Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

The team that played Italy plus a few changes should play Romania, then close to the same 23 that will be lined up to play South Africa should play Tonga with a few players benching against Tonga that will be starting against South Africa, and keeping a few back for South Africa. I have Lowe, Beirne and Doris sitting out the Tonga match to be fresh for South Africa, but could equally start them against Tonga, particularly Lowe, or maybe start Lowe against Romania and rest him against Tonga and push O'Brien or Crowley to the bench instead of Aki. It's all just a matter of getting just the right amount of minutes into the players to prime them.

Then depending on how everything is going the team against Scotland could be anything in between the Romania and South Africa selections.

I think it’ll be 18 forwards - 15 backs.

My guess at 33 is:

1. Porter, Healy, Kilcoyne
2. Sheehan, Kelleher, Herring
3. Furlong, Bealham, O’Toole
4. Beirne, Henderson
5. Ryan, McCarthy
6. O’Mahony, Baird
7. Van der Flier
8. Doris, Conan
9. Gibson-Park, Murray, Casey
10. Sexton, Byrne, Crowley
11. Lowe
12. Henshaw, Aki, McCloskey
13. Ringrose
14. Hansen
15. Keenan, O'Brien

Plus 1 more winger; one of Earls, Stockdale or Nash.

I’d guess Earls at this point for his all-round game and experience, assuming he still has decent speed.

Osborne would have been another option for that last spot but I think he will need an injury to get into the final 33.

Frawley is very close to McCloskey too but I think McCloskey has done enough to keep his spot.

These would all need an injury to get into the final 33 in my opinion: Stewart, Treadwell, Prendergast, Coombes, Blade, Frawley, Osborne, Stockdale, Nash, and if I can include Conway for attending a few training sessions. I think Diarmuid Barron was reported to have attended also but I’d say he’d need a couple of injuries to occur to get into contention.

For Reference, the team V Italy was:

Kilcoyne, Herring, O'Toole,

Henderson (C), McCarthy,

Baird, Conan, Doris,

Casey, Crowley,

Stockdale, McCloskey, Henshaw, Earls,

O'Brien.

R: Stewart, Healy, Furlong, Beirne, Prendergast, Blade, Frawley, Nash.

My proposed Team for Romania:

Kilcoyne, Herring, O'Toole,

Beirne, McCarthy,

Baird, Conan, O’Mahony,

Casey, Sexton (C),

O'Brien, McCloskey, Henshaw, Earls,

Crowley.

R: Kelleher, Healy, Bealham, Henderson, Doris, Murray, Byrne, Aki.

My proposed Team for Tonga:

Healy, Kelleher, Bealham,

Henderson (C), McCarthy,

Baird, Conan, Van der Flier,

Murray, Byrne,

O'Brien, Aki, Ringrose, Hansen,

Keenan.

R: Sheehan, Porter, Furlong, Ryan, O'Mahony, Gibson-Park, Sexton, Henshaw.

My proposed Team for SA:

Porter, Sheehan, Furlong,

Beirne, Ryan,

O'Mahony, Doris, Van der Flier,

Gibson-Park, Sexton,

Lowe, Henshaw, Ringrose, Hansen,

Keenan.

R: Kelleher, Healy, Bealham, Henderson, Conan, Murray, Byrne, Aki.

Bealham, Earls and Van Der Flier on media duty. Read into that what you will.

Glad if Earls gets the 100th cap, but really hope this isn’t a sign they are giving him a run of games to try and play him into form. He’s done and shouldn’t be on the plane.

I'd imagine the thought process might be to give him 100 caps at home in the Aviva. As opposed to away in France v samoa.

Problem with that is that either Lowe or Hansen have to sit out the England game as a result.

I think the team will be:

Porter, Sheehan, Bedhlam

Bierne, Ryan

Pom, Coombes, VDF

JgP, Byrne

Aki, Ringrose

Hansen, Keenan, Earls

Kelleher, Healy, Furlong, Baird, Doris, Murray, crowley, Osborne.

Do you all notice posters like this only talk about previous Irish teams and Leinster but you see them post nothing about the current Irish side, don't you think if they believe this Irish side had a serious flaw they would mention it? That should tell you that even then acknowledge how good this Irish side is.

The real number 1 is Ireland which is reflected in the world rankings ;) again funny how beating NZL doesn't seem to count for much to you but Leinster losing matters a whole lot. You're grasping and I would recommend against it in order to save yourself from further embarrassment.

Yeah but then that counts for SA for example and France & NZL. Ireland being number 1 means we of all teams should be backing ourselves to get through this.

And missed some of the Autumn Internationals and wasn't available to play for Leinster since the 1st of January.

Honestly i believe it's foolish to be expecting Sexton to not get injured between now and the world cup knock out stages.

Saying that I am fully behind the Jack Crowley band wagon. I think Ireland will win a 1/4 final V France with or without Sexton.

The better side at the moment which is Ireland, it'll be close but based on form you'd have to say Ireland.

I would guess that he's only there temporarily. They need another prop up to speed if there is an injury and, with Kilcoyne and Healy not being particularly young, it's prudent to have Loughman integrated. But they did this earlier in the camp also with others such as Conway coming into the camp for a week before being released due to work load/knocks for members of the squad.

The phrasing of Fogarty's comment yesterday suggests it's for the duration of Kilcoyne's rest period:

"Killer [Kilcoyne] is just looking after himself for the week, so Jeremy will step in with us."