Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Carberry is awful! I hope Ben Healy gets a chance to tour. He could not be as poor as Carberry,no matter how hard he tries!

hmmm, nope

Are we just really poor in Ireland at developing 10s?

Ross Byrne, Carbery, Hanrahan were all big prospects coming out of 20s, but none of them have kicked on to become international standard 10s. Is the problem with the system and how they are being coached/developed?

I think our best chance of finding another test quality 10 before next year is unearthing another Mack Hansen from somewhere.

I do find it odd that Ringrose has never even been tried on the wing for Ireland. Like, not even for a game. Especially when you consider how much Farrell values ball-players all across the backline. You look at the success France have had with Penaud (who was a 13 the whole way up) being moved to the wing and now being one of the top wingers in the world, and he'd have been a similar enough 13 to Ringrose. Fickou as well on occasion has done brilliantly on the wing. Eddie Jones has had great success using Joseph and Daly on the wing (both of whom started off as 13s). Even Tuilagi has been used there.

I know we have many excellent wingers. But Hume just keeps knocking on the door and it won't be long until he's putting serious pressure on for that 13 shirt. If he isn't already.

We have an issue at 10 alright, I think Munster need to bite the bullet next season and give Healy or Flannery the shirt, Joey is not the answer.

Healy for me can be a class operator. He must sit on the sidelines and think to himself," how is this guy starting".

We are truly fecked with Carbery.

Yep. He got almost the entire second half last night and showed absolutely nothing (as part of a poor team performance, of course).

I don't see any way he's going to NZ

Presume you mean Healy or Crowley - Flannery is going to Ulster next season.

If we can beat NZL in NZL that will be more history for this group of players and will give them more confidence for the RWC. Going out to win in SA & Oz wasn't what screwed Schmidt, it was the lack of adaptability when the going got tough in 2019 which would have happened regardless of who we sent to SA or Oz those years.

The big issue for VG is he rarely ever over achieved with Munster, he would most of the time what you would expect him to do and no more, you'd never see him do what Ulster did in Toulouse for instance.

The biggest positive of this season is its now over and hopefully Munster can now move forward hopefully.

Balouocoune coming onto the wing is the next stage in the evolution of Ireland's backline IMO. We have lots of good ball players, but no out-and-out strike runners who will genuinely frighten defences. That's not to say Baloucoune isn't a good footballer, because he absolutely is. We saw his vision and awareness to link up after making a break to set up to Moore's first try yesterday. He's got a great offload game too. And he's a phenomenal defender as he's shown throughout this season in big games.

He's a test quality player. It's just whether Farrell wants to use him. If it were me, I'm starting Lowe and Baloucoune, no questions.

Baloucoune gets the same opportunity as everyone else. He'll be in the squad for NZ, same as he was in the squad for the 6N, then it's up to him to press his case.

The idea that he's not being picked because Farrell is conservative is blown to pieces by the fact that Hansen was picked ahead of him.

What do mean "coming on in defence"? He's been a first-rate defender since his first Ulster cap.

Jordan Larmour must now be a shoo in for the tour, provided he doesn't pick up an injury. He was playing well before his injury back in February and since returning he has been the best player on the pitch in his last two starts.

His footwork and step is as good as ever, but he's back to hitting the line at speed and bursting through small gaps in defence. He wasn't doing that often enough last season.