Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

leakyboots · 26-03-2026 12:38AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124341006#Comment_124341006

A very salient point. Wallace and SOB were both better players than VdF, in an era of better 7s.

I find it hard to pick between Wally and SOB to be honest, Wally shading it for athleticism maybe, they were both absolute monsters on the pitch. VdF's workrate is what enables him to succeed

fitz · 26-03-2026 10:08AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124341147#Comment_124341147

Wally was one of my favourite players. Was so pissed off that the RWC warm up game against England robbed us of seeing him at the RWC in NZ. England were filthy that day...I've had an intense dislike for Tuilagi ever since that tackle.

Wally deserved a better end to his career.

Brief_Lives · 26-03-2026 10:27AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124341475#Comment_124341475

100% agree

awec · 26-03-2026 10:34AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124339639#Comment_124339639

You are confusing two different things, who was the better talent versus who contributed more to Ireland. Caps and tries don't come into it.

Like BOD is obviously Ireland's best ever 13 but in terms of achievements he's under-represented because he played in a weaker Ireland team than Garry Ringrose.

VDF winning player of the year just means he was better relative to everyone else at that point in time.

This is not a good barometer as to how VDF stacks up against SOB or Wallace or Ferris. Would VDF win player of the year if he was around at the same time as peak SOB or peak Wallace? We'll never know for sure, but I would argue it's much less likely as the quality of the field was much stronger.

VDF absolutely benefits from playing in a much better Ireland team than those lads did.

If I had to choose between SOB at his peak and VDF at his peak I'd pick SOB.

AbusesToilets · 26-03-2026 01:58PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124341475#Comment_124341475

I despise the WC warm up games. Always an exercise of waiting to see who is going to cop serious injury

pickarooney · 26-03-2026 11:43PM

Gordon Banks in goal...

ersatz · 27-03-2026 06:00AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124341475#Comment_124341475

I hear you but the tackle was fairly innocuous and I doubt Wally holds it against Tuilagi. Just incredibly unfortunate. Wallace was one of our greatest ever players in my book.

fitz · 27-03-2026 10:09AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124344539#Comment_124344539

For me it was a cheapshot tackle, there was a swinging arm in it...he could have just shoved Wally into touch, but he was just looking to put in a big hit. My abiding memory of that day was the amount of slightly late hits England were putting in...they were definitely trying to rough us up, if I remember right. In that context, it was just more of the same dirty play, imo.

But yeah, you wouldn't have expected that tackle to result in the injury that it did, it was a bit of a freakish outcome. I had been looking forward to watching Wally at the RWC (we went for 4 weeks of it), and to have it be a career ender...well, it wouldn't enamour you to Manu.

ionadnapóca · 27-03-2026 11:03AM

Complete cheap shot. Tuilagi revelled in those.

Wallace wasn't prepared for it. He was jogging out over the touchline hence the awkward fall and subsequent injury.

realhorrorshow · 27-03-2026 11:20AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124344909#Comment_124344909

What?! He was a metre infield and bracing for contact. He just got smashed and landed awkwardly.

Yeah_Right · 27-03-2026 11:24AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124344909#Comment_124344909

Why was he jogging over the touchline? Did he have the ball?

shinana abu · 27-03-2026 11:49AM

Agree Tuilagi was a cheap shot merchant

FtD v2 · 27-03-2026 12:55PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124345027#Comment_124345027

He might have been, but there wasn’t anything obviously foul about that hit. Wallace was a ball carrier still well in the field of play, and angled back in (not towards the touch line). Tuilagi was well within his rights to go for the big hit.

AbusesToilets · 27-03-2026 01:50PM

That was just his foot catching on the turf. Nothing you can blame Tuilagi for there. Shite luck for Wallace

ionadnapóca · 27-03-2026 02:46PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124344954#Comment_124344954

Ok maybe Im remembering through tinted glasses so!

And the fact it was a RWC warm-up match

ionadnapóca · 27-03-2026 02:50PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124345027#Comment_124345027

Definitely. Think he also put a few late hits in on Earls and Sexton over the years

His specialty was trying to obliterate the defenseless player as they came down with ball from a Garryowen.

ersatz · 27-03-2026 04:56PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124345421#Comment_124345421

Ah yeah, he was a nutter who actually assaulted opponents on a couple of occasions, famously. A reason I think people exaggerate the Wallace tackle. It was just bad luck though, if it was French player no-one would comment on the tackle and rather remember that it was a great player and a very unfortunate end to his carreer.

Yeah_Right · 27-03-2026 07:42PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124345421#Comment_124345421

Thats what a chaser is supposed to do. Player jumps, catches the ball, lands, and the chaser wants to time their run just right so as one foot hits the ground they can smash the ball carrier.

It's a beautiful thing when done right. When it's mistimed the consequences can be horrible.

fitz · 27-03-2026 09:46PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124345154#Comment_124345154

I don't know about that, he was always going into touch, his run took him from close to the 5m, to about a couple of feet from touch. Tuilagi hit him driving up, swinging his left arm wildly.

