Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

clsmooth

Let’s not rule ourselves out of this one yet. I’m excited to see how he goes in a team playing well with quick ball being delivered and a clear attacking strategy. He hasn’t had all that at club level. Let’s not forget he saw out the NZ win with a couple of big penalties a few months ago.

I actually think he’ll go well. That doesn’t mean Ireland will win. I didn’t expect them to win with Sexton starting. So if they don’t, hopefully fingers won’t be unnecessarily pointed at Carbery. Great chance for the lad.

Shehal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118609922#Comment_118609922

All I know is its not normal for a team to go through the number of players we've gone through at 10 unless we've come to the conclusion that maybe we arent getting the best out of these players, one point people forget is Sexton is arguably the strongest sportsman we have produced since Roy Keane (imo) and maybe its not just him as a player but the expectations he has for himself and his team mates that when he isnt available its very difficult for other players to match. It could be a case like with Roy Keane in 2002 that when Sexton is no longer in the picture that maybe other 10s will step up like what happened with Ireland in that WC.

aloooof

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118609952#Comment_118609952

Carbery's first start in the 6N, that tells its own story.

Just throwing someone to the wolves isnt "giving someone a chance". You need to actually back a 10 rather simply say hold the jersey for Sexton

It does indeed tell it's own story, but not the one you're suggesting. Carbery's had huge injury issues; it's not possible to "back a 10" when they're not available thru injury.

arsebiscuits1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118609849#Comment_118609849

What did he do right? He had 8 passes and 3 carries in 17 minutes.

His first involvement was a pop pass off first phase. Decently executed. Ringrose over the gainline. Next phase on front foot ball he sends a kick that is neither a territory or a touch finder and he's very lucky Adams makes a mess of it to get the lineout to Ireland. We had Bealham, POM and Beirne on that side of the field chasing it. It was a howler with a lucky result.

Off lineout another decent first phase involvement. Releases Ringrose for good front foot ball. Garry nudges a nice kick to put Wales under pressure.

Next 2 involvements are pop passes to a pod off 10. No line threatening. No movement. No animation. Part of this can be attested to Ireland not winning the collisions as well as they could have. Worth noting JGP was still on the pitch with tempo.

Next a kick to touch on penalty where he misses the 5m channel. Ireland with a lineout 8m out.

Next he gets bounced on a tackle from 8 pick and go off scrum. Murray completes the tackle

Next a lovely flat pass to release Doris for solid front foot ball. Under resourced ruck led to penalty.

Next involvement was a totally ineffective defensive ruck entry from a VDF tackle off scrum. Made no decision and Wales get a sub 2 second ruck because they only needed 1 man to seal.

Next he runs a dummy line off 9 where it's skipped to Ringrose and he sits down no defenders. He seals at the resulting ruck helping quick ball although Wales didn't commit.

Next he kicks another pen to touch from just outside the 22 10m in from touch and again misses the 5m channel. Irish lineout 10m out.

Next (78:32), takes the ball out the back from Aki, Ireland have a 3 on 1 in the Wales 22. A catch pass to Garry and we're in in the corner alternatively a floated ball over and Hansen is in. LRZ does reasonably well but his body position is predictable and he's lucky Joey opted to carry. Not only carry, carry sideways eating the space. This was really poor play from him.

Next, on turnover ball, he doesn't communicate to Murray and Murray gets caught in possession having to switch which way he goes from the ruck.

Next, he again opts to carry despite Aki and Hume keeping depth outside him and running strong lines with the Welsh defenders turned in.

So overall he had some poor moments that could be chalked up to a lack of rugby. Ireland lost their shape a good bit and like it or not. A lot of that falls on the 10

Podge_irl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118609971#Comment_118609971

Our other options aren't as good, not even close. Carbery has shown glimpses but can't stay fit. Its not complicated to understand how we have ended up here.

clsmooth

On another note, great opportunity for Ryan to captain the team. I felt it affected his game when he had a run at it in 2020. He’s a little bit more experienced now so interesting to see how he copes with it.

AdamD

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118609916#Comment_118609916

Not sure its as extreme in this team versus the last few years. Keenan, Aki and others have been stepping in at 10 and taking the load off Sexton. Our play is more varied

sydthebeat

the bookie spread took a 2 point hit after the irish team named... from france -3 to france -5

Clegg

Sextons injury tempers expectations a bit. Carbery, Carty or whomever actually plays instead just isn't as good.

