Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Nonsense, Deegan won the award. Jj didnt.

The pattern is that there are some people who fervently believe he is the bees knees and needs to be involved. And anyone who doesn’t 100% agree with that gets stick. You can say that he’s gone well and should be in the squad but if you in the same breath you say that Conan is ahead of him the former is irrelevant. There will be no acknowledgement that you’ve acknowledged his form or that you’ve been in any way complimentary of the guy. You haven’t agreed entirely and so you’re wrong and need to lectured to.

Backrow always seems to be a position with a lot of players getting through a lot of work that makes it seem as if they belong in the team.

Coombes is awesome. He needs to be in the set up imo. I'm not sure he will make the cut for the 23. Given that Conan