Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Blade is injured.

Did I suggest that?

In my opinion catt is a poor coach. A good player but a poor coach.

Ireland would benefit from him being replaced on the coaching ticket in my opinion. You may have a different opinion and that's ok.

Catts record with England, Italy and Ireland is poor and irelands attack has been blunt with little flare or variety under his guidance.

After the 6 nations in March Farrells and Catts win ratio after 14 games was a low 64% boosted by games v Georgia and Italy a few times and potentially would have been worse if they played a 3 test series v Australia last summer.

Declan Kidney’s and Joe Schmidt had win ratios of about 80% for their first two seasons in charge of Ireland. 81 and 78.

Irelands set piece has improved dramatically by the addition to the likes of o connell to the coaching ticket. A similar change should take place with the attack coach but I don't see farrell dropping his old buddy.

I said his record was poor after the 6 nations at 64% and could have been worse if he went on a 3 game tour in the southen hemisphere. Not a massive stretch of the imagination. They played the likes of Georgia instead of Australia in the summer or Nz or SA in November. 64% is still poor no matter what was you look at it.

England were terrible in the 6 nations finishing with only Italy beneath them on the table. Id prefer to judge irelands performance in the whole tournament and not just the last game against a team that was playing badly.

The attack play against France and Wales was toothless and some of the worst ive ever seen at international level. Kicking poor uncontestables off turnover ball . From the start of the France game the gameplan was kick it away and they had picked a half back pair who wouldn't be known for their kicking quality..

In the France game ireland had over 60% possession and created only 4 clean breaks and 3 off loads and kicked the ball away over 40 times.

The Italy games aside we actually failed to score more tries than our opponents. France, Scotland and Wales all scored more tries than us in our games and over all in the tournament.

France scored 20 tries and Wales and Scotland scored 18 and we only managed 12 with half of them coming against Italy.

As for your point on the squads and how kidney and joe would have had better squads at their disposal.. im not sure that stacks up.. Kidney would not have have as many to choose from and while his starting team was excellent his squad had quiet a large tail to it..Joe had a good squad when he took over But he had created much of that squad at Leinster. Also he had to bring Johnny back from France so there was not great depth at half back.

When you look at it Farrell actually inherited a squad who had been ranked 1st in the world less than 12 months earlier.. so you cant say he inherited a poor squad.

I think he just made a few poor decisions with his squad selection.

For example, with other available options Farrell picked burns and Jgp and I don't think either would get picked to start for any of the other 6 nations teams.

Id imagine Even Italy would pick Varney and garbisi over them.

Both were available to Joe and he didn't think they were good enough to select them for squads let alone start them in the 6 nations and even give jpg 80 minutes. Id say farrell would have equally as good a squad as joe started with but for poor selections.

If you believe that Catt, by irelands performance v england has bought himself more time fair enough that's your opinion.

I believe we have gone backwards and our attack has suffered under his watch.

Sexton and Murray were injured.

If he picked say R.Byrne and Marmion, you'd be saying the exact same thing, they wouldn't start for any other 6N team

But that's reflective of our poor depth, not Farrell

I thought Casey looked good in the Munster game too, but Carberry was fairly ordinary. Some nice sharp passes on the line and one lovely one for a line break, but he fell off a few tackles, threw a screamer intercept and tried a chip ahead that really wasn't on and almost resulted in a try for the Sharks winger. It's early days I know but I haven't seen much from Carberry to indicate that he's way ahead of any of the alternatives to Sexton.

Assuming Porter works out at Loosehead. Would Eric o sullivan be a better squad option than Kilkoyne?

Given healys potential versatility subbing loosehead and potentially covering tighthead i'd imagine he will be guaranteed a squad spot at least barring injury for next 2 years..

Would investing game time in a younger option like Eric o sullivan, Jordan duggan or Matthew Burke be a smarter call with a long term view.

Also What would be the tighthead depth chart be like with Porter loosehead?

1. Furlong

2. O'toole

3.Bealham

4. Ryan

5. Moore.?

I think Farrell will be loyal to Catt. We will see in November. There may be improvements!

I highly doubt it because he's 3rd choice TH at Leinster. So he won't be in the match day 23 for Europe.

I'd be reluctant to mess around with Porter any more. I'd like him left at LH.

I'd imagine Bealham (criminally underrated player IMO) would start with O'Toole on the bench. Could call on John Ryan or Moore if needs be.

1. Furlong
2. Bealham
3. O'Toole
4. Ryan
5. Moore

I would assume that Healy would have to get into big matches for Leinster. If he can't, he should not be selected.

I would take a punt on Marty Moore. Underrated and solid as a rock. Bealham is a decent option. O'Toole needs work ons.

I really hope Kelleher is first choice now. Herring has been solid, but we should be past the point of picking solid options when we have freak athletes in Kelleher and Sheehan, especially considering their set piece is fairly consistent now.

Hume should be in the mix for the Autumn, he's like a powerful Ringrose. I hope his trajectory keeps climbing, he could be world class.