Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Balacoune and TOB showing ups on each others wings made our wide game lethal, these two are quite a find in combination. Crowley and JGP played of each other very nicely though Crowley needs a lot of work on his kicking, both form hand and the tee. A few of his attacking kicks would have been very expensive against a team in better shape to take advantage of them. His temperament is ideal though. The veterans had a game for the record books.

The Wales game should be used to try out a couple of other players. Tom Stewart, Edogbo, Izzy and Doak should be given decent game time, if only from the bench.

If Ringrose is out, I'd love to see Postlethwaite get a run at 13 v Wales. It is the one position where there is no line of succession. Tom Farrell is a good player but unlikely to go to the WC so little to be gained by giving him that game. I think Osborne's skills are better used at 12 plus it won't be possible to convert him into an international 13 while he is at the same club as Ringrose, Osborne won't get the chance to learn the position at club level.

I think our meters after contact yesterday had the square root of f*ck all to do with who was at 10, and everything to do with repeat effort and urgency from the pack.

Can't speak for leaky but I don't think that's what he's suggesting.

I think he's - specifically - talking about the metres conceded post-contact with regards the 10's, and in that regard, just from the eye test, I think it's fair to assume that Crowley concedes fewer metres than Prendergast.

I think it's completely fair to suggest "Crowley didn't magic that [platform] up himself," and Prendergast can rightly feel hard done by with the performance of others here, but I also still think Crowley played better here than we could have expected of Prendergast, given recent form.

why would you want to dilute Casey’s experience with Dosk given how few opportunities we have for our clear number 2 to get game time??the rest of it I understand

Personally, I’d like to see Sam get 20 mins vs Wales.

I think the break will have done him good and we’re into the down week now for some further breathing space.

I’m hopeful that the England game can be a catalyst for this team, something akin to the 2021 game vs the same opponent. Both performances kinda came from nowhere, and while this was much more emphatic than the 2021 game, which was much more “green shoots / very encouraging”, we’re also an extra year down the track in the RWC cycle.

In that context, I think we need to continue to get gametime into Sam too.

Sam needs to prove himself at Leinster before he’s let anywhere need the Ireland 23