Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

The scrum was improved yesterday!

Really gas to blame Sexton for poor place kicking. Maybe we should ask ROG for a few place kicking grinds!!

Don't get so offended that 2 normally place kickers kicking badly could be down Sextons coaching… he's not infallible.

As for ROG giving grinds, it would be clearly for Doris and his technique with dealing with Refs..

You're 2nd statement here is key. We got what we needed from the game. BP win, no BP for Wales, gametime at this level for Timoney, TOT at LHP, Doak etc. And we wont be overhyped for the Scotland game. Job done and plenty of work ons. I'd guess that Farrell is secretly quite happy with how it panned out.

How many touchline bans has ROG had ? Great banter. When a player plays well no mention of the coach but makes a mistake its the coaches fault. Brill

Well we're set up for a Triple Crown face off with Scotland next week. There are Triple Crowns and then there are Triple Crowns. Those of us who remember 2004 will know it was a watershed moment for Ireland and was a massive deal. 2006 as well with the late win at Twickenham. 2007 was after the Lords Mayor Show as was last year. I think this year would be a pretty decent achievement given we are rebuilding and pre tournament expectations.

That said Scotland will be absolutely gunning for it. Other than the Calcutta Cup I think I'm right in saying they are trophyless since 1999, no matter what happens later today this is a monumental match for them. Next week is the biggest match of the campaign!

wrongly at the start of the tournament I we were destined to finish 3rd but it looks like 2nd place is going to be where we finish.

Its testament to AF ability as a coach but I think Richie Murphy has to be given serious credit for what he has done in Ulster since taking over and what those players have brought to the national side for this years 6N

When the time for AF’s replacement comes he has to be firmly in contention.

Its ok to say Crowley was poor last night. Wales defence was so narrow but there zero variation to Irelands attack - no crossfield kicks, no dinks into space to get the exhausted Welsh pack turning around, no imagination at all. His goal kicking performance is a really concern again.

I still think he should start against Scotland and he is a better option than Sam or Harry Byrne at the moment.

This nonsense needs to stop. Dickson had a fine game last night.

Doris goes up to Dickson complaining, Dickson reminds him that he's applying the same consistency that was applied to when Ireland got a penalty in the first half, and that's Dickson's problem?

Honestly, I don't know what it is people here want. They're complaining about a referee making the correct decision and the accusation is that he 'hate's Ireland'.

Seems people just want the referee to give us everything.

I think we saw it a bit last week with Piardi after he penalised O'Brien and denied Ireland a try. From memory he gave us a couple of soft decisions in the aftermath.

Think he has higher stats.

Two things on Doak as a goalkicker.

1) Recently Murphy has been Ulster's goalkicker.

2) Unless Doak is first choice 9 it's a red herring anyway, as he won't be on the pitch to kick. He isn't going to get selected ahead of Gibson Park just because he can goal kick.

Crowley’s kicking game is very worrying. Didn’t get enough height on any of those high balls and left the wingers scrambling to catch it.
Goal kicking seems a serious psychological issue too.

Can see Sam being brought onto the bench for Scotland next week to give us more threat.