Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

We were physically bullied up front for the entire game. Ryan and Conan shored it up to a degree. It will always be next to impossible to win a game when you are 2nd best in the collisions by any significant majority. Scotland lost yesterday because Italy got over the gainline with their carries more than the Scots did and did this from kickoff. Often it is easy to focus on tactics, scrums, lineouts etc but honestly the only thing I do when watching a game to get a feeling for it is look at the collisions, it always tells you who is on top. Rugby fundamentally such a simple game. Can you win a game when you are losing collisions, yes but only if the gap is small and you have lots of luck and total dominance in other areas. Generally a loss is coming if you are conceeding yards up front.

The pack Ireland started with was light in some key areas, Loughman, Clarkson, VDF, Cian Prendergast, Sheehan and Beirne are not big ballast ball carriers. Sheehan and VDF for example great wide and in space but not grunty ball carriers. McCarthy had a poor game and Doris did what he could. Not starting Conan and Ryan was a total mistake by Farrell and they both shored things up. I would have also started Milne and gambled as he is much better carrier than Loughman. Step one is always to lay down a marker up front in a game and Farrell handicapped us from kickoff even allowing for our current injury profile.

Everything else is just noise, this is root cause.

Would France have still won, yes I think so but doubt we would have been 29-0 down.

there is no doubt in my mind that players learn far more playing week in, week out than they do playing one week and spending the next couple of weeks re-watching performances and tactics on a laptop and going to the gym.

100 per cent and size is not the thing that determines whether you are a good ball carrier. It is a contributing factor but many other factors contribute. These include not in any particular order of importance include mindset, body position, speed at time of ball receipt, position of pass, conditioning, spatial awareness, step and latching technique with team mates.

But Conan and Ryan are better ball carriers, so is Milne and Farrell made a mistake not starting these three especially considering our injury profile and missing big ball carriers. When I say big ball carrier I mean an effective ball carrier in contact not necessarily physically bigger.

The single most important thing any coach can change is pace of ball carrier as they move into contact. Ireland have become very static with their ball carriers. France ran onto the ball far more effectively.

Not to completely disagree with the above but if ireland game plan was not play ball in hand, it's very hard to point he finger at the ball carrier

Farrell needs to be jettisoned asap. Still time

To rebuild for WC

Very true, we're hoping for that turnaround to happen. In some ways this sequence of events may work out for the RWC next year. This might be a tough 6N for us but if it leads to an upward curve from there on then it will be a blessing in disguise.

It could also be a slow decline all the way up and including the RWC. I can't see Farrell leaving before then so we live in hope of the 1st scenario.

Luckily for us both Scotland and Wales look weak this year. But Italy next week is a serious banana skin. I expect us to edge it but make no mistake this will be a tough game for us and could go either way. I don’t expect us to get anything from the England game. We’ll lose by 20+.