We've moved away from Sexton being the sole playmaker, but he's still our most important decision maker on the pitch. A lot more pressure will be heaped on Hansen and the centred now.

Podge_irl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118609916#Comment_118609916

I think we are probably less reliant on Sexton than we used to be.

But he's still the 10 and he's still the best one by far so he will always be difficult to replace.

SqueakyKneecap

Having to start a different outhalf for this is potentially a blessing in disguise but given Carberry's horrific injury record I can't help but feel this is a waste as we can't rely on him to be regularly available. Carty would be better to throw into the deep end.

Shehal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118609982#Comment_118609982

Well yeah that is true, fair point.

What I will say though if look back at Carbery's performance when he has come in from what I can remember (England 2018, Scotland 2019) he actually went very well and lets not forget his last outing starting at 10 was a MOTM display v Argentina. Yes we are weekend with Sexton at 10 but if one player being fit was required for us to work then we probably weren't going to win anyway, all Shaun Edwards would have to do in this case is tell the French players to hit Sexton hard, legally or illegally all day long.

Former Former Former

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118609952#Comment_118609952

Just throwing someone to the wolves isnt "giving someone a chance". 

Sorry, but this is the reality of test level rugby.

Hugo Keenan got one chance and has never given up the 15 jersey. Mack Hansen basically fell out of the sky and looked every inch a test player last week. Porter, Kelleher, Furlong, Ryan, Henderson, Doris, VDF, JGP, Aki, Ringrose, Murray, Henshaw - these guys all went from not being in the national side to key player pretty much overnight. As soon as CJ retired, Conan went from fringe player to test Lion. Beirne and Conway are the outliers in taking a longer route.

This idea that lads need to be in camp for years and need multiple starts to get a fair go is nonsense. If a player is thrown to the wolves, then that's a reflection of him.

Shehal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118610017#Comment_118610017

Exactly, its not really a question of weather Sexton makes us better or not (he does) but we shouldnt be in a position where we NEED him at 10, we have too much quality in that team to be needing one player to make us click.

rodge123

One plus to take out of it is that joey has a good eye for a gap and a bit more gas than Jonny. With the new team style keeping teams guessing, it may provide him with more gaps to glide through! Sexton managed a few against wales but it was quite obvious he didn’t have the speed/step to push on once through. That’s all assuming joey can orchestrate those plays the way Jonny did!

Shehal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118610035#Comment_118610035

Its not when that appears to be the only chance players get. If we choose to rotate every now and then aswell then that would be different. None of those positions are the fly half position though, that position is very delicate and requires consistent game time in in order master.

Must love hardship

Looking forward to seeing carberry take the reins. Its a great opportunity to see what he is made of.

Hopefully he stays injury free. If not this weekends URC games are a great shop window for the likes of Healy and H byrne if they start. Maybe one is already called in for an emergency??

With a hamstring injury for sexton we should get to see Joey for the French and Italian game.

That gives Sexton 3/4 weeks to try get back for the English game.

Personally I think it may have been better to get Murray in with Carberry.

Defensively I'd be worried about JGP and Carberry Like last year when carberry and Casey were playing together for munster

Neither are the best defender.

Expect a few chips in over the top when Jgp is in the back field and plenty of traffic Down the throat of Carberry. ( I know every 10 gets traffic anyway)

Id imagine JVDF and Aki will be busier men on the defensive side of their games than the attacking side Saturday.

Edit. I see Ross Byrne and Healy are starting with H byrne and Crowley benching.

With Ulster not playing maybe Billy B or lowry are the emergency travelling outhalf.

Pussyhands

Inevitably Sexton gets injured. How tf are we still relying on him to be our starting 10? It's only a matter of when with Sexton getting injured. We need to move on. We're really going to go into another WC with Sexton starting and getting injured when it matters?

I don't even feel confident that Joey will finish the game unscathed this weekend.

phog

The loss of Sexton is a blow but hardly a surprise and it will be less of a surprise come the WC. I've said it before I have no difficulty in using Sexton for the 6Ns but we're going nowhere with him in the W/C, in fact I think he might well retire before the W/C comes around. If that is his thought process then I hope he shares with with Farrell at least.

awec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118610035#Comment_118610035

Agree with this to a large extent.

