Ireland Team Talk XI: Team of nervoUS MOD warning Post 1

Lowry is a really good footballer but very slight, should have been moved to 9 five years ago. Will have to be exceptionally talented and durable to make it at 15.

If Sexton is playing well I would be fine with him starting, whatever gives best chance of success in six nations. I don’t think Carbery will be picked at 15, would be interesting to see how it goes but expect him to be viewed only as ten. Larmour will take over at 15.

shootermacg wrote: »

To what end?

Grand slam

shootermacg wrote: »

Sexton hasn't been great for a while now. Don't bother with all this world player sh1t, he managed a good for TV, drop goal and Ireland won the grand-slam otherwise BB would have been collecting that gong again.

He's got the attacking threat of tight head, the staying power of a Irish summer and has been kicking aimless Garry Owens for the opposition back 3 to mark for at least 2 seasons now.

More importantly he'll be pushing 38 come the next WC.

"A while" meaning this year. It was literally last year he won the world player award.

shootermacg wrote: »

Sorry to break it to you, but he was never the best player in the world.

In your opinion. I mean the fact he won the award completely contradicts that but sure.

shootermacg wrote: »

haha awards. He got that cos the drop kick was good TV and Ireland had a great year. Optics are not real life.

Answer this truthfully, who would you rather have in your team BB or JS? Yeah..that's what I thought.

2018 Johnny Sexton over 2018 Beauden Barrett I would gladly take him.

It's no coincidence that Ireland had a great year, and Leinster won the double with him at 10. But if that doesn't suit your narrative, sure he's shíte and we should force him to retire.

Hate this nonsense of people talking about Sexton just being world player of the year like it was yesterday. Sexton won World Player of the Year for Feb-Nov 2018. The last month of the being a year ago now. Just a couple of months ago, is over a year. A year is a long time in professional rugby.

For the record I don’t see sexton not starting come 6 nations, but a year in professional rugby is a long time for a 34yr old 10. He isn’t the same player he was Feb-Nov 2018.

Edit 34

RugbyLover123 wrote: »

Hate this nonsense of people talking about Sexton just being world player of the year like it was yesterday. Sexton won World Player of the Year for Feb-Nov 2018. The last month of the being a year ago now. Just a couple of months ago, is over a year. A year is a long time in professional rugby.

For the record I don’t see sexton not starting come 6 nations, but a year in professional rugby is a long time for a 32yr old 10. He isn’t the same player he was Feb-Nov 2018.

He's 34

shootermacg wrote: »

He's 34

And the cantankerous nature of an 84 year old

Squidgy Black wrote: »

What facts? The facts are he was a key part of a team who won a grand slam, a winning tour in Australia, beat the All Blacks, won the Pro14 (where he was man of the match) and the Champions Cup with Leinster.

Yet you're saying he was useless all season, offering no attacking threat and kicking aimlessly to the back 3. Right.

Lets put the AB win in context.... they had one of their toughest games against England the week before. We were fresh as daisies. I knew that going into the game and after the game, but I'll still take it. But don't be getting notions about it.

I'm a realist and realistically what is the point in playing a pensioner that can't play 80 minutes?

RugbyLover123 wrote: »

Hindsight is a great thing. You’d have to wonder why the irfu offered Sexton a contract beyond the WC. Did they have no faith in Carberry taking over or knew RB wasn’t up to it? Surely no matter how well Ireland did at the WC, Carberry taking over shouldve been the plan?

Unless the felt like the owes it to him to extend as he was eyeing up the Lions. But there’s not a chance he’s making that.

I'm on record as saying central contracts should be an annual top-up of the provincial contract. But regardless of the viability of that, they should certainly be annual for over 30s.

What exactly could any out-half have done in this RWC, if every phase was Murray passing the ball to either Stander or Ryan, until we got enough breathing room to box kick?

First order of business for Faz and Catt - these things called out-halves, whomever they pick, and how to bloody use them.

ionadnapokot wrote: »

I’m prepared to give him the full 4 year cycle.
It’s going to be fascinating to see who he will hitch the wagon to over the next two seasons at 10, 2, 15, 12 and 8.
Ultimately he also needs to phase out Sexton, Earls, and Healy over the same period.
POM and probably Aki and CJ would be all past their prime by that stage.

You're prepared to give him four years regardless of how well or poorly things go? I'm certainly not, he gets from now until the end of the 2021 six nations to prove he's up to the job. If things are not looking good at that point he will have to go while there's still time to rebuild for 2023.

To be fair both South Africa and England have proven that you don't need to spend four years preparing for the next World Cup, two is plenty, so Farrell gets a free shot for a couple of years to see if he's good enough. But after that, if it's not working out, he'll need to step aside.

Former Coach wrote: »

Any kind soul willing to copy and paste Gavin Cummiskey's article from yesterday's Irish Times?

I will paste some of it. Just to prevent clicking on it.
It’s pure sh1te and the IT should get rid.

Stand by

The inevitable hatchet job on Schmidt from Cummiskey.

