Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Very Kearneyesque then.

It's Abuse Toilets that's suggesting it, he has history in this.

I must say, watching him, he didn’t strike me as that slow. Maybe in comparison to Balacoune. Though not in general terms for Irish wingers. I will keep an eye on that next time I see him play.

Don't know what more Marmion has to do to be selected... He has shown Casey is clearly not up to it yet, he would be better having actual game s back in Munster...

History in recognizing that Murray isn't one of the 3 best SHs in the country? Damning indictment there

Both Casey and Doak have been out played in the last few months by Marmion... Clearly out played...

I just don't understand playing a SH who will clearly at his prime age wise during the next RWC...

Sorry you earn your place on the Irish team... Whats the point of having Irish Team manager when we can select them using brith certs...

By the way Blade has out played then too and he two years younger..

Sorry but this was the same crap used on Cooney when he was clearly good enough... Barrier for his entry onto the Irish team is much higher than others...

So we are going into ^N with one Scrum Half (Murray) who is undroppable no how bad he plays, a player(JGP) playing better than him but not hard (and plays less and less against other Irish teams) and a young player not up to it...

Cooney was ignored before and now Marmion is getting the same treatment... It seem to no matter how you play now, it is all about what is going on in the managers head... Luke McGrath proved that in the autumn season...

Thing is with Ulster, Cooney is the heartbeat. He takes the kicking duties and is the driving force and is a leader. With Ireland, that's not needed. Sexton is the driving force.

While I believe Cooney is deserving of inclusion and should have been selected more in the past, perhaps the coaching team think he doesn't fit with Sexton! Murray on the other hand, is established and has a long history alongside Sexton. Even if he's not as good as Cooney, my opinion.

Somehow, Murray is deemed undroppable and will probably be so for the foreseeable future.

On another note, I think Kilcoyne is a better option to back up Porter than Healy. To me, Healy looks labored and slow and has lost his power and explosiveness.

Gibson-Park is clearly no.1 and rightly so. Farrell was vindicated in selecting him because he was outstanding in the Autumn and one of our most important players.

Murray has been in ok form of late. He frustrated me in the Argentina game because he slowed things down a lot when we were looking to play a high tempo game. But him being on the bench makes sense as he's a very different 9 to JGP and he is good for closing out a game. If you don't want to change things, just leave JGP on.

JGP and Murray are 1 and 2 and I've no issues with that.

The 3rd scrum half isn't going to be in the 23 barring injury, so Farrell can make his selection with one eye on the World Cup here and I think that's good. Having Casey there as 3rd choice made perfect sense IMO, I'm a huge fan of his and I think a lot of the stick he gets is from people looking at Doak and getting shiny new toy syndrome.

Having said that, I'd like to see Doak brought in for this 6N. And maybe given a run off the bench v Italy. He came straight from u20s into the Ulster team and hasn't looked one bit out of place. There's not many scrum halves who at 20, could start away in Europe to a good English side and take the game by the scruff of the neck like he did. He has world class potential. And he needs the experience with the World Cup edging closer. That doesn't mean Casey is out of the picture though.

I wouldn't be suprised to see both Healy and Kilkoyne get 3 and 2 starts on the bench respectively.

Personally I belive Healy remains a better option off the bench than Kilkoyne but each to their own. Kilkoyne reminds me of stander running into contact with the ball.. all bluster and limited finesse..

Healy is also still a better scrummager.

There is a reason why one player is the 4th most capped player for ireland ever and the other only got his 2nd 6nations start for ireland last year.

Surprised that no one has mentioned Conor O Brien?

Aren't you very clever...

whut

Hadn't realised before today that squad is out tomorrow. Isn't it usually after the last round of fixtures in the Champions Cup?