Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Completely agree on Sexton re: learning his trade elsewhere 1st. I'd apply that to a number of the other coaches in the Irish set-up.

I'll give him this though; at least he has come out this week and owned the coaching mistakes they made in Paris.

“I felt even before the French game, maybe underdid a couple of things, and then probably got the balance right against Italy. So hopefully get the right balance this week.”

What did he feel was underdone before the Six Nations defeat to France in Paris?

“Well, we knew that the game was going to be a certain way,” replied Sexton.

“And when you’ve got a short lead-in time to a game like France, we tried to prioritiseise things and probably just didn’t do enough of, you know, the ball in the air, the live contests, picking up the scraps.
“Now, maybe I’m just being critical of myself because that didn’t go that well and we were a little bit unlucky in a couple of instances. We improved things in the second half, but yeah, just putting more of an emphasis on that over the last week and into this week.”

It was surprising to hear that Ireland may not have spent enough training time on the aerial contest and winning scraps ahead of the France clash, given that the contestable kicking game was such a central aspect of their game plan in Paris.

That is refreshingly honest to hear from an Irish coach.

I still have a real gripe with what Farrell said after Paris.

"You've got to show a bit of fight and intent and we lacked a bit of that in the first half, which is very disappointing."

He was wrong to do that and it wasnt the real issue. At all. That was a head coach struggling for answers. The issue was his selections and his gameplan. The latter no doubt heavily swayed by Sextons coaching 'strategy' based on what we heard from him previously on the kicking game.

Of the 6 players he dropped after Paris I expect only James Ryan and the two wingers will keep their place. Which will further undermine his unnecessary comments.

The only person in the Irish setup to have stood up and taken some ownership of the performances has been Sexton. Fair play to him.👏

More importantly hes also the only person who spoke brilliantly about the racist abuse that Edogbo received.

"It's horrible to see that in this day and age, it still exists like that," said Ireland assistant coach Sexton.

"In terms of how he is, he's good. I don't think he would have paid too much attention to it, and I don't know if he would have even seen most of it.

"He's a pretty humble guy, really level-headed, but it's not right, some of the comments that were made.

"I feel for him, I feel for his family, it marred a pretty special day for him."

Again fair play to Sexton.👍️

I cannot wait for the day when the Edogbo, Prendergast and Ward brothers all line out in the same team to represent IRELAND.💪

I don't think S.P. was fast tracked too soon. WE needed a top quality replacement for Sexton and based on the U20s Prendergast looked just the very guy. He does have some great skills indeed but he also has some flaws and a physicality shortfall.

Someone on a Rugby Podcast mentioned the U20s final v. France. I am not sure of the exact facts but it was claimed that of that Irish side, only S.P. is playing pro rugby while on the French side 7 or 8 were regulars in the Top 14. and some were now capped.

Now I don't have the stats to say if this is accurate but I am sure it isn't far off the mark. I know some of our players are in Academies but why are we so slow to blood our guys? Of course the laws of statistics mean that France with a population of 69,000,000…..almost 10 times that of Ireland and with 10 times the number of fully pro teams are always going to unearth young guys who are physically ready to play at 20 …..and England too.

Rugby is also a big deal in sport in France but it really isn't in Ireland. I have felt for years that we as a rugby nation miss out on many talented youngsters because that actual pathways upwards are so limited. Some of these blockages come from within the club structures themselves.

I have told this story before but it is worth repeating. One of my friends and ex rugby coach in senior rugby in Ulster took up coaching his local club sides juniors. He was also employed by the URFU to deliver coaching etc to primary schools. WE would talk rugby at every occasion we met. One day he called me and invited me to see this U16 year old play. I have to say this chap was the best I have ever seen at that age at 10 and I did play at schools level with and against a few guys who became Ulster and Leinster players or Irish internationals. This guy had it all. Size, pace power and skills that were just off the charts. Michael contacted the then head of the Ulster Academy to come and see this guy at training which he did. He arrived, spent 5 minutes on the phone, looked about him and said, "There's nothing to see here" and left. The young player left school and stayed with his local club. He was miles better than any 10 there but the incumbent 10 and 'senior' club member and selector simply wouldn't give him any game time. After about 18 months of this he just packed in rugby. He hadn't gone to a 'rugby' school and didn't have those contacts that help make up the rugby community that often forges lifelong friendships. I often wonder how often this is repeated. There is actually more to the story too.

I don't think S.P. was fast tracked too soon

I agree with a lot of your post here but Sam was definitely fast tracked too soon to International rugby, defence wise, he wasn't ready.

And it's ridiculous.

Anyway as I've said for quite a while I'm in Harry Byrnes corner.

It's impossible to predict after a poor performance against Italy and a horrendous England effort against Scotland.

Even a 'true elite athlete' who avoids social media spends a large amount of their time in the company of family & friends who see and hear about the vile abuse and casual ill-informed commentary that pervades the modern world (as I type my thoughts into an online forum ffs).