Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

the best players are picked its fairly straightforward

Apart from the grand conspiracy to keep Joey Carbery in both the Munster and Ireland squads, obviously.

Wow, you must think an awful lot of your rugby IQ. it's a good thing us clueless folk have such a high level rugby brain like yourself to tell us how the game works.

I actually played out half at a relatively decent level. So while I don't claim to know everything about rugby (and certainly not enough to tell others they "don't know what they're talking about"), I do know a thing or two about the position.

He's consistently average and consistently shows the same flaws in his game season after season. Nobody is saying he has to be Barrett or Ntamack in terms of athleticism. Owen Farrell, George Ford, even Sexton aren't freak athletes, but they take the ball to the line. Ross Byrne doesn't. This is what you get from Ross Byrne (taken from the last game he played substantial minutes for Ireland).

In both shots there's space wide to be attacked, but Byrne absolutely kills the attacl by taking the ball too deep, static and shovelling it way behind the gainline, without fixing any defender. He's an attack killer and an international defence's wet dream. And it's the exact same for Leinster, only his forward pack is usually too dominant for it to matter because he plays all the URC games.

I played a bit of rugby too you know

I think one factor that can't be ignored is that the spot that's up for grabs for Ireland is 3rd-choice outhalf, whereas at Leinster it's 2nd choice - behind Sexton. Second choice gets a lot more gametime, so selectors are more likely to go for a guy who's a bit more established. They can afford to give a bit more weighting to potential when it comes to selecting 3rd choices, maybe something like picking who they think will be better in a season's time. How much will Ireland's third choice outhalf realistically be called upon? Harry Byrne played against Argentina last Autumn, he probably would have been #22 against France in the 6N with Sexton out if he'd been fit, and he probably would have played versus the Maori if he hadn't been injured.

Or maybe Farrell just thinks Harry is a better option than Ross at international level.

Or maybe it's some combination of the two factors above.

Sounds like you think a lot of your rugby IQ, now here’s a long rambling essay prooving why mine is superior to yours.

I used an example from his last game for Ireland, because we're talking about him playing for Ireland. He was also 26 then, so it's not like he was a raw youngster. And he hasn't really improved at all since then, so there's no reason to think it would be different if he was to play for Ireland now.

Ireland's game plan doesn't require anything revolutionary from it's out half. Taking the ball to the gain line is bread and butter for a 10. If you need to "adapt" to do that, then you already have a problem.

It wasn't.

Ross Byrne has tried to develop his game and attack the line a bit more in the last 2 years. And he looks like a guy who is doing something that doesn’t come second nature to him. It just isn’t who he is and it isn’t something he’s very good at.

He’s been an excellent player for Leinster overall, delivering some big performances in some pretty big games. But at the top end of the pro game his weaknesses are glaring. Like a scrum half with a dodgy pass or a winger with defensive issues, he just can’t get away with those weaknesses at test level. He even struggles at top end European level.

I’m not sure what about that is in any way news. That’s who he’s been for years.

I think we have test level outhalves. What we don’t have are world class outhalves like the one we are trying to replace. We may never have another Sexton again.

I would agree! He wouldn't be on a top level sides radar.

That's debatable!

Any analysis of Ireland's back up options at fly half must be couched in recognition that Jonny Sexton is now Ireland's greatest ever rugby player.

Nobody has ever exerted so much influence on the team, or demanded such exacting standards. Sexton is a once in a lifetime player for Ireland and I think it's a little bit unfair to judge any other option against him. At 37 years old he was our best player in the New Zealand series. That's just freakish. I think he has far outstripped Johnny Wilkinson as the greatest Northern Hemisphere 10. But the latter gets better press as he won a World Cup. He was in the wilderness for years until he won a few Europeans Cups near the end of his career with Toulon. And he was nowhere near their best player at that time either. Sexton has been far better as an individual.

That's not to absolve the other Irish 10's of their faults either. I though Carbery had an awful tour and did nothing to advance his claim as Sexton's successor. But we need to realize that there probably won't be another 10 of Sexton's ilk for a long time.

I don't really agree with this. We didn't have to have this discussion over Ringrose because he's not as good as BOD - he's still a top class international 13. If Carbery was to Sexton what Ringrose is to BOD then we'd be fine, but he isn't and none of the other options are either.

I think you've proved his point tbh.