Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

You might have peaked a little early.

Connacht will probably at the very least have a look at him at 10. They have Aki and Tom Daly for 12.

except they didnt

thats the same tired rubbish that gets thrown at RB again and again. i will grant that he was poor in the h cup final but sexton was starting to make a few mistakes before he came off also

if ye want to do a swap for him and take carbery back id bite your arm off tbh

i dont necessarily think hes the answer either, but i think he gets a massive amount of unfair flak from people who dont really know what theyre talking about.

i stand by what i said about him being the second best 10 available atm though. taking sexton out of the equation for a second, the only real options are the 'starting' (i.e european and big games) 10s for the four provinces and RB is the best of them. carbery is too hot and cold, while his defense seems to have suffered since his last long term injury. burns is fine but he doesnt suit the way ireland are playing currently, the fact that he isnt ulsters goalkicker is hampering him massively too. carty is probably the closest competitor and has been playing well recently but he can be inconsistent unfortunately, plus he also seems to be unfairly blamed for the rwc game against japan, despite playing quite well and hometown ref decisions being much more of a factor than how he played

almost by default ross byrne is the best option. hes consistent, a great goalkicker, good defender, familiar with the leinster/ireland system and while hes not at the level of someone like carbery, his attack game is much better than some commenters believe. hes not a sextons level obviously, but none of the options are anywhere near that so we have to kinda just make do

i cant consider any of the other 10s playing in ireland as realistic options atm as they simply arent playing enough big games at 10 for their provinces. the continued selection of harry byrne in the irish squad is baffling to me when he barely plays for leinster. he and frawley potentially have higher ceilings, but until they overtake RB at leinster i dont personally think they can be genuine options.

for me, i think ben healy (or even jack crowley) should be the 2nd/3rd 10 in the irish squad as he offers the most all round, but the insistence on playing carbery at 10 when hes not injured is hampering his/their development

seeing as the other 3 provinces have their 10s as their regular goalkickers the problem remain either way that unless it was an ulster halfback pairing, the goalkicker wouldnt be a regular club goalkicker. having said that, ringrose is a seriously good one from what ive seen

+1. i personally think if ireland can add a little bit more expanded kicking game to the current gameplan then they have almost too many options to defend

and yet neither of them can oust one of these so called 'stop gaps' at provincial level, so what does that say about how good they are?

(theyre both great players, but the idea that they have infinitely more potential than RB is rubbish)

What does it say? Well, it tells me that the Ireland coach has to select more for athleticism, because the standard of opposition is higher than that faced by the provinces.

These sorts of situations aren't all that uncommon. There was a period of probably some months in 2017 (?) when Porter was getting selected for Ireland ahead of Bent even though the pecking order was reversed for Leinster. Similarly, there was a brief period when James Ryan was behind Ross Molony at Leinster, but ahead of him for Ireland. It's the same story with Baird and Molony at the moment, and possibly with McCarthy and Molony.

"because the standard of opposition is higher than that faced by the provinces. - that doesnt make any sense, if a player is good enough to play international standard then why wouldnt they be picked to play at a (perceived) lower standard?"

Because 'steady Eddies', for want of a better term, are more likely to be good enough at provincial level. Such a player could be ahead because he's a bit older, and there's less incentive to change things up if the coaches feel a Molony or a Ross Byrne could be good enough to get Leinster over the line in the big games. If the level of competition is higher, i.e. international level, then the person charged with selecting the team is more likely to bypass the players who probably won't be good enough and instead select players judged to have a higher ceiling.

thats nonsensical, a coach would never select a team to 'get over the line', in europe anyway (save for the rare occasion where a win etc, would make no difference to standings. or if its a french team coach but theyre a different story). the best players are picked its fairly straightforward

pace i might agree although id argue carbery is the only one that has outright pace. crowley too but hes not part of the conversation yet

dont think i agree about his ball handling skills