Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

These stats highlight the issue beautifully.

If any of the supporting cast were up to the level required, they'd have burned past the other two and claimed all those minutes for themselves. The fact that we're still no closer to knowing who the best of them is probably means that none of them are good enough.

When ROG came into the squad, we weren't sitting around wondering if maybe Jeremy Staunton should get another go or was Eric Elwood worth a recall. When Sexton came through, there wasn't much debate about whether he or Ian Humphreys should get the nod, but Niall O'Connor was coming up fast..

Yeah I’d probably agree with Sexton and Burns all right. And I agree Carbery isn’t doing enough to get selected. If Harry Byrne is fit and available then he may well get the 3rd slot. Although I do still expect Carbery will be involved. As I said, we’re in real trouble at 10. I absolutely do not think Carbery is the answer. But unless/until someone else steps up to the plate, which nobody has, then we just have to suck that up.

Oh yeah I know.

The solution is pray that either Carbery improves by several orders of magnitude or that one of the young guys burns it up in the next year.

I wonder if Doak would be a good 10? He's played there in the past!

I think Larmour is getting selected. He's been quite good. Lowe on the other hand hasn't shown me any kind of defensive capability. Ethan McElroy could be a bolter for this autumn.

Kelleher has improved imo. He could nail down the starting position. Timoney has shown up well and I hope he gets a call. Molony has got to be close! He's been great. I think Prendergast will be capped. He seems to have tons of ability. Deegan most likely won't make this squad! Coombes and Conan would be my frontrunners for the 8 shirt.

Lot's of tough calls coming!

Healy is the obvious choice to bring in, he's miles ahead of Carberry at Munster and should be our starting outhalf in red.

He's started the season well and we're not exactly stacked at fullback or wing. I think he'd be a solid addition myself.

Anyone that cites munster or jvg not bringing through youth at this stage can probably be ignored. It's not been a valid criticism for a few years now

I think these upcoming matches should be used to experiment. No harm giving Casey and Coombes the bulk of the minutes? Burns also should get a run, with Sexton on the bench? I think Porter will see plenty of action and suppose Healy should be tried at th.

The results are not do or die! It should be time to test younger players. I don't see a lot of new caps as nobody has really stood out, imo. This is a massive opportunity. The 6nations will probably see a more settled squad, so now is an ideal time to see lads like Hume; Timoney and Blade.

The OH situation just got a lot more interesting

Rapidly losing interest in the Autumn internationals, with Sexton, Henshaw and Henderson not 100%

Sort of glad if Sexton isn’t available, we really need to grow a pair of balls for the first time ever by the next World Cup so hopefully this is the catalyst to change. The difference between a team of losers (aka us) and a team of winners (SA) is they indentify problems and fix them, we on the other hand identify a problem but make no effort to correct the problem and just hope the problem fix’s itself by the RWC, like in the last World Cup when our genius of a coach thought we could play our way into form, what he really means is he had no clue how to fix the issues and had no plan B, quite rightly got his and Ireland’s pants pulled down in the end. And IRFU saw right through the Hyberbole and rightly laid the blame at the coaches door.

Hopefully now instead of whining about not having another 10 we grow a backbone and try fix the problem (and no, giving a player 2 sporadic starts in their career is NOT backing a 10). Would love him looks and Healy and Carbery and just backs them in the autumn.

Yes, that would mean we have 1 world class 10 on our books. Sexton was left out of the Lions for a reason you know.

To attempt to fix the problem at 10 we need to back one of our other 10s and give them a full autumn/6N/Summer tour and allow them to grow into the Jersey without the presence of Sexton overshadowing everything. The last time we had that was Paddy Jackson in 2016 during the Tour to SA, he would never have been considered a potential replacement for Sexton until that tour, he didn’t because a potential top international 10 by sitting on the bench every game, if Ben Healy kicks on at Munster or potentially even Harry Byrne and the Irish coaches balls have dropped by the 6N I’d be looking to back one of them, it’s a calculated risk that could have a big upside if it works out.

We are going to end up playing 2 of these other 10s in a big world cup game without a doubt, that's assuming Sexton is still going well enough to carry some or most of the load. Thats already a long shot so from a coaches perspective 2 of the 3 or 4 others in the conversation WILL BE Irelands out half for some or most of the next World Cup, there is absolutely no doubt about that. The only question is how do you proceed given that assumption, do you accept it and decide on two of them and start playing and coaching them into as good a test ten as they can be, or do you persist with Sexton as the starter and hope for the best? Winning coaches don't do the latter.

Persisting with a 38 year old 10 in the hope he will be fit and not have a plan if he’s not it the most gutless thing you’ll see from a coaching staff since the time a team left a rudderless team unchanged in the hope they’ll play themselves into form…oh wait so that’s also us….if this is our plan we will have the same outcome as the last World Cup if not worst as we have a difficult pool this time.