Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Porter, Kelleher, Furlong...oh wait, you mean the ABs.

I think one the two LH will be Bower, I honestly haven't seen enough of the chiefs this season to comment on Ross or Ta'avao. The selection of Tu'inukuafe is terrible.

Hookers should be Taukei'aho who is probably the best front row forward in NZ at present, with one of Coles or Taylor

TH will be Laulala and Tuungafasi. (I don't rate Jager and I highly rate Newell who I think will be in the ABs team within 18 months)

Locks should be Whitelock, Barrett and Retallick, but once again I haven't seen enough of the Chiefs to really comment on Lord and Vaa'i

Loosies will be cane, savea, Ioane and papalii I would think.

Halves will be smith and fakatava, Barrett and probably Mounga, but Perofeta is having a fantastic season.

Midfield - the only certainly is 13 Ioane, I'm not sure who they will put at 12 but I would go with RTS or Tupaea.

Outside backs - Barrett will be at 15, Jordan (who is currently NZ back of the year albeit at fullback) at 14 and either reece or Clarke at 11.

The backs should be very dangerous, but I don't really rate the NZ tight forwards at present, outside of Taukei'aho. I'm thinking Ireland might sadly be a bit too tired (especially the Leinster continent) to really compete, but we see. If Ireland are to have any chance, they have to win the first test. TBH, I'm not currently seeing either NZ or Ireland winning RWC 2023, really don't think Ireland have found an alternative to Sexton, who is nearing the end.

interesting, i was wondering should they have just let them score with time on the clock, vaguely remember the patriots doing something similar in a super bowl a few years ago. didnt work out for them though i think

pure scutter

the physicality thing has become popular due to half the sports journos in ireland not having a notion about rugby and most likely have never played the game. as ive said elsewhere, leinster lost the final because barnes refused to give any cards despite repeated infringements

this is coming from a staunch munster fan who wanted to see o gara and donncha ryan winning silverware, but in all honesty leinster were fairly robbed. i didnt see too much of the bulls game but it looked like there were some very dodgy calls in that game too

its all relative though.

in terms of the previous results ireland have had in NZ, one win would be huge

in terms of challenging for the RWC, a series win would be needed realistically

We could win the series 3-0 and people would still complain that we're peaking too early.

Go hell for leather in the first test, starting Sexton, and try get a win on NZ soil.

Then regardless of that result, Joey gets the second test and someone else (I'm increasingly thinking it should be Burns) gets the third. Johnny benching for both.

If that means eating a 3-0 lost series, I genuinely don't care. Other people, I am sure, will think differently to me.

Really hope we see Coombes feature prominently too.

I would half agree, that we need to move on from Sexton, but I suppose it’s rare enough to tour NZ, I’d prefer to see the best possibly team selected, and not worry too much about the World Cup 15 months away. If there’s a close call then fair enough choose the option more likely to be in the World Cup squad, but if Sexton for example is still comfortably the best option then I’d start him for all three. If Bur a or Carbery outperform him in training then that’s a different proposition. I like Burns, I think he could be the one to step into the 10 shirt for the next year or so at least.

If being helpful is the bar, then we're both in trouble.

We can lose 3-0 and still bring some positives home.

And by position which is handy. It's a very large squad so I'm not sure who/what I should be outraged about yet. I'm sure there's something.

Ben Healy hard done by to be honest

I'd say Billy Burns would have bigger complaints. Either way, the third 10 jersey wasn't exactly won by anybody.

Should have been Sexton, Burns and Healy

Yeah because our chances at a RWC 15 months away all hinges on who our substitute loosehead prop is...

Well then stop whinging about size and power.