Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

I wonder if he is getting any inside information.

The inplication here is that the squad will be a mix between fringe internationals and high potential young players who probably do belong in a provincial a squad.

This might mean that the 4 provinces are down 15 players who would have started in urc games instead of being down 30. That's a much smaller effect on the league.

But that's down to poor squad management rather than lack of depth, England had that exact same issue the year before.

I'm surprised the URC release agreement allows for simultaneous tour of a national open (at least in terms of no age restriction) side alongside the domestic season. Given it also overlaps the first couple of weeks of the AIL as well as the URC it really is two fingers up to the provinces and club game. Suspect Ulster would be the province most affected, Lowry, Stockdale, Hume, McCloskey, Doak, O'Sullivan, O'Toole, Moore, Timoney. Munster could have Haley, Farrell, Casey, Loughman, Coombes all from the starting 23 going.

And given CVC have taken a 25% stake in the URC I think it's reasonable to assume they have received committments to ensure their investment is protected. We've seen four less fixtures to remove any overlap between Autumn Internationals and Six Nations and ensure the top players play a greater proportion.

I suppose the optimum scenario would be that Farrell selects players he thinks could be in the mix come RWC 2023, but who currently aren't getting much provincial gametime. Of course, there probably aren't too many players in that category.

Aaron Sexton and Cormac Izuchukwu would be interesting picks.

I think at least one of the reports said that the teams that played against the Maori would be the starting point? No mainstays of the actual internationals, but certainly some of those on tour.

For Ulster that's Treadwell, O'Toole, Timoney, McCloskey and Lowry, off the top of my head. Then, presumably, they'll want time in camp for inexperienced players who only didn't play in NZ through injury - Hume and Baloucoune. He might want to see if Stockdale still warrants a space.

That seemed to be the suggestion in the Indo article yesterday, but I got the impression from Murray Kinsella's article that it might be more experimental:

"It’s understood that the squad will not include any of the frontline players who helped Ireland to beat the All Blacks in their Test series in New Zealand earlier this summer, but several of the players who featured in the midweek games against the Māori All Blacks will be involved again.

Ireland also intend to bring a crop of high-potential uncapped young players who have shone for the Ireland U20s over the past three or four seasons but have seen their opportunities in senior rugby limited by the level of competition for places within the provinces."

You could ask would Tom O'Toole actually benefit much from being involved? He's been in Ireland camp a fair bit, so there's probably limited room left for him improving just from being in the set-up. At this stage he probably needs Test exposure to keep advancing his game.

Case-by-case basis, I guess.

Tommy O'Brien won't be back in time from his long-term injury, for one.

According to the 42, there'll be "several" uncapped players. I suppose we'll just see when we see.