Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Are we now holding up Eddie Jones as a manager who picks on form?

The manager who refused to play the european player of the year Sam Simmonds, who would play a half fit Billy Vunipola, who played loads of Saracens players who weren't even playing in the top tier. Dropping George Ford for Premiership winning outhalf and lions player Marcus Smith is hardly the bravest decision in the world.

His latest squad didnt include Billy V, and his snubbing of Barritt was worse than Simmonds imo.

But lets not forget he has a RWC silver medal and is clearly building towards France 2023 in a way that im not sure we are.

demanding?

Show me where I'm demanding anything?

I know his latest squad didn't include Billy V. He has finally changed in how he selects players. Lets see his selection of teams before we judge that he's picking for the future. Currently he has dropped a few players from a squad but says the door is open to them to come back in.

Players make those kind of decisions all the time. It’s not like they’re robots. Everytime a player throws an interception, it’s a risk that didn’t pay off. Going for that extra 5 meters on a kick and it going dead, that’s a risk that didn’t pay off. Not kicking to touch at the end of a half when the clock is in the red is a risk. When these risks don’t come off, players get crucified by the same fans who want them to take more risks.

Well, I agree with the first part of what you say. Just because good execution is desirable doesn't mean I'd be very critical of poor execution. It just means a player needs to get better at the execution part, not stop trying things. That was Johne Murphy's issue with Anthony Foley as a coach. The players would be criticised based on outcome if they tried something and it didn't come off, which of course led to them going into their shells for fear of making a mistake. Penney, on the other hand, would say "That was a good decision. You need to execute that".

Fair point on a bad decision coming off because of good execution. I think I remember Justin Marshall saying one of the best pieces of advice he got from a coach was that you can turn a bad decision into a good decision if you commit to the action 100 %.

...BUT KICK OFF AT 3......😎

... and let's see how many of the 50 players Eddie Jones just announced get caps against decent sides or in the 6N?

Well for starters, Farrell has given more than 15 players their debuts in the 18 months he’s been in charge. By my count (off the top of my head so may be slightly off) he has given 23 players their debuts.

Of those Kelleher, Baird, Connors, Coombes, Doris, JGP, Casey, Harry Byrne, Balacoune and Keenan are all guys who he has given debuts to that we can expect will have a real future with Ireland. So that’s 10.

Then there’s a bunch of guys below that who may have decent to good prospects at a future with Ireland like O’Sullivan, O’Toole, Deegan and Lowe. So there’s another 4.

The fact is that most of the guys he has given debuts to are in with a good shout of playing the bigger games over the next year or two, if they haven’t already. Farrell has been very progressive in his selections to date. I really don’t know how this is even up for debate.

It's slightly mad that people are always giving out about us not planning for the future, but the two players who generate the most outrage will both be 33 come the RWC.

Reliability is the issue with Sexton. There's no doubt he's still our best fly half. But the chances of him getting through a world cup campaign in 2 years is basically nil.

Unfortunately, Harry Byrne doesn't seem to be any more reliable and Carbery is a shadow of the player he was.

Personally I'd be putting energy into Joey Carbery and Harry Byrne. But they both have to be fit for that to happen, hence the more robust Ross Byrne, Billy Burns and Jack Carty are the ones getting the caps.

In reality Carbery is streets ahead of all the above, so hopefully he has an injury free season, if he does I wager he will be first choice Irish 10 by the 6Ns. Flogging Jonny is obviously an option. I'd keep him in reserve, give him a few caps here and there, but while I'm usually of the view you just pick your best team for the big games, I think we're past that now at out half. We need to expose these other guys and we need to do it now. To be fair Carbery has played in big games for Ireland and often delivered, it is just injury that has held him back rather than anything the coaches have or haven't done.

Fair to say it is a MASSIVE season for him!