Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

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.

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.

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.

I contend that that Tuilagi tackle on Wallace, is far less harmful to the tackled player’s long term health, than the upright, head on head tackles we saw Sexton putting in for his entire career.

2 pages of Manu vs Wallace back and forth.

Bring back the good old days of the Crowley vs Prendergast debate.

Mod Edit

Warning issued.

Has anyone noticed the very poor goal kicking displays by the front runners for the Nr 10 Irish shirt over the weekend? In fact, currently Doak looks like the best kicker in the country. That of course probably doesn't include the best current Irish place kicker, namely Ross Byrne! Is Jonny Sexton supposed to be helping with this issue in the Ireland camp?

Story going around in the Aussie media over the weekend that the IRFU are trying to poach a really highly touted Australian THP, Massimo de Lutiis. He is apparently qualified for Ireland since birth (via his mother's side), though if we were to sign him he wouldn't be eligible immediately as he has played for Australia A and so would need to go through the stand down period etc.

I really don't love the optics of this tbh - this isn't a guy like Mack Hansen who was kind of overlooked in Australia to an extent and just treading water, this is a guy who is a really big prospect for them and has already been in camp with the senior Aussie squad.

I don't believe this for a second, reads like standard agent shenanigans to me.

I don't think it's likely that the IRFU are offering "life changing" money to a 22 year old with three Super Rugby caps, it just seems completely incongruent with everything we're hearing about the financial situation currently.

This would be like if NZ approached Bryn Ward and offered him big bucks to go and play for them. I think we'd all be raging. I hope this doesn't happen.

Oh, don't get wrong - the cynic in me would still be delighted to see another great THP prospect signed into Irish rugby, and I'll cheer him on if he does happen to make the switch!

I would just absolutely hate if this became the norm.