Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Shows how short the memories of some can be unfortunately and how cruel this sport is.

Sure Max Deegan and Doris were neck and neck in terms of performance prior to Deegan doing his ACL

Just occurred to me that Sheehan will have that horrid purple jersey for his first cap.

I think it's fair to Q's the reasoning for Sheehan selection ahead of Herring. Although i would pick him because of his obvious potential.

But nobody can say with any certainty how good his set-piece really is. e.g. His throwing under pressure

He is also massive in height for a hooker. Bismark duP was 6'2" and he's the tallest i can think of. Again nobody knows with any degree of certainty how good his scrummaging really is.

But like Kelleher he had obvious potential from day one.

Dane Coles is a big hooker

He's played no.8 for Wellington

Marchand might look bulkier but that's because he's only 5'11.

Sheehan is objectively big for a hooker.

Ah no mate, you need to get a proper look at him if you're considering him anything other than an extremely athletic specimen.

The kid is a monster

It could be so much worse than a purple jersey though.......

Craig Casey had that awful haircut on his debut. Poor fella, that's what all the pictures will be.

On a more serious note having family around on your debut is something a few of the lads missed out on and my heart genuinely does go out to them

Hendo in for Beirne, Herring to bench

Ireland Team & Replacements (v New Zealand, Autumn Nations Series, Saturday, November 13, 3:15 pm)

15. Hugo Keenan (Leinster/UCD) 14 caps

14. Andrew Conway (Munster/Garryowen) 26 caps

13. Garry Ringrose (Leinster/UCD) 35 caps

12. Bundee Aki (Connacht/Galwegians) 32 caps

11. James Lowe (Leinster) 7 caps

10. Johnny Sexton (Leinster/St Mary’s College) 100 caps CAPTAIN

9. Jamison Gibson Park (Leinster) 11 caps

1. Andrew Porter (Leinster/UCD) 38 caps

2. Ronan Kelleher (Leinster/Lansdowne) 14 caps

3. Tadhg Furlong (Leinster/Clontarf) 50 caps

4. Iain Henderson (Ulster/Academy) 64 caps

5. James Ryan (Leinster/UCD) 38 caps

6. Caelan Doris (Leinster/St Mary’s College) 10 caps

7. Josh van der Flier (Leinster/UCD) 33 caps

8. Jack Conan (Leinster/Old Belvedere) 21 caps

Replacements 

16. Rob Herring (Ulster/Ballynahinch) 22 caps

17. Cian Healy (Leinster/Clontarf) 110 caps

18. Finlay Bealham (Connacht/Buccaneers) 17 caps

19. Tadhg Beirne (Munster/Lansdowne) 23 caps

20. Peter O’Mahony (Munster/Cork Constitution) 77 caps

21. Conor Murray (Munster/Garryowen) 90 caps

22. Joey Carbery (Munster/Clontarf) 25 caps

23. Keith Earls (Munster/Young Munster) 94 caps

Beirne was not the one I saw benching. Tough call.

But some player to bring on.

Letsfuckinggo!!!!!!

Tadhg Beirne's dropping is a bit of a baffling one.

But Faz made some questionable selections last week and got them all right.

We've three very good second rows so for Beirne himself it's harsh but I don't think it's a bad selection or anything, you could pick any 2 of the 3.

If we go behind, it is not a bench to chase the game. So we need to keep in touch with them no matter what imo.

This was the pack for the QF in 2019. There are four changes to it and I think the four are all improvements on what came before. Healy and Best are legends of Irish rugby, but neither were near their physical prime. Best especially was running on fumes by then. Doris is simply a better athlete than PoM. Conan and Stander is a closer one. In terms of physicality and athleticism they're pretty close with.CJ probably shading it. But Conan is the better footballer.

1. Cian Healy

2. Rory Best

3. Tadhg Furlong

4. Iain Henderson

5. James Ryan

6. Peter O’Mahony

7. Josh van der Flier

8. CJ Stander

VDF has hugely added to his game since then too. Our starting pack is certainly a lot better I think.

Nothing against Henderson's selection.

But Beirne is one of our best players and I'd say hes world class. I'd have him at 6.

We have three class second rows, it will horses for courses at times. Yes it is a tough call on Beirne, but equally it’s an tough call to leave Hendo out of any Irish starting 15. It is my first game back at Aviva on Saturday since Six Nations in 2020, as it will be for a lot of people. I hope we have a full house the following week also against Argentina. We can do this!

I think he was always likely to give way to Henderson, but personally I'd have moved him to six. Then that would be harsh on Doris...