Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

If Connors gets back to where he was it's not a big drop off from VDF. After that it drops a bit but Timoney is looking good.

Agree with a few above that 10 is the biggest drop if Sexton is out. 1 and 3 next but Bealham is definitely easing the earlier worries at 3.

The back line looks a different animal when Lowe is there and firing but we've plenty of options when he's out.

Such as?

No he's not. We'd just be throwing away our best shot at a slam since 2018 for nothing.

1. Japan (home)
2. USA (home)
3. Argentina (home)
4. France (away)
5. Italy (home)
6. New Zealand (away) *didn't start but played 60 minutes
7. Fiji (home)

That's 7 of Ireland's last 15 games. All games Carbery has started since he came back from his long term injury early in 2021. Not to mention the starts he had pre-Farrell. And the fact that he's been Munster's undisputed starting 10 in that time period regardless of his form and bar a couple of good games, has been very average. How many "chances" does he need to get before people are satisfied? The argument that he "hasn't been given a good run" is utter rubbish. He's been given far more opportunity than he frankly deserves, and rarely shown anything other than mediocrity. He wouldn't start for any tier one nation and probably wouldn't make the 23 either.

Some of us actually want Ireland to win some trophies. And by giving Carbery the whole 6N, you just reduce our chances of that substantially, for nothing. If he shows some form for Munster, I'd be open to him maybe starting v Italy. But that's potentially a big banana skin game and I'm not even sure I'd trust him in that.

Answer me this. After all those starts for Munster and Ireland, is Carbery any better now than he was in mid 2021? I don't think so personally. So what's another 5 starts going to do for him?

In a million years, we're never going to leave a fit Sexton out of the Six Nations. No point debating it and certainly no point getting worked up about it.

Don't think Sexton will still be first choice when he's 1,000,037 years old.

Grand. Let him back up Sexton from the bench. I didn't argue against that.

But the suggestion that we should just throw away a potential grand slam, just to get him some more games, when he's been getting plenty of games for club and country and not improving, is utterly insane.

The best thing for Ireland's development going into the world cup, without question, is to have as strong a 6N as possible and win a GS.

No he's still bang average. Carberry wouldn't start for any tier 1 side however, Sexton is 37! He's also brilliant and is easily the best 10 we have. But Carberry could end up starting for us in the world cup. If Sexton is injured or his form falls apart then zoolander is up. I reckon it's an opportunity to see how we perform with a bang average 10!

Of course, Carberry is over rated. Always has been. If anything, the gap from Sexton to Carberry is probably bigger. I hope that Crowley can make the leap.

If Sexton goes down....

The idea that we would intentionally hamstring ourselves by playing an average player in the most important position on the pitch, during the most important competition in Irish rugby, is absolute fantasy.

Is there any solid word about who we will be playing in the rwc warm ups and how many warm ups we will have?

Not forgetting BOD sinus fracture & Geordan Murphy before that.

The only thing that seems to happen in the RWC warm-up matches is players play themselves off the squad or they get injured.