Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Got to love the irony of people complaining about players missing big URC games when in the next breath they **** on the URC for not being able to prepare players for test rugby...which one is it? Or do these people just want to have a moan?

The calibre of opposition isn't really relevant here because the main point of this tour would be young players get to be part of the environment and high calibre of coaching that there is in the Irish set up plus they get insight on the ropes what goes on at test level, for a young player this is invaluable and if one or two impress it might go a long way to getting them in with a shout of the Autumn squad.

In regards to the affect this will have on the URC people forget the likes of Porter to Doris, JGP to Keenan will all still be around...worst case scenario you can play these guys for afew rounds, plus its only 3. I think people are massively over exadurating how much impact this tour will have on the URC, if it was 5-6 rounds + maybe they would have a point but 2 or 3 nah.

But I dont really see what point they are trying to make? They say it will harm the provinces but if the provinces still have their established players around will it really?

There is a chance that 1 or more province could get badly hit by this. I’d really hope that Farrell and the IRFU are looking to avoid that though. It would be very disappointing if the weren’t. The question really at this point is how badly will the provinces be hit and what is the overall benefit to the tour. If the price is low and there’s a tangible benefit then maybe it’s worth a shot. But the higher the price the less worthwhile the tour becomes. And at some point that price could become completely unacceptable. So far I don’t think Farrell has shown any signs of being “that guy” who screws over the provinces for the national side. So on that basis I’d be happy enough to wait and see how this pans out.

Based on the speculated team from Sports Joe it would see Ulster losing all of their outside backs (Lowry, McIlroy, McCloskey, Hume, Baloucoune). It's absurd to say they can replace them with "established internationals". Munster similarly would lose 4 front rows, 2 backrows and 2 second rows, I'm not sure how deep you think the provinces are to just shrug off the loss of 8 forwards like that.

Also it probably completely derails Connacht's season given how difficult their opening fixtures are, they need all of their key players available.

I think the tour makes sense from a team Ireland and RWC perspective but it's absurd to say this won't be a significant challenge for most of the provinces.

Ulster could put out a reasonably good backline with the above players missing:

9. John Cooney, 10. Billy Burns, 11. Ben Moxham, 12. Luke Marshall/Angus Curtis, 13. Stewart Moore, 14. Robert Lyttle, 15. Craig Gilroy; 21. David Shanahan/Michael McDonald, 22. Jake Flannery/Ian Madigan, 23. Aaron Sexton

Marshall, Curtis, Moore and Lyttle are quite injury-prone, though, so you can't count on them being available.

I think Aaron Sexton might have more international potential than McIlroy has. Just due to the latter's lack of pace.

I'd say the'll try to limit any province being hit too hard. Maybe something like if Baloucoune goes then Stockdale doesn't, and if Hume goes then McCloskey doesn't. Connacht have a tough run of games at the time and any players from them are more likely to be important players for them, so maybe Farrell won't select too many from Connacht.

If only there were 3 ultimately meaningless games this side of Christmas against actual quality opposition, against whom the players might actually learn something, that don't clash with the URC, where we could test fringe players and give them exposure without f*cking over the provinces...

I guess the IRFU are keen to secure the "Team of 2022" title. Then next year we can start building for 2026.

I’d imagine opposition schedules are probably a bit more relevant to the timing than anything else.

I’d imagine a couple of those lads won’t be in the mix tbh. If Ed Byrne and Loughman go there probably won’t be a need for Dooley for example.

It will also be interesting to see if they bring any “senior” players. For example could Ruddock go in the same capacity as he did for Leinster in April? Someone will need to captain the squad after all.

It will also be interesting to see if any of the U20s go given that they only had a 3 game series as opposed to a World Cup this year.