Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Be still my beating heart

Doak was actually looking really good, could have just left him on and replaced him with JGP later if he got injured.

Happy to win , bonus point. And a deeper squad. Not perfect but Wales turned up more so than England which wasn’t expected

You have a very in your bonnet about Ringrose. Our problems weren't at 13 in the slightest but rather inside that.

You'd think so. But the wagons are already being circled.

Most worryingly, both of our 10s seem to have the goal kicking yips. Wonder if a change of kicking coach is needed?

It was weird by the TMO… but at the same time (and I'm a big Crowley fan) you can't be missing those. I genuinely thought he might when I saw the camera shot from behind.

He's struggled at times with the new sped-up kicking clock - plenty of times he's kicking conversions with with <5 or <3 seconds left - maybe he needs a change of routine to be able to settle, setup and kick quicker. Something's got to change anyway. As someone said, he'll be looking over his shoulder otherwise.

yes

JC laid the ball alot 'flatter' previously, not a million miles off how halfpenny would position the ball and had a slightly more 'stabbing' swing

SP would also have the ball flatter and use a different type of tee, i can remember too much of his swing but it was a slower run up from what i remember (could be completely wrong)

both have moved to the way of kicking thought by Dave Alred and his School of Kicking (they both use the SoK tee), which is a more 'natural'/soccer like kicking motion, but can lead to worse looking misses at times. if you look at the kicks from the last two games, JC's ball flight is pretty perfect when he catches it properly but it unfortunately can go to sh!t when he doesnt. On the other hand i think SP's misses against italy were more of a mental thinig to be honest.

much as i understand why some are criticising the coaching (and im not a big fan of sexton being involved so soon after retiring to be honest), they are being thought the exact same things that DA though Wilkinson so i dont really know who would be an improvement in that regard. from what i can see wilkinson himself is doing the exact same drills with the england squad

both SP and JC need to improve their accuracy though, be it adjusting their technique slightly or fixing their confidence over the ball. JC needs to speed up his routine too

Doak came on with the game in the balance.