Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

I guess we are seeing that scrum dominance is not as decisive as we thought, or that it used to be. I'm intrigued by the idea that the game has moved past the point where a weak scrum dooms you, or maybe its a one off and not representitive of the global game, as @pickarooney suggests.

It’s true that our scrum didn’t cost us this championship. But that shouldn’t be a reason to continue neglecting it. It’s still poor. And we’re playing a very dangerous game if we think we can keep getting by without a scrum. We saw in the WC 1/4 final and in November how costly a weak scrum can be.

OK - dont know a huge about rugby compared to some of you chaps, but it strikes me that Beirne is by a long distance our most important player. I'd also say I dont ever remember O'Connell being as good as Beirne has been the past few years. He actually seems a bit under-rated to me, in that I'd have him up there as one of our top three or four players in the professional era. Am I wrong?

It sounds hyperbolic initially, but I think he's probably close to that level realistically.

I'd have him as a nailed on starter on an Irish XV of the pro era.

It's hard ranking and comparing players who played different positions, but my Irish team of the pro era would be as follows:

(15-9, 1-8):

Rob Kearney, Tommy Bowe, Brian O'Driscoll, Bundee Aki, James Lowe, Jonathan Sexton, Conor Murray, Cian Healy, Dan Sheehan, Tadhg Furlong, Tadhg Beirne, Paul O'Connell, Stephen Ferris, Sean O'Brien, Jamie Heaslip

Reps: Keith Wood, Andrew Porter, John Hayes, James Ryan, David Wallace, Jamison Gibson Park, Ronan O'Gara, Gordon d'Arcy

Very unfortunate to miss out: Hugo Keenan, Keith Earls, Robbie Henshaw, Denis Hickie, Jerry Flannery, Rory Best, Mike Ross, Peter O'Mahony, Caelan Doris, Josh van der Flier

I could still see Keenan & Doris supplanting Kearney & Heaslip in time.

Yeah, I wrestled with exactly that change. I think Ferris' pure ability would have him in there for me, but his achievements don't stack up with JVDF's obviously.

good selection although having JGP on the bench really makes a bit of a semi mockery of it as he is currently by some distance our most important and right up there in recent history with O’Driscoll, Peter O’Mahony, Sexton and Paul O’Connell

I wouldn't have a huge issue with Keenan and Doris - I think each of them are fundamentally better players than the guys I picked (Kearney & Heaslip), but went for who I went for based on the totality of their achievements. As I said, I'd be fairly confident that a few years from now it won't be a debate.

On the 9 position, as phenomenal as JGP has been the past couple of years, it's very hard to discount just how good Conor Murray was for a really long time. Around the time of the 2017 Lions tour I think there was a strong argument he was right up there with Aaron Smith as the best 9 in the world. He was an incredible player for a very long time.

How long before someone picks ROG? 🤣 Surprised it hasn't happened already for the drama

Bowe was the best winger in Europe between 2009-2014. One of the Lions star test players on the 09-14tours.

Fitzgerald couldn’t lace his boots as a winger