Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

If someone told me in 2019, after we'd been humiliated by NZ in the quarter final, that Healy, POM, Murray, Sexton and Earls would all still be in the squad come the next world cup, I'd have laughed my ass off.

But it looks like that's exactly where we're headed.

i think people are forgetting how well earls has been playing recently and doesnt look like slowing down anytime soon either

if hes playing well age doesnt matter. if he were slowing down it would be a different story but somehow he doesnt look like hes losing any pace so his age is a moot point

Who cares if we win a test in N.Z? Really, the prize hast to be the 6nations and the world cup. Leave the old timers at home!

Schmidt won a match in S.A! He also won a series in Oz! He also looked clueless at the last world cup. Fat load of good those victories did in the end.

if you want to do well in a world cup then winning tests/test series in new Zealand a year out from the world cup is exactly what you want. So why pick a weakened squad If you want to best prepare for a world cup

Funny enough I thought defensively he's fallen off tackles easier, but I don't watch Munster every week. I don't think he brings the same sharpness in attack as our other younger options, and I think the way we are using our wingers right now favours Hansen, Lowe and maybe an on form Larmour rather than Earls and Baloucoune.

I think if Earls has anything going for him, it's that you can usually count on him to have his better performances in a big game. I don't think he's a bad player at all, I just think we have better options right now.

His try saving tackle was one for the books but I feel like he's been getting stood up more and his strength in the tackle isn't where it used to be. But if anything, the coaches seem to be fine with betting on player being and overall net positive rather than needing them to be at a certain level defensively. Lowe had on of the most shocking defensive displays for Ireland since..well probably since stockdale, and Hansen isn't the greatest either. But they've cut down on their glaring errors and their playmaking and threat on the gainline hopefully do more than enough to compensate.

Conway's been one of our better defensive wings imo and his finishing has been a strength recently. Seems to turn up for big games as well.

Larmour has been trending upwards after a series of injuries and I think he could work well in the role that Lowe and Hansen play so well for Ireland right now if he could get a proper run of games to develop. His playmaking isn't quite where it needs to be, but he's cut down on his indecisiveness and has shown he can challenge the line coming off the wing recently.

It's crazy to think that Stockdale may possibly miss out on the world cup! But with injuries, defensive lapses anything can happen.

I’d say Stockdale will get back to where he was, oddly enough his biggest barriers may be other ulster players.

I've no idea what to say about Munster. They've some good players who can perform well for Ireland, but playing so poorly that I don't know if they're worth bringing on tour to New Zealand. They've had issues for years about identifying when to use their backs and manipulating the play on order to get the best from them and that's still an issue. But their basic pass and catch skills have deteriorated alarmingly in the last few weeks. So many unenforced errors this evening and against Leinster a few weeks ago too.

Ultimately, I think they were let down by substandard coaching. Their performances stalled, skills went, then their discipline.

you could argue all of the provincial teams are overrated. i dont think munster have been rated for a while tbh, the optimism grew after the toulouse game but other than that theyre not really favourites for big games generally