Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Because Hansen has had the better performances this season to my mind.

Stockdale and Zebo offer a left boot like Lowe's.

I am truly shocked that you aren’t able to substantiate that I must say. Shocked to my core.

Stockdale is too weak defensively to get back in for me.

It's passive aggressive posts like this that have turned this place into a graveyard. Lowe was poor in the second test against NZ. His performances so far for Ireland have been inconsistent. Yeah, he has a big left boot and when he turns up he's an excellent player. So what? Baloucoune, Conway and a number of others are similarly excellent when in form and offer various advantages.

Hansen has been very good since his debut and that's coming from someone who was sceptical of his initial selection. He's one of the best footballers we have and is more than capable of playing as a second distributor when he comes in off his wing. As far as I'm concerned he's been in better form than Lowe and if someone is to come in on the wing then they should be replacing Lowe not Hansen, who is performing excellently at the minute.

he arguably was for most of his career, but especially from 2006 - 2008 he was most definitely world class, during which time he was behind carter in terms of the best 10s in the world. rugby world had him as no.2 behind carter going into the 07 rwc, in which he didnt play particularly well in fairness but then again nobody in that irish team did in reality

6N top try scorer in 2007, he even managed to play well for ireland in the 2008 6N despite the team falling to pieces around him

never World Class - sorry but you dont get voted into the ERC dream team for the first 15 years of the heineken cup and not be world class. doubly-so when you get voted the most influential player of that timeframe

sexton has probably closed the arguments between them at this stage in terms of who was better, but that doesnt mean he wasnt world class in his own time

compare him to any of the other tens that were around during his peak (say 2004 - 2011) and only carter was markedly better, but dan carter is dan carter so being second to him isnt exactly an insult. stephen jones had his moments and wilkinson was a better goalkicker, but other than that i dont think any 10 came close to o gara

wilkinson was a better goalkicker

Ah in fairness, Wilkinson was one of the best OHs of the last 20 years, much more than a goal kicker.

He was third choice ten for all three lions tours he went on. With only two caps from the bench over the three tours. So therefore he was only the third best outhalf in the British Isles, over his career. If he was world class. That would not be the case.

O'Gara ahead of Kyle and Campbell? Don't think so.

TBH, whether ROG was world class or just very very good is irrelevant. The point is that we had no one as good as him for a long time before he arrived and in the 22 years since he made his debut, no-one apart from Sexton has come close to him.

TLDR - the idea that we churn out quality out-halves on a regular basis is false. If we have to wait another five or ten years for a proper successor to Sexton, it wouldn't be a huge surprise.

the amount of revisionism on here is hilarious

im not disagreeing, but wilkinson continuing to work solely with him on england matchdays rather than the actual english kicking coach is a bad look for me.

every 10 (and player in general) has some weak aspects of their game though, dan carter would be the only 10 i could describe as complete, with sexton being pretty close to it. jones' passing wasnt nearly as good as o gara for example, but he had a bit more physicality and was more likely to make a break himself. as great as wilkinson was too, his decision making at times was very poor and likewise his passing was a little bit behind o gara, but his defence was incredibly solid for a 10 and his goalkicking was obviously metronomic

2001 was the only time he should have been third choice though. 2005 was a joke of a tour just in general, o gara played badly in the first game against bay of plenty and was out of contention from then on despite being the best 10 (hodgson was actually the best 10 on the tour really but he was even less likely than o gara to start). he and jones were neck and neck in 09 (two missed kicks between them in the run up to the first test), i think if o leary hadnt got injured then they both would have started, phillips was the only 9 playing well on that tour so it made sense to start the welsh pairing. as well as jones played in the second test, i seem to remember him playing pretty poorly in the first and i thought at the time that he was lucky to keep his place

this is the correct response

wilkinson was average at best until the rwc in 07 and went back to being average at best for a number of years after that

does saying periods plural not imply he was world class though? sexton for example wasn't consistently world class until after o gara retired but id still label him world class overall

2001 was the only time he should have been third choice though. 2005 was a joke of a tour just in general, o gara played badly in the first game against bay of plenty and was out of contention from then on despite being the best 10 (hodgson was actually the best 10 on the tour really but he was even less likely than o gara to start). he and jones were neck and neck in 09

In your opinion. The reality was 3 sets of highly qualified coaches disagree with you.