Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Murphy.....heard he has a really really (like really) high ceiling.

Yeah there were very few complaints about Ioane being selected on the wing ahead of Lowe at the time. Ioane on good form and Lowe coming back from injury made it a solid choice. But there was no terrible option between the two.

Now people are suiting up to play Captain Hindsight. But in reality, it wasn't a bad choice at the time.

I don't know enough about Paddy McCarthy's injury to know if that was foreseeable or just really unlucky. It looks really unlucky to my untrained eye.

I went to one of these schools also, there are a dozen or more of them. The player list above is a list of former students of these schools bar a small handful. Mandatory rugby until 13 or14 when I attended. And my school wasn’t nearly as insane about it as a lot of the others, yet still has several pros in Leinster. There is no world in which this machine is not dropping a massive advantage into Leinster’s lap annually.

To be fair, I don’t think anyone is saying it’s exclusively a money thing.

No more than recently you aren’t saying it was exclusively a cultural thing.

But, in the main, money seems to be a pre-requisite. Are we to believe Michael’s would’ve produced as many players in the last number of years without money? Of course not.

And given that these are 2 things (along with other natural advantages Leinster have) that the other provinces can’t replicate to the same scale / degree, I think the change to funnel Central Contract money, where the biggest imbalance in the system lay, was completely necessary.

Bearing in mind that Leinster now still broadly retain the same level of contribution towards their budget that they had for the previous decade when 1) Ireland were still extremely successful and 2) Leinster were still one of the most consistent teams in Europe

Yet we’re now supposed to believe that is now hindering Leinster at every turn, holding Leinster back, a Development tax or any of the other hyperbolic overreactions we’ve heard in the last week or so? Often from people who have complained most about the over reliance on Leinster.

They’re the points your missing entirely in all of this.

That's not my point. And you know it.

He's been better than that typhoony. But I wouldn't be in a rush to put him an Ireland squad either. Doak is far and away the dominant half back partner in the Ulster team.

I think the comment on Osborne's stalled momentum at 12 being because of Leinster signing players (one of whom isn't even a 12) is a bit harsh. Osborne has gotten a great opportunity to seize the 12 jersey at Leinster post 6 Nations this year, he's started 7 times there out of the 11 games since then, and has been pretty poor it has to be said.

That's on him, no one else really.

Well for starters, because of all the praise Farrell has often given to Prendergast who he clearly rates. Farrell added him as a training panelist in the previous 6 Nations.

Plus I just don’t see Easterby making such a call as stand-in coach knowing Farrell is returning at the end of the season.

Do you think Easterby made that call entirely off his own bat?

Genuinely what do you think the impact of the money is though on schoolboy rugby players?

I've already shown that the coaching is by and large provided by teachers, so the money isn't going there.

The facilities are good obviously - but that in and of itself doesn't necessarily make players better.

I don't think it's exclusively money or exclusively culture, but I would have it weighted 80% towards culture over money in terms of the key factor. My logic for that? Lots of schools have the money Blackrock have, none have the depth of rugby culture, and none replicate their track record of success in player production.

yeah, it was mandatory until 14 when I was in school. I stopped playing for a while because training was a pain in the arse to get home from and they called my parents about it and insisted I attend. The 1/2 day Wednesday tradition is so that games can be played in daylight in winter. Everybody plays, or at least attends training. I imagine that’s gone but this was the case long before rugby became a pro sport.