Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Prendergast dropped in a 5/3 bench is bizarre.

IRELAND (v England): Jamie Osborne; Robert Baloucoune, Garry Ringrose, Stuart McCloskey, James Lowe; Jack Crowley, Jamison Gibson-Park; Jeremy Loughman, Dan Sheehan, Tadhg Furlong; Joe McCarthy, James Ryan; Tadhg Beirne, Josh van der Flier, Caelan Doris (capt).

Replacements: Rónan Kelleher, Tom O’Toole, Finlay Bealham, Nick Timoney, Jack Conan, Craig Casey, Ciaran Frawley, Tommy O’Brien.

Glad to see the 5-3 split and TOB is a good option to cover a number of positions, but the choice of Frawley for 22 is a bit odd, unless they're worried about Ringrose's injury and want extra cover in the centre.

Izuchukwu possibly hard done by to lose out to Timoney.

Let’s hope none of the backs need to come off.

What has Tommy O’Brien ever done in a green jersey to warrant all these opportunities?

he was like a rabbit in the headlights France.

This, imo is one of the worst overall selections of the Farrell era (in hindsight France was pretty terrible as well):

Dropping Conan

Dropping Edogbo

Dropping Izuchukwu

Retaining Loughman

Picking Frawley out of absolutely nowhere in a 5/3

Dropping Sam as a bench option in a 5/3 when we have multiple examples of him being really strong off the bench and changing things up

Prendergast has been involved in 15 of our last 16 matches and only missed Portugal. How does Farrell believe in him that much and see that much of him to now suddenly think he isn't good enough.

Unless the lad has had a total breakdown it makes no sense. And if it to keep him out of the spotlight I would say they just made it worse.

I don't understand that selection at all.

No second row cover, Frawley covering 10 instead of Byrne, Stockdale would have covered more backfield than TOB who just covers wing, even though I think TOB is the better player, he isn't the better choice at 23. Strange.

• Frawley got himself injured for the emerging Frawley tour in South Africa. He was always Andy's choice to replace Sexton, that injury and only that injury opened the door for Crowley as number two to Sexton. Andy was always trying to get Frawley into the replacement ten spot, and that was the plan up until he had a very bad performance and was dropped.
• Sam gets rocketed straight into the team and Jack pushed to the side to become Frawley 2.0.
• The media, and fans (here especially) have been treating Sam like the proud dad of the ugly child, non stop lauding every move he made. Entire performances have been reported as great, when they were anything but.
• Reality has come crashing down on Sam. The reality is, he's not as good in offense as the glazing has suggested and regularly (always?) tops the missed tackle stats.
• So Sam has gotten everything he's ever dreamed of before analysis has rendered him completely ineffective.
• The people who doubted his ability have been proven correct, surprising absolutely no one.

Now lets contrast Frawley and Crowley.

• We were ahead against NZ when Crowley was subbed off.
• Frawley - who was shaping up to take the starting 10 spot, had a bad day at the office and was completely forgotten about.
• Crowley took Frawley's spot and Frawley got to hold tackle bags.
• Crowley was sent out to do media before the next game, only to find out that his place was taken by some unproven kid with "The Ceiling". Very embarrassing, and fans were rightly disgruntled with the absolute glazing done in the media.
• Media were very unkind to both Frawley and Crowley. Contrast that to "it's the fans' fault that young Sam has lost his confidence" but for his own sake, he needs some time away, or it was Casey's muck performance that set him up to fail.
• Crowley has been subject to the exact same abuse as Sam, maybe even more abuse, but because he's 3 years older, he should have learned to deal with it.

So who's at fault?

Well primarily, Andy is at fault. You'd think after his own son was put through the grinder, he'd have some experience of what was always coming. It's funny that it was on Andy's advice that England played Sam Burgess, who also looked like a fish out of water for England, maybe Andy just likes the name Sam.

So where do we find ourselves, Crowley starting and Frawley on the bench? The circle is complete and Andy has learned nothing AND he's all out of ideas.

In summation, fans are going to fan, the press is going to press and Andy, once you peel back a few layers, is a bad selector and a bad man manager. I expect him to feature strongly in a few sports books when the current crop hang up their boots.

And Sam, he's pretty much the same story as Stockdale, both very bad defenders and both found out.

I don't understand not having Edogbo at all. Makes no sense to me. Have a 6/2 if you want Timoney and Conan but Edogbos power would have been such an advantage coming off the bench.

I disagree with your comment around Crowley deserving the full 80. I don't think any of them deserve it at the moment to be honest. As it stands he is best placed to start this game, but he needs a big performance as much as many of them. And I hope he has one because we are goosed without him playing well in this.

Agree with you re Ringrose, Sheehan and Joe Mc. All potentially lucky to be starting this, along with JDVF and Loughman. Casey lucky to be involved at all.

Frawley makes absolutely no sense to me at all. He hasn't started a single game at 10 this season for Leinster, who have finally recognised he isn't a 10. And the start he gets for the A team he was dreadful in.

I don't like this selection. But let's see and hope.

Always remember this from Ferg after Drico's last home game for Ireland:

Agree, Andy is the one at fault here, he trains and picks the team and he's supposed to do that to the best of his abilities because that's what he is paid to do. If the team is in trouble due to lack of confidence or not being ready for international duties then he hasn't fulfilled his role as head coach of the team

As an aside I think pinning the performance against Italy on one or 2 players is also unfair and I'd have been happier to see Farrell pick 20- 23 different players based on last weeks performance

34 caps and 10 tries. If he hadn't been made of glass in his later years, he absolutely would have hit 50 caps.

Awful selection but at least it might be the "kick up the arse" Farrell needs. England will batter us