Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

An enormous meteor strike on Ireland today and we're all dead.

The two things are roughly equally likely to happen.

I was more pointing to the fact that the only thing keeping us off the bottom of the table today is a country whose entire rugby system and setup is in complete meltdown have set a record for most losses and can’t fill a stadium for the national sport and as unlikely as it is to happen they could still overtake us.

Anyone able to explain the scrum meltdown?

It actually looked worse than the SA game. At least in that game we were up against the best scrum in the world.

Because of how the three teams match up. Scotland suit playing England, because they simply don't engage with their physical game. They go wide at every opportunity to get easy wins against England's weak wide defence. They have the backs with the pace and attacking ability to do it. It's been the same story for years now.

That doesn't work for them against Ireland. We're stronger defensively than England (or at least we were up to this year) so Scotland can't win that way against us. They also can't beat us in a physical match up, so we almost always get the better of them.

Our problem is that we don't have the backs with the attacking ability to get around England the same way Scotland can. So we get drawn into a forwards battle against them year after year, which suits them more than it suits us.

When we were at our peak we could usually still get the better of them. But, with them progressing and us in decline that's less likely to be the case this year. Most likely they'll beat us in an arm wrestle with a bit to spare, and it will be wrongly framed as a big response from England after the Scotland game when all it really is is them playing a team they're better suited to playing.

I'd still make us favourites to beat Wales and Scotland at home and finish third. Wales are crap and we probably still just about have enough about us to deal with Scotland for the reason detailed above.

In case we gave away a penalty in the next play.

I posted this seasons statistics here previously that objectively show that Harry Byrne is not better that either Sam or Jack. He is a marginally better goal kicker than them both and that's it. The stats show he is a worse defender than Jack and a less effective attacker than them both. Significantly worse in attack than Sam in fact.

Sam and Jack are the best we have. Both are far from the level of player we need though.

A pretty fair and accurate summary in fairness. Maybe I'd have docked Jack a point for the missed touch at the end.

The frustrating thing is both have had opportunities to nail down the 10 jersey and neither have taken it. Crowley has had 16 starts, Prendergast 11, and generally speaking whoever comes off the bench tends to look better. Both have had great moments and poor moments but can’t seem to put it all together.

The reality is that you look at the top 10 teams in the world, they may start for Fiji and Australia but every other team has a much better option if not two better options. Will be difficult to compete at the sharp end unless one of them makes the step up.

I’d be giving Crowley the jersey next week and see what he can do from the start. Hopefully he takes it and cements it for the rest of the tournament and foreseeable as the team will struggle to develop unless one of the two gets to that level.

He's the tackling stats wrong on James Ryan. Himself and "Big Joe" made 5 and missed 2 and had poor carrying stats (Ryan especially).

Edogbo made 9 in his time, Crowley, Timoney made 4. Our back three made more tackles than those two.

I'd love to see the ruck stats for the game to see if that's where they were at, cos it definitely wasn't hitting a blue jersey

it’s Ireland v England.
that’s the teams .

Next weekend will be quite the full circle for McCloskey. Started in Twickenham in 2016 for his debut and played OK however he never took Joe's eye. We have been spoiled at centre for nearly a decade now but I cant help but think what could have been for mccloskey. A maverick for Ulster but maybe just was too loose for Ireland at the start of his career to kick on.

I've seen Chris Farrell, Rory Scannell, James Hume (albeit a 13) all jump ahead of him in the pecking order at times for ireland but he is now becoming ireland's best centre option.

Not even selected on the NZ tour in 2022 (before that tour stu had never been named on a summer tour squad outside of Ireland) Stu was called in to replace an injured Hume. He played OK in that final game against the Maoris and provided a very audacious flat skip pass in the 22 for a try which caught the eye. He has been named in every squad since that point onwards.

Largely noted for his big carries, he was pigeon holed early as a one trick pony and this was reiterated on the media and on platforms like this. He is not, and plays more in a play making role for ulster but he certainly carries it hard if needed.

33 now but he doesn't look off it in terms of energy. I think momentum will carry him to the WC.

Now if you think you need to take offense to this then just go for a walk. I think there is something in it. On this piece from Newstalk

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNRfauc6D/

Is she Fiona - the person who references the body language of the other players?

Both contributors seem to think there is something in it and I remember seeing it before when keatley was not going well with Munster - the players will never come out and criticise a teammate but they can’t hide their body language or shock reaction to a bad mistake being made. I remember POM working very hard to hide his frustration at simple mistakes being made.

It’s possible that AF has lost the respect of many of his team by making selection decisions that a lot of them dont agree with. It was referenced how few people got involved with the pushing and shoving in Paris the last day, maybe there is a simmering or growing lack of cohesion in the team.

It’s something to watch out for.