Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Interesting thread from a poster on Reddit who has been analysing Irelands performances play by play since the start of the tournament.

Some interesting observations on Doris’s scrum binding. Stockdale on play by analysis had a very strong game with lots of positive contributions. Kelleher, Conan and Ryan the other standouts. The later has had a great 6N and will be a big loss on Saturday.

https://www.reddit.com/r/irishrugby/s/8YLNzzeemg

It really underlines that they don't see Izuchukwu as a lock.

Yeah he was certainly in camp early on. I read he was particularly useful in lineout preparation. He must have made a good impression. I don't begrudge him a chance.

Farrell has given other players a chance and most of them have made a good impression (even if they haven't pushed into the strongest 23).

Playing his best rugby for Ireland for a while. Big loss.

Something interesting:

The 23 we had that faced Scotland in February '25:

(15-9, 1-8):

Keenan, Nash, Henshaw, Aki, Lowe, Prendergast, Gibson-Park, Porter, Kelleher, Bealham, Ryan, Beirne, O'Mahony, van der Flier, Doris

Reps: Sheehan, Healy, Clarkson, Baird, Conan, Murray, Crowley, Ringrose

So - that's only 4 starters for us who are still starting YoY, or to frame it the other way, 11 changes. There are four on the bench who were involved as well, but to have 15 changes YoY is pretty wild.

I think 5 of those changes are injury enforced (Keenan, Lowe, Porter, Ryan, Baird), and three are retirements (Healy, Murray, O'Mahony) but the other ones (Nash, Henshaw, Aki, Prendergast and Clarkson) are straight selection decisions.

Doak must be absolutely ripping it up in the club game for everyone to be so sure how good he is.

It's an odd bench and in particular bringing Aki back in for one game but Casey selected is probably the least controversial pick on the bench.

I think he was referring to how Doris seems to bind quite high in between both second rows at 8 splitting them (and contributing to their arses in the air as per your 3rd point). Would need to see more aerial images to see if that was a one off or actually his usually technique.

Murray is probably the closest to Ryan stylistically, in that he's a bit of a 4.5. My concern is that his carrying, breakdown, and tackling stats are unremarkable in the URC and I'm not sure he'll be able to win collisions at this level. The optimistic take is that he's still quite young for a lock, has good experience for his age, good size, and is a strong lineout forward.

Giving a guy a swan song? Or trying to use all the tools available to you to get a performance out of the whole team? I’d suggest it’s the later.

I don’t particularly like Aki on the bench as a 23 but Farrell has form for getting a reaction from players. The players and crowd will be aware this could be the last time we see Aki in green. That can be used to generate a bit more positive energy on the pitch and in the stands.

As someone who was in Cardiff last year, you could feel the mood in the stands and see the impact on the pitch when he came on.