Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Is there a match thread yet so that we can discuss rugby?

Why even bother!You dislike homegrown players? I'd prefer any Irish player to Mack Hansen! But, he's eligible and he is deserving of the opportunity.

It appears you would like a rainbow coalition on the team. A few from here or there, or maybe 15 IQ'd due to using the shitter at the airport.

I see you're not a bigot! Good job! Now go wax your ferrets and congratulate yourself. Your inclusive personality is refreshing!

Most used headline tomorrow?

"Big Mack attack" (after he scores a hat trick today)

Excited to see Ireland vs wales parting in the opening match of Guiness Six Nation Championship 2022

Unrelated but related question. Do the pubs in Ballsbridge etc still only open at 12? A lot of their Facebook pages seem to indicate so or is that just old information from covid times?

Despite the great win I still would prefer Cooney and Doak as our scrum halves. I'm no fan of Ulster btw, it's not often I want to see them win a game but those two guys always look so impressive and much better than anybody from the other three provinces imo.

Decentish performance from Ireland. We raised our level for the first 20 of each half and Wales couldn't live with it at all. We won the collisions when carrying and contained the Welsh attack rather comfortably when we had to. Porter, Ringrose, Aki and Sexton were the standouts for me.

Our 10/12/13 axis targeted Adams at outside centre and he really struggled in defence. Think there were at least two occasions where he was so befuddled by our attacking patterns that he did full 360 degree spins as be didn't know what shoulder the next carrier would be hitting.

We weren't brilliant. We did what we had to do and the final twenty minutes were more about minding ourselves for next week. We'll need to raise our level for France away, but I think we can do it.

VDF did really well to catch that, we’ve all had that ball too far in front that we ended up juggling.

I think as Irish people we tend to talk ourselves down, but Horgan and Kearney are making the point that our pack is the most skilled in world rugby right now. I agree with them. We know how athletic they are, but their passing ability and decision making sets them apart.

From 1-8 we have the players to act as link men and play passes out the back to runners. It sucks in so many defenders and causes mismatches and opens gaps in the opposition defence.

Risk and reward. Players running onto the ball at pace into space.

Bonus point win is a great way to start. Weather was crap but we still managed to play decent rugby. A lot of big performances and defense was great. Pack was well on top and provided clean ball all match. Great debut for Hansen, got given a chance and took it. Aki and Ringrose caused havoc as well.

Thought bench didn't add a lot, not much impact against a beaten Welsh team. Sheehan was the busiest with 7 tackles and made decent meters in his carries. Baird and POM are down for not making a tackle, they didn't have much joy ball in hand either(POM did get a nice turnover though). Think Henderson will come in for Baird, might be worth looking at Coombes for impact but can't see them dropping POM.

Be ask to win in France but our defense is quality at the moment and can see us taking it

Thought we were good and played the conditions well. Spring day and I think we would have put 50 on them. Lots to improve on too and I think we will see a big improvement next week.

Porter is an animal of a man. I don't think he's fully adjusted to the change in position at scrum time yet but he's still holding his own. In the loose he's a freak.

That is a poor Welsh team. Granted they are missing a host of front liners but I think they were blessed last year too. I reckon Pivac is going to find himself in trouble soon. I'm not sure he gets to the world cup.

Yes, I don't like Ulster.