I get players wanting to put down a marker, but I also think Tuilagi isn't in control of the hit there. While not a foul as such, I think it was reckless. The injury was a freak outcome, for sure, but that doesn't mean I think it wasn't Tuilagi going out to just put in a dirty hit...getting Wally in touch was secondary. That was about putting some hurt on him.

fitz · 27-03-2026 09:51PM

Aye, I'd have more issue with the scummy habit a few of the England players had of hitting kickers slightly late on clearance kicks who were at the end of their swing with their standing leg planted. Courtney Lawes was terrible for it. Absolutely intended to injure.

theVersatile · 27-03-2026 10:26PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124346018#Comment_124346018

Yeah, it's a bit like saying Paul O'Connell cheap spotted Chabal!

(Not a Garryowen technically but similar concept)

ersatz · 27-03-2026 10:45PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124346280#Comment_124346280

He is clearly in the filed of play and square. There is no world in which a defender is not trying to hit that player and put him into touch, it's a droppable offence if you don't by assuming 'he's going into touch'. It may have only been a WC warm up but it's a WC warm up, guys are playing for their place on the team in the tournament. I get that people don't like England/tuilagi but it quite unfair to disparage him for that tackle, something Ireland fans have done for years. Literally any pro out there is going for a similar tackle in that situation. It's legal with a wrap. Just a horribly unfortunate outcome.

Packrat · 27-03-2026 10:59PM

Anyone got a link to footage of it? I searched but couldn't find any..

FtD v2 · 27-03-2026 11:04PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124346463#Comment_124346463

https://youtu.be/dXQsZBB9vas?is=lHxbBX_tDN3HM-L0

Podge_irl · 27-03-2026 11:09PM

That is an incredibly bog standard tackle

fitz · 28-03-2026 02:07AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124346436#Comment_124346436

Where did I say Tuilagi should assume Wallace is going in to touch? You're misreading me...what I was getting at was that we had been pushed out to a couple of feet from the sideline, there was a plenty of English cover, I was going for totally expecting him to be bundled into touch there. But Tuilagi had just been dominated physically by Wallace himself, and he was tracking back looking to make a big hit. He was gonna smash someone regardless of whether it was needed. It's the way he always played, and I always got the sense that he wasn't just looking to win the collision, he was looking to fold people in two. He doesn't wrap there, he just fires his shoulder upwards into Wally and swings his left arm around. That's only an unfair comment if you're willing to ignore the rest of Tuilagi's career. He was always a reckless tackler, imo.

The injury was a completely unlucky, freak outcome but may not have been quite as severe with a less forceful tackle into touch, which I'd maintain Tuilagi could have made successfully.

Worth noting Owens penalised Tuilagi, judging it a high hit.

Yeah_Right · 28-03-2026 02:12AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124346280#Comment_124346280

This is the biggest "boohoo wahwah my player got hurt so clearly whoever touched him was illegal" post. An absolutely nothing innocuous tackle with an unfortunate outcome.

Edited to remove allegation of racism.

For Petes Sake · 28-03-2026 04:24AM

The only thing that tackle is is borderline high.

If the roles are reversed we'd be pretty pissed off a penalty is given against us for that.

Absolutely rotton luck for Wallace no doubt, but it wasn't a dirty shot by any measure.

fitz · 28-03-2026 09:35AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124346668#Comment_124346668

You're perfectly entitled to think there was nothing in that tackle. Just like I'm entitled to think it's just another example of Tuilagi's career-long habit of being more interested in putting a massive hit on someone (even if it was uncontrolled/high), than he was in making the right play. I didn't like him as a player before that incident. Much the way I never liked Chris Ashton and his stupid bloody swandive showboating.

I've already repeatedly said the injury was a freak outcome...it was absurdly unlucky to have that kind of injury as a result of that tackle. But a renowned cheap-shot merchant putting in a huge, high shoulder hit on the player who'd just 30 seconds before driven him back 5m post contact, just to put him 1 foot and a half feet into touch? Yeah, I'm fine standing over my opinion that it was a "well, I'll show you" moment from Tuilagi, and that he wasn't in control of that tackle. Maybe if he was, there's a different outcome, maybe if he's lower and in more control the same thing would have happened, who knows. But it's a tackle that, even randomly, ended the career of an Irish great at a time when he was in great form coming into a world cup, so it's easy for it to leaves a sour taste when you already aren't a fan of the tackling player.

But calling me racist, like I must have that opinion only because of Tuilagi's skin colour? Gtfo of here with that nonsense. I'm going to assume you're having a bad day or something, cause that's well beyond the line, and I'd expect more from your usually decent posts, YR.

Yeah_Right · 28-03-2026 11:17AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124346813#Comment_124346813

Fair enough. I accept there's no racism involved and apologize for suggesting it. I'll delete that.

Just to give you some context, in the 2 decades I've lived over this side of the world I've noticed a tendency amongst Irish and British fans to very quickly call Pacific Island players dirty, thugs or cheap shot artists for play that is just physical or mistimed. They don't seem to get the benefit of the doubt that white players do. It's been discussed many times over the years amongst my kiwi mates. And on occasion we've called it out in pubs, at rugby clubs and matches. Sometimes even to our Irish friends.

Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

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