This is Carbery's big chance to show what he's up to, and he needs to grab this opportunity with both hands.

I think the big difference for Carbery right now is if he puts in an excellent performance on Saturday there is a very good chance he'll keep the jersey no matter how fit Sexton is. In previous years it wouldn't have mattered, he'd have been back on the bench. This is his big chance to dislodge Sexton.

errlloyd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118610017#Comment_118610017

A few people have said this alright. I know there are more people passing the ball than there were before (we have way more passes in games than before) and JGP tends to hit a much greater variety of runners than other 9s do - the guy just loves long passes. Where we still rely on Sexton is offensive organization. When Sexton is around the whole diamond pod system in our 1, 3, 3, 1 seems to dissolve pretty quickly

Shehal

It's also intriguing to see how JGP and Carbery get on together, I think they potentially compliment each other very well as they seem to have the same mindset when it comes to playing.

Must love hardship

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118610089#Comment_118610089

I know he would still be training as much and as likely to pick up an injury there but would we get more games out of sexton by bringing him off the bench for the last 25 minutes.

It would mean he would pass the captaincy over to a James Ryan too.

And the likes of Carberry has to step up to a decent 7.5 out of 10 performance saturday at least.

Billy B and R byrnes seem to have had their opportunities and neither took them.

Former Former Former

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118610056#Comment_118610056

None of those positions are the fly half position though, that position is very delicate and requires consistent game time in in order master.

This is perhaps a fair comment, but it overlooks the fact that no-one other than Carbery has made any sort of impression.

OK, so you decide we HAVE to give game time to someone - who is that someone? During Carbery's absences, we've seen Burns, two Byrnes and Carty involved and none of them have even managed to nail down third choice, let alone displace Carbery as second choice, and none of them are on the same plane of existence as Sexton. That's on them.

And is out-half really any different? Look at ROG, one day he had zero caps and the next day he was our first-choice out-half. Likewise Sexton, it wasn't a delicate position for him. He just took the jersey. That's the difference here, we don't have anyone on that level that can come in, blow the others away and really challenge for the jersey.

Sangre

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118610096#Comment_118610096

That might be true if Sexton wasn't captain. As he is though, he will always play when fit.

Podge_irl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118610105#Comment_118610105

Well yeah, we are still a lot better with Sexton because he is one of the greatest players we have ever had. Not sure I'd class that as being reliant on him so much as him just making a huge difference to the team the same way he would to most/all teams.

There is no getting away from the fact that whoever replaces Sexton is going to be worse.

kuang1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118610123#Comment_118610123

Sharing the same accent should definitely be worth at minimum 5 points to us.

AbusesToilets

Carty should be the one starting imo. He's far closer in ability to Sexton, in that he attacks the line better and is capable of releasing players in a way that Carbery doesn't.

Dubinusa

Balls! Oh well, this is a wrench in the works. France won't be happy either, they've prepared for Sexton. A lot depends on our pack. Give Carberry a solid platform and who knows.

It is a blessing, imo. Win, lose or draw we will see the team perform without our captain. It's also unrealistic to expect Sexton to get through a world cup injury free. Would it be so bad to give the reins to Carberry for the remainder of the 6nations? Carberry isn't Sexton. He's not as good, nor will he ever be imo. But with gametime and a run he can probably set down a marker and put his hands on the jersey.

There's still plenty of time until the world cup. Carberry is clearly viewed as Sextons heir and the more starts he gets the more comfortable he should be. Carty is the only other option atm. To build the squad this could be win! It could also be a disaster and Carberry may shoot himself in the foot and collapse under the pressure. I think he will be ok!

While there's options everywhere for other positions, we need someone other than Sexton to step up. It's a similar matter for lh. After Porter, there's a decline and Healy is old too. As is Kilcoyne.

We can still win. France have only beaten Italy and not as convincingly as they probably should have. We will put in a good shift and it should still be a close game.

letowski

I think Carbery can play at this level. The big issue will be Carbery defense and tackling. France have some big units, they are going to be sending Danty down his channel all afternoon.