Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Brewster · 05-02-2022 10:40pm

If Doak continues to progress on his current trajectory, he will be taking over the Irish 9 jersey sooner rather than later. Casey, although a great prospect too, doesn’t have the same physical attributes as Doak.

jimdemp · 05-02-2022 10:41pm

Lowe and Stockdale have some fight on their hands to get a seat to NZ as back up for Hanson

Dubinusa · 05-02-2022 10:44pm

Up and down effort today. Wales were gash. Next week will be a good yardstick.

Pack was really busy and on top. Porter is a monster. Serious player. Aki was very good. He's certainly all in, every match he plays!

Sexton was poor off the tee! It's been a while since he's missed this many.

ersatz · 05-02-2022 10:49pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118588047#Comment_118588047

Thought the forwards had a great game, the backs weren't bad but the conditions weren't great for them. Still though, Sexton was good and Conway took his first try extremely well, he had a lot to do when he took the pass on one knee and finished superbly. Ringrose is just so solid in defense and with the ball, I sometimes feel he is very predictable for defenses as he always cuts back in and rarely passes but he is proved right far more often than I am. And how many great wingers have we right now. Amazing how things turn out, no-one knew Hansen's name 3 months ago and though his mom was dubious he still looked very comfortable on out there. One difference between him and Balacoune is how much he pops up in midfield, Balacoune stuck to the wing in Nov. Hansen's pass for Aki was so quick and intuitive, great to see.

molloyjh · 05-02-2022 11:06pm

There’s this idea that Ringrose rarely passes and I’m not sure where it comes from. He passed 10 times today. Once less that all 4 starting centres in Scotland-England combined. The only centre who passed more than him today over both games was Aki who passed a huge 15 times. For context, Russell passed 16 times, Smith passed 15 times (Ford passed twice when he came in).

sydthebeat · 05-02-2022 11:12pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118588560#Comment_118588560

Yeah it comes from the fact that he's always so involved on secind phase after bundee has crashed up. We're left usually with two on two where it's pointless passing to the wing just to follow the pass and set up a ruck wider out.

Point of example, his try today. He could have easily passed to Conway as Williams was expecting, but took the right decision to his the soft shoulder.

Ringrose invariably breaks the gain line in his carries, so it is worth doing 8 times out of 10.

And as molloy shows above, when the pass is on, its on, and he throws it.

Strand1970 · 05-02-2022 11:39pm

Question on today's performance do you play henshaw next week if fit? Tough call

molloyjh · 05-02-2022 11:48pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118588733#Comment_118588733

I don’t think so. It’s very tough on him given his quality, but he hasn’t shown the ability to create the way that Aki has. Unless he’s ripping it up in training we stick with what works next week.

06-02-2022 12:08am

Henshaw comes back in to be honest, not as destructive as Aki but has a better all around game. That said the gap is narrower than it's ever been - Aki took on plenty of crash ball but his distribution has improved the last 18 months.

Pass of the day a toss up between Gibson Parks for the Conway try (a try that Ireland have had the opportunity to score countless times before but never seem to the on pitch awareness to skip pass from the base) and Keenan's around the back offload.

Porter motm for me - carried and tackled powerfully, was on top in the scrum and got or assisted a number of turnovers. Sexton the most impactful player in terms of Ireland's performance - his age is inconsequential if he keeps playing like this.

VDF Ringrose next two in line for me - VDF is in terrific form and Ringrose whilst not as consistent put in another excellent performance (thought he was terrific against the All Blacks) and is first choice centre for me, albeit we've never had better depth with Hume right there too.

Hansen deserves a lot of credit on his first cap, but I thought Conway was the better of the wingers. Keenen had some good involvements and coordinated the back three well.

Will be watching France with interest tomorrow but ultimately I don't think that game has much relevance as far as next week is concerned, France will win by a margin no matter how sloppy they choose to be. They'll will be a different proposition entirely in Paris and have both a better pack and a much stronger counter attack than Wales. We will have to tidy up a lot on today and be better than we were in November against the All Blacks to win and I'm not sure if we've that much headroom to work with.

