Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Except this issue seems to happen who ever the coach is.

The gameplan is improving the issue is the players are soft, the players need to either toughen up or be given their marching orders in he hopes that this sends the message across like for instance Wales & NZL did with their props in 2019.

It varies but at the moment I would say Ryan & Doris, both soft as piss at the moment but seem to be undroppable, Ryan is lucky there is an injury & experience issue in the team otherwise I would be calling for his head, Doris should be dropped and replaced at least with Conan in the starting XV. in the backs Ringrose, Earls. Aki has played well since the tour started and should be rewarded and someone like Larmour who while had issues against the Maori showed his willingness going forward but was handicapped by the players around him in defence which ofcourwe in a typical irish selection the decision was based on that part of his game rather than the potential upside in selecting someone like Larmour. If I am honest its hard to get my head around the selection right now as its the end of the season, ill have a much better idea come the autumn, right now even dropping 1 or 2 under performers would help as it would get the message across.

It does hold up and we appear to being doing little to resolve the issue.

Afew results here or there doesn't change what ive said, we were absolutely appauling in 2019 and got to 1st in the world, that should tell you that this suggestion is nonsense.

And if you look at this England win it papered over a-lot of cracks, we were sleeping walking to a defeat in that game despite having an extra man for nearly 80 minutes and we can count ourselves lucky England ran our of steam. We slept walked in similar fashion against the French and made countless errors that were also made this weekend in Auckland and against England 4 weeks later. Also im sick the notion of running a team close, a defeat is a defeat.

And with all due respect, we are the last country that should be suggesting what works at a RWC, in-fact whatever an Irish "expert" says we need for a RWC another country should do the exact opposite.

RWC 2011 - The norm

RWC 2015 - Yes decimated by injuries but ultimately out coached and wrong gameplan because we never had a gameplan once our best players were injured.

RWC 2019 - A nice way of saying we had no gameplan. We were an embarrassment in this game.

They have, thats not the point, they continue to go into RWC unprepared.

No, get our **** together and prepare for a RWC properly, stop with the loser mentality going into a rugby World Cup and go into it leaving no stone unturned.

Do you get much joy out of watching the game so? It's not a loser mentality for fans to just enjoy the game win lose or draw and not over analyse the game.

Believe it or not, what you write on boards.ie is as useful as a chocolate teapot. You can rip into the coaches all you want, it's like a fart in the wind.

About a million posts and Shehal still hasn't actually told us what Farrell should be doing

Everything you said there is the definition of an excuse, because we are falling short in so many area's that it really not that difficult to pick holes in an argument. Its all mental softness because if these reasons were true then the likes of Wales wouldn't put us to shame so often at the RWC.

Ofcourse they are unproven because they have never got a chance to prove themselves, how can they prove themselves when they dont play? We'd be saying the same thing about Ntamack in 2019 and Arundell this year if we were in France & England's shoes. We just "test" our young players against meaningless opposition that doesnt actually test them and they learn nothing come the RWC. Who have those 3 players been tested against.

Lol I cant believe someone is using the NPC as a serious defence of that point... just busted you're credibility in point comment, good day.

Hahahaha

So it is your job to spend hours ranting and raving on the internet, calling people "losers" and "soft", telling them to "get their sh*t together" and "stop making excuses", because you have no issue doing that.

But your job doesn't extend to being constructive and offering actual solutions to these problems you've so passionately outlined. Brilliant!

...

Nope.

Like I just said, if you stop being a patronising little **** you'll see my suggestions in my various comments.

The best based on what, form or reputation? Important difference.

Also, just spotted the team you posted you’d select for the second test,

But that has hardly any changes in it.

You left Ryan though you posted he was too soft, and you swapped Doris to the bench despite you asserting that he was soft too.

The only other changes were Aki for Ringrose, who you said needs to be dropped to give him a kick in the ass.

Herring for Heffernan, and Baird for Treadwell.

That’s a very small amount of changes, which doesn’t tally with all the stuff you’ve been posting about needing to drop players etc.

Funny enough, that’s pretty much the 23 I’d pick, except maybe I’d bring in Coombes for Doris and Hansen for Lowe.

Your post

”My team

1 Porter

2 Sheehan

3 Furlong

4 Beirne

5 Ryan

6 O'Mahony

7 VDF

8 Conan

9 JGP

10 Sexton

11 Lowe

12 Aki

13 Henshaw

14 Larmour

15 Keenan

16 Herring 17 Healy 18 O'Toole 19 Baird 20 Doris 21 Murray 22 Carbery 23 Ringrose”

Maybe based on the knowledge we have of these players at this level which isnt much considering we dont exactly tend to tinker much against decent teams then acted surprised at our lack of depth at RWC's...

Not surprised but I can possibly see the argument, maybe letting the players who let us down last week have a chance to write the wrongs, I don't agree totally as quite a few need a kick up the ass that might only come from being dropped.

Also Hansen has been unavailable for both games, we don't know what would have happened if both were fit, for all we know Hansen would have played last week if it wasn't for Covid, its the right decision in any sense as to beat NZL you need to go for it rather than play it safe even if it means we risk copping a bigger defeat if things go wrong.

Bealham is preferred but I think its also a mistake, I feel one area (which Bernard Jackman highlighted from the France defeat) we struggle with is the selection of our bench, it feels we pick our bench to close out a game rather than bring impact (I feel if NZL had our squad for instance they would play Baird & O'Toole as they would bring more potential to change a game if needed). Bealham is good dont get me wrong but I doubt he's going to change a game if he comes on.

The only conclusion I can see is the XV that played last week is being given a 2nd chance because otherwise there isnt much justification for some of the selections on the back of last week. One thing it has to be said is last week what cost us on the scoreboard were unforced errors and poor communication so its questionable weather completely changing the XV would resolve these issues so maybe in this particular context this selection possibly isnt the worst decision in the world.

I personally think the size argument is a cop out, its an Irish thing to worry about size but in reality if the technique isnt there its the size is irrelevant, the size argument is thrown out there when we lack confidence because a confident Irish side wouldn't care about the size of their opposition like last autumn for instance. The argument about Dunedin is spot on though, not sure about cheering who ever is playing well but Eden Park is notoriously intimidating especially when things arent going well for you, the Wespact stadium and Dunedin stadium dont hold the same fear.