Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

He wasn’t making a point beyond saying British Lions for the 523rd time.

Put in one very good shot this evening and forced a knock on when Saints were looking threatening.

Didn't put a foot wrong in Clermont last week either.

Hume is Ireland's 2nd best 13 behind Henshaw

People will say "oh he's only had a couple of good games" but that's not the case. He's been excellent for all of this season and last season and the tail end of the season before. He's played blinders against Leinster and Clermont.

I think he's absolute class.

Hume will just have to keep grafting and wait for his opportunity to come and when it does he needs to take it with both hands. Right now even making the bench should be enough as he'll get enough time in each game to make impact.

Hume will get his chance if he continues to play well. If Farrell has shown us anything, it's that he's not afraid to dump established guys.

However, Ringrose is also playing very well and Henshaw is undroppable on current form, so he may have to wait.

I think you're underrating Aki big time there.

He's our best 12 IMO

He's not nailed on, he's fighting for a jersey and it'll be a close call.

I’ve been saying this since before the Autumn Nations Cup but Hume is a far more similar player to Ringrose than either Aki or Henshaw are. And Aki and Henshaw are more similar to each other. So for me we should be looking at Aki and Henshaw as our 12s with Ringrose and Hume as our 13s. Farrell should be telling them what he needs to see from them and basically say “the position is open to whoever shows me they’re best suited to it”.

As it stands for me, it’s Aki-Ringrose. Aki showed some truly excellent elements to his game, particularly his passing as alooof mentioned. Henshaw hasn’t had much game time and looks from what little we’ve seen to be in good form, but he hasn’t shown the range in his game that Aki has. In no small part because he hasn’t had the time.

At 13 Ringrose has been playing well and performing really well for Ireland. He’s still the number 1 there. But he needs to be aware that Hume is a live option too so needs to keep that up. Hume needs to know that if he shows he’s a better option in training than Ringrose then he can expect to get selected.

Strong disagree from me.

Henshaw does a good job at 12 because he's a top quality player. But Aki plays that role more effectively IMO. It's no coincidence that our 2 best performances of the Farrell era have had Aki at 12.

Henshaw is a very good defender but Aki is more dominant in the collision, which is more suited to the 12 channel. Henshaw is strong in contact but his main strength is his defensive reads as we saw in the England game.

In attack, I also think you get way more from Henshaw in the wider channel where he has more time and space to utilise his footwork, kicking and distribution, with someone like Aki inside him to do the heavy lifting. Henshaw can do this role but IMO it's a waste of one of our best players. Aki is also more effective at carrying in heavy traffic and winning collisions. He's also got a really strong distribution game, his passing is underrated and his offloading is top tier.

So in short, I think Aki is our best 12 and Henshaw our best 13. Which makes the midfield selection fairly straightforward if everyone is fit. If Aki is injured then I would move Henshaw to 12 but if Aki is fit I'd always have him at 12.

Henshaw, Am, De Allende and Kerevi

Top 4

Those 5 would be the top 5 in the world for me.

I actually forgot about the French for some reason.

You'd have to have Fickou and Vakatawa up there anyway