Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Maybe I should say it will have no material impact on results.

I'm not sure you can say that in any way definitively tho, stephen. The margins can be small in some games. And, judging by the end of last season, the margins can be small towards getting a home knock-out game.

For example, in the last round of the regular season, Stormers got a try on the 80th minute, which got them 2nd spot and a home QF and then SF vs Ulster. Where they then scored a try on the 85th minute of the game, and conversion on 87th to beat Ulster.

Otherwise Ulster would've been at home to everyone but Leinster. That's a material difference. So I can absolutely understand why Ulster fans might be annoyed to be missing those players.

I feel for Ben Healy. I think he was sold a dummy at his co tract negotiations. He was tapped up by Glasgow and he's Scottish qualified. So Ireland brought him to some 6N training camps and he signed with munster and he hadn't been in the Ireland squads since then.

Was he definitely called into training camps? I can't say I recall that. In any case, he's only on a 1 year contract as well so whatever happens, he'll likely have options.

They haven't been selected out of position; just named on the announcement. I'm not sure I'd read too much into it tbh.

Ah ya, but if we're wondering why Haley hasn't gotten a look in with Ireland, then Keenan is a large part of that context. And part of that is because he's rarely injured (an attribute Haley shares with him).

I'd agree with regards Daly tho. I'd wager his best spell of form were the 3 games where he played FB, with the league returning in Aug 2020. That got him into the Autumn Ireland squad for the November games, where he only got 18 minutes.

He was very solid, if unspectacular, in those 3 games but hasn't really hit that form since, at least in part because of Haley's robustness. Haley's rarely injured, so Daly rarely gets a chance at 15, which I'd wager is his best position.

So it's not including U20's? Did we really have a non-test mens game in Galway? I've no recollection of this, but fair enough will hold my hands up if that's the case.

Good find. So since 2010 there's been 2 non-test games in Belfast, 1 in Limerick, 1 in Galway and 1 in Cork. And none in over 7-and-a-half years.

When you consider the number of Test games played in Dublin since then (and with the Aviva agreement, is completely fair enough) I can understand why some may be disappointed this isn't going ahead outside of Dublin, it'd seem an ideal candidate.

(And with Munster having the Maori All Blacks, and now SA visit in that time, Ravenhill would've made sense to me).

To be fair, I didn't say "fixed", I said "improved". And I think the %'s you've spelled out are misleading.

For example: In 2014 they had 9 out of 26 (34.6%). But 3 of those 9 players didn't come through the Munster development pathways. Similarly in 2015, 1 of the 6 wasn't Munster developed.

If you look at the current squad Salonoa and Frisch aren't Munster developed, but Flannery is so that's 9 out of 35. So the actual figures we're looking at are:

2014: 6 out of 26 = 23.1%

2015: 5 out of 27 = 18.5%

2022: 9 out of 35 = 25.7%

Which is, like I said, improvement.

Baloucoune as you mention, but Connacht are probably most impacted losing Prendergast and Blade from their starting 15. Kendellen and/or Hodnett are in that conversation too (with new coaches caveats etc.).

But there are a number of players that are in and around a teams strongest 23 too like Barron, Ahern, Doak, McIlroy, Frawley and McCarthy.

Can't find the full squad, but they've listed the 22 for the Georgia game here:

Which had 2 Munster developed players in the 22; so 9.1% to use your previous metric.