saying there was nothing after sexton in the 10 jersey

and maybe his drop in form (which is highly, highly exaggerated but whatever) had something to do with being parachuted out of the team at a time he was playing relatively well……

Conpletely agree with this. Set piece and discipline were the big worries going into this and they went well here.

It’s almost like we solve one thing but something else goes awry.

The stats that ended up defining the game…

• Ireland won 4 contestables vs France’s 15
• Dominant tackles: 8 vs 18
• Tackles Missed: 35 vs 21
• Line breaks: 5 vs 13
• Post Contact Metres: 265m vs 392m
• Offloads: 6 vs 19

Maybe. But you take your wins where you can get them. Scrum went about as well as we could have hoped for regardless of whether France targeted it or not.

I agree with you that we were hurt elsewhere other than the scrum. Porter/Paddy McCarthy or Furlong would have won far more contacts on both sides of the ball. We missed a lot of physicality, especially from first up contacts which are mostly taken by the front 5. Loughman and Clarkson did as best they could, but there's still a sizeable downwards step from our best to them.

Italy's scrum looked really powerful against Scotland yesterday too. A bigger challenge may lie ahead next weekend

Byrne has come back a more confident player and seems to have put on some size as well. Not convinced it's done much for his actual game though. It's notable how much better in attack Leinster look when Prendergast is at 10. It's not just that the latter has a broader passing range and can get the ball out to backs in more threatening positions quickly. We look more threatening in closer quarters as well.

Byrne actually takes too much on himself. He carries into contact a lot when a pass would be the better option. Prendergast is carrying more to the line also, but releasing the ball to a player on his shoulder to make a better carry.