Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Lol, I've been calling John Cooney average for as long as he's been in the Ireland discussion, as you well know.

I genuinely couldn't give a flying f**k what he says about Farrell, Sexton, and if he wants to say mean things about my mother, that's OK too.

I 100% believe he has been left out based on his rugby ability and nothing more. And I 100% believe it's the right call.

However, if he's on the outside and trying to make a good impression to get a recall, questioning the coach's integrity is not in his own best interests. His own best interests.

He's a journeyman and if he couldn't kick goals, we wouldn't even be having this conversation. Literally every coach he's ever had has preferred the other guy, when the other guy is even halfway competent.

And he absolutely does have a track record of blaming his coach for his own failings. You know it but if you want to pretend he doesn't, I'll play along.

Cooney’s interview from a few months back wasn’t just “not flattering”. Here’s the jist of it:

”When I first started playing with Leinster, I did find it quite difficult the way he kind of spoke to me….it’s not really the type of communication I enjoy as a rugby player. I prefer a positive attitude…..I’m sure through maturity most players, as they get older, realise the way that they can communicate with players. There’s different ways to get the best out of people and it’s probably something I’ve learned through the last couple of years as a rugby player.”

He doesn’t directly say it but how this can’t be read as “Sexton hasn’t got the maturity to manage communications as well as I do” I’m not really sure. And he said this stuff in a Tackle Your Feelings capacity trying to promote positive mental health by knocking someone else. And don’t go giving me the “he was only answering a question” or “at least it isn’t the same old soundbytes” garbage. He has responsibility for what he said. Nobody forced him to say it.

As I said, I don’t doubt there’s a whole lot of truth to what he has said about Sexton. We’ve heard plenty there before. But Cooney seems to be the only one with major issues over it. As for the Farrell stuff, we’ve simply no idea if that’s true or not. We don’t know what conversations were had there.

Maybe for some context though, here’s a snippet about the Pro14 final 12 months ago when Cooney’s form had dipped considerably and he didn’t start that game as a result:

“That hit me harder than the Ireland stuff. After what I’d felt I’d done that year I thought I deserved to play in that final. I did come on but I found it very difficult. After that, when it rains, it pours and I didn’t make the Irish team.”

No acknowledging his dip in form and a sure fire belief that he deserved to start that game despite the dip in form. And then blaming his performance on the fact that he was dropped. Because heaven forbid it was on him. No, it’s all about what he feels he deserves.

I don’t care that he said it about Sexton. Plenty of people have spoken about Sexton like that and I haven’t had any issues with them. Sexton himself doesn’t care. And I’m not one for getting offended on someone else’s behalf.

But he did clearly intimate that Sexton didn’t have the maturity that he had in terms of communication. In a campaign about good mental health he put someone down publicly. That has to be counter to the whole point of the thing surely? And saying that very much is airing dirty laundry.

My point is that Cooney seems to be the kind of guy that externalises things. As part of the same campaign Carty was asked about his own frustrations with Ireland selection. He was able to clearly identify and articulate the areas that he needs to work on and develop in order to put himself back in the frame. He was clearly comfortable talking about and owning his own shortcomings. What shortcomings did Cooney acknowledge that he had?

When he wasn’t selected (rightly) for the Pro14 final last year did he acknowledge that his form was the reason for it? Nah, he felt he deserved selection regardless of his form.

Cooney seems to me to be a guy who finds ways and means to make his failings and disappointments about someone else and not about himself. Not because of what he said about Sexton, but because of how he talks about his failings and disappointments generally.

Sexton has been a well discussed figure for close to 15 years. It is not news that he is a difficult personality and can be a bit of a tool to people. There are literally dozens of accounts in video and print. You've decided I dislike him for tribal reasons, though you know absolutely nothing about me. Someone here is pulling things out of their arse.

Tough one for a selector though. Sexton looked to be playing very well a couple of weeks ago, if he stays fit and plays the odd game for Leinster it would be a big call to leave him out of a 6N game against France or England, particularly when none of the pretenders are knocking the door down.

That's a bit of a stupid post Fff to call him a journey man. 4 years in a row he makes the pro 14 team of the year and he's nominated for the European player of the year. Hardly a "journey man".

He was on fire in 2018/2019 but couldn't get past Murray, who lets be honest was poor. Remember he had the problem passing off his left at the time. Yet we all had to watch every game with the "he just needs a few more games to get back to form" argument. Thing is after 10 or 12 games you have to eventually say "this isn't working right now" and maybe we might look at other options. Maybe Cooney wasn't up to it in training. Maybe his attitude stank. Maybe his style of play didn't suit Ireland at the time.

The ship has sailed now anyway and it's Ulster's gain to have him available every week.

I thought Murray was awful back then. Sexton wasn't really playing well either. It's like the coaches chuck their hopes on experienced lads and hope for the best. 2019 was a pretty awful year for us! Yet, the coaching ticket stuck to underperforming and underwhelming players. The kiwis beat us easily in the world cup and that wasn't even our worst performance, imo.

Yea it was bad! But the loss to Japan was awful too!

That was bad but at least there was the first 20 minutes.

Cooney got selected for Ireland in 2017 while Murray was away with the Lions. Couldn't impress the coaches enough to get more than a few minutes against Japan ahead of McGrath and Marmion.

Can't remember if he played in the AIs in 2017 but I'm pretty sure he didn't make any Irish squads in 2018 and looking at the results, I think the coaches got the selections right. Cooney w the s in great form for Ulster 2018/19 but that was a RWC year. Bad timing for him as most coaches are probably pretty settled on a lot of their squad (especially in key positions) a year out. Unfortunately Murray was playing like crap but JS had pinned his plan on him and was hoping he'd find form. I'm pretty sure Cooney was selected for Irish squads in 2019 but couldn't nail down a place. That's on him.

2019/20 he was looking good before the covid break and may have forced his way into Farrell's thoughts. After the break he was getting out performed for Ulster by a 35 year old Alby Matthewson. Now he was a journeyman!

The reason John Cooney doesn't have more Irish caps, is John Cooney.

This overlooks one massive fact.

For the RWC, Cooney didn't lose out to Murray, he lost out to McGrath (and Marmion was ahead of him too).

Maybe Schmidt was praying Murray would come good. He probably was.

But Cooney was way back in fourth. He was never even close. If Joe had seen the light and dropped Murray, Cooney would still have been watching from the couch.

He had a golden opportunity with the injuries to Marmion and McGrath for the 2019 6N. He had a clear run at impressing the coaches and claiming the 21 jersey, even if 9 was out of reach, but he didn't take advantage of it. There's no one to blame there but John Cooney.

The idea that coaches are somehow foolproof when it comes to selections and that if a player doesn't impress a certain coach it has to be on the player, is pretty flawed.