Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

I think it strengthens my point. England aren’t that good a team and still put 48 points past Wales. I just think we should be setting our sights a bit higher than a 20 point win. I think Wales would see a 20 point defeat as a positive result given where they are to be honest

This. I'd rather beat Wales by 10-15 but actually learn something rather than winning by 30+ and learn nothing.

What do we learn by the tried and trusted coughing and spluttering to victory against a poor team?

At least a big performance gives us momentum and keeps the good vibes going after Twickenham. What does a narrow victory do other than raises the same questions that were there 3 weeks ago?

The most common descriptor about this team selection is "experimental"

Whoever would be calling the team “experimental” would be deluded.

The only player in that starting XV who isn’t either first choice or very experienced is Nick Timoney, and he’s 30 years old and should have gotten a start years ago.

The other changes he made from Twickenham are O’Toole, Kelleher, Conan and Stockdale. All well established players. Test Lions in the case of Kelleher and Conan. 9 of the starting 15 are 30+ years old. Stockdale won POTT in 2018. Playing him isn’t an experiment ffs.

So make no mistake, it’s an old, experienced team being put out. And I fully understand why he’s done it. It’s crucial that Ireland put in another big performance and back up the Twickenham win. Otherwise the same questions will be getting asked that were there post the France and Italy games.

Doak will likely debut v Wales. To my mind we have a load of centers who've played, still no obvious 13 behind Ringose though, and Doak is coming in as a nine in a position where we are light. Otherwise we have new guys developed on the wings, at full back, back row and front row between this and last season. I'm pleased with how Farrell has changed up his selection policy with an eye to the World Cup. He's made incredible progress and we stilll have 3+ campaigns to go before the WC. There are also a number of other players on the periphery who will likely cap this year. Most importantly the team is finally playing well, both attack and defence have shown real signs of starting to stick so far while line out woes are greatly diminished. Still issues with the scrum but momentum and progress are all evident.

I think people are looking at this match as being against Wales historically and not Wales 2026.

When we played Italy who are a good bit better than Wales players were "rested" but now they are "dropped". This is the game more than any where we should have a bit of squad rotation.

The RWC is next year, there's no reason for age concerns for a player who has shown zero signs of decline. If anything Stu looks quicker and sharper recently, he'll be fine for the RWC timeframe.