Ill save you the multiple paragraphs on “unsustainable, suffocating prep”, “spectacular mental and physical burn out”, “media interactions”, “conservative approach” that we’ve all heard from each of the other 2bit hacks.
Below are some of the rest of it.
The colossal gob****e fails to grasp the two major issues.
1 Some of Joe’s Selections
2 And Sexton and Murray loosing their form

“Embracing a conservative strategy is an unexplained decision that forever taints the most important Schmidt season.”

“Irish rugby’s greatest ever year was 2018. The next leap demanded a cross pollination of the best work being done by four progressive provincial coaching minds – as IRFU king maker David Nucifora always intended, right? But what actually happened showed a lack of faith in the individual player skill sets. The very work Schmidt demanded of his players on day one at Leinster in the summer of 2010.”
.........
“The Six Nations proved a prelude to the record defeat at Twickenham, the suffocating and clueless Shizuoka failure, all before total humiliation in Tokyo. Each loss was emphatic and should bring the entire Irish system into question from high performance director David Nucifora right down to grassroots. Specifically, where these grassroots should exist.”
......
Then back to more Schmidt for the character asscination in a few spiteful paragraphs
..........
“An obvious Schmidt flaw was his refusal to offer a mea culpa.”
...........
“The general defence of Schmidt by the loudest heads on social media is understandable – “Joe delivered so many wonderful days leave him be” – but that means no solutions to lingering problems, and that means trusting those in charge for a very very long time to avoid making the same mistakes come France 2023.”
..........
“All the promises of strength in depth proved false. A ravaged Wales reached a semi-final. Both finalists appear largely immune to injury. The hope is that James Ryan’s peer group will not be tainted by the psychological wall of quarter-finals.
The key question – what stagnated Schmidt’s final year? – remains unanswered.”
..........
“There remains some never-to-be-forgotten days, despite each heroic victory being avenged, but Ireland, in the aftermath of Joe Schmidt, stand in the same place as before.”
......
“For what Andy Farrell might lack in comparison to Schmidt’s brilliant, all consuming Kiwi rugby brain he’ll make up for with plain-speaking northern England working class values.
That is needed now.”

TOOL

ionadnapokot wrote: »

The inevitable hatchet job on Schmidt from Cummiskey.

Ill save you the multiple paragraphs on “unsustainable, suffocating prep”, “spectacular mental and physical burn out”, “media interactions”, “conservative approach” that we’ve all heard from each of the other 2bit hacks.
Below are some of the rest of it.
The colossal gob****e fails to grasp the two major issues.
1 Some of Joe’s Selections
2 And Sexton and Murray loosing their form

“Embracing a conservative strategy is an unexplained decision that forever taints the most important Schmidt season.”

“Irish rugby’s greatest ever year was 2018. The next leap demanded a cross pollination of the best work being done by four progressive provincial coaching minds – as IRFU king maker David Nucifora always intended, right? But what actually happened showed a lack of faith in the individual player skill sets. The very work Schmidt demanded of his players on day one at Leinster in the summer of 2010.”
.........
“The Six Nations proved a prelude to the record defeat at Twickenham, the suffocating and clueless Shizuoka failure, all before total humiliation in Tokyo. Each loss was emphatic and should bring the entire Irish system into question from high performance director David Nucifora right down to grassroots. Specifically, where these grassroots should exist.”
......
Then back to more Schmidt for the character asscination in a few spiteful paragraphs
..........
“An obvious Schmidt flaw was his refusal to offer a mea culpa.”
...........
“The general defence of Schmidt by the loudest heads on social media is understandable – “Joe delivered so many wonderful days leave him be” – but that means no solutions to lingering problems, and that means trusting those in charge for a very very long time to avoid making the same mistakes come France 2023.”
..........
“All the promises of strength in depth proved false. A ravaged Wales reached a semi-final. Both finalists appear largely immune to injury. The hope is that James Ryan’s peer group will not be tainted by the psychological wall of quarter-finals.
The key question – what stagnated Schmidt’s final year? – remains unanswered.”
..........
“There remains some never-to-be-forgotten days, despite each heroic victory being avenged, but Ireland, in the aftermath of Joe Schmidt, stand in the same place as before.”
......
“For what Andy Farrell might lack in comparison to Schmidt’s brilliant, all consuming Kiwi rugby brain he’ll make up for with plain-speaking northern England working class values.
That is needed now.”

TOOL

I think Joe was an excellent coach.

My only criticism of Joe would be sticking with the same players irrespective of form. This happened to work in the past when players like Rob Kearney were able to come back from injury or average form at provincial level and turn it on for Ireland.

Joe probably hoped more than thought that Johnny Sexton and Conor Murray in particular would grow into the World Cup. This didnt really happen (or if Johnny did improve as WC went on, his body let him down). Marmion played in the victory v NZ in Dublin. In hindsight, there is a good argument that CM should not have been starting and that we should have chanced Jack Carty at out-half for more games (as sexton and carberry were injured; in sextons case injured and out of form - I suspect in sextons case the true extent of his injuries have been hidden from the public [maybe the same for murray - crispness of pass has deteriorated since shoulder injury])