I think we could have a 90% game and France despite falling a good deal short of that standard would still clinch it. Either way we'll need our best performance under Farrell to be in with a chance.

ersatz · 06-02-2022 12:13am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118588593#Comment_118588593

Yeah, I agree with this. It's because when he decide to come back in he does it early and he uses an excellent step to cut back sharply most often getting over the gain line. But is he making more ground than the winger cutting back in might? That depends on lot of factors we sometimes can't even see on TV so I'm not sure we know, but it does narrow the field meaning we get another phase towards the same touchline, or we go back towards midfield. So yes it makes sense but I don't think it's always the right decision, even if it's not a bad decision. I'm not sure it's always pointless to set up a ruck wider out.

Dubinusa · 06-02-2022 12:19am

VDF is playing scintillating rugby. He's a pleasure to watch.

Today was strange in that, usually we see Furlong and Kelliher get on the ball more and today both were quiet in that facet.

The fact nobody picked up an injury is brilliant. I expect to see Ringrose or Ryan or even Doris laid out and injured. Thought Ryan and Beirne were solid and efficient.

Did Hume play on the wing? Or did Keenan go out to wing? I don't think Ringrose did!

jimdemp · 06-02-2022 12:24am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118588791#Comment_118588791

I agree. Henshaw cant spray the ball around like Aki so Ireland would lose too much in the playmaking role. Henshaw could come in for Ringrose to add physicality and a better defence against the bigger team.

blackcard · 06-02-2022 12:24am

We are fortunate in a number of positions where an injury to a player does not mean a big drop off in quality when a replacement comes in. Sheehan,Henderson, Henshaw, Lowe, Balacoune are solid. It would be great if we could add Doak, Hume, Lowry to that list over the next year. Baird and Coombes maybe. Any others over the next year?

Dubinusa · 06-02-2022 12:30am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118588926#Comment_118588926

Maybe Prendergast, looks a serious player. The summer tour could be an opportunity to bring in some fresh blood! Doak, Prendergast and Lowry.

bilston · 06-02-2022 12:43am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118588909#Comment_118588909

Ringrose did go on the wing

bilston · 06-02-2022 12:45am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118588942#Comment_118588942

I saw Prendergast in the flesh for the first time last night. He looks an international in the making.

techdiver · 06-02-2022 9:06am

Just a note about the digital ticket stored in Google pay. There were loads of people, myself included, that had issues getting through the turnstiles because the scanner pocket at the gates isn't deep enough for large phones. This lead to massive congestion before the game and they had to open extra manned doors to deal with this.

They'll have to redesign these tickets or install deeper slots at the gates of using phones is to become to norm.

techdiver · 06-02-2022 9:06am

TRC10 · 06-02-2022 10:02am

Conor Murray I thought looked very sharp when he came on. He's been in some decent form for Munster of late too. Looks like he's having a bit of a renaissance........a Murrayssance, if you will.

I'll get my coat

OneLungDavy · 06-02-2022 11:38am

With Josh Adams, George North and Elliot Daly all recently moving to center, it got me thinking - when was the last time Ireland strategically moved a back three player to center? D'arcy?

sydthebeat · 06-02-2022 11:38am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118589720#Comment_118589720

Erhhhh

Earls?

stephen_n · 06-02-2022 11:43am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118589722#Comment_118589722

I assume he meant successfully. :)

Mostly those moves are made out of necessity. We certainly don’t need to at the moment.

nerd69 · 06-02-2022 11:44am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118589731#Comment_118589731

Why would he mention josh Adams then

Larmor has played at center albeit in a pinch

irelandrover · 06-02-2022 11:45am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118589720#Comment_118589720

When was the last time they needed to? They are very well stacked at centre.

stephen_n · 06-02-2022 11:47am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118589733#Comment_118589733

I was joking, have edited to add a smiley face now to make that more obvious.

Larmour has only moved three as a sub though. I don’t think we would be starting him there. Was interesting to see that work the other way around yesterday.

clsmooth · 06-02-2022 11:58am

Murray made a couple of nice half breaks which was good to see. Thought he threw a couple of poor passes though including the one leading to Wales try.

Bogwoppit · 06-02-2022 12:07pm

Jared Payne was a fairly successful move.

Dubinusa · 06-02-2022 12:28pm

Furlong will be our greatest ever center... or wing, when he's bored playing front row!

Bogwoppit · 06-02-2022 12:36pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118589880#Comment_118589880

He’s an out and out 10, Johnny’s natural replacement.

ShineyShiney · 06-02-2022 1:05pm

Not sure I'd agree, I'll watch it back but I was frustrated with him during the game. Two nice half breaks alright but passing and speed to the ruck I thought were poor.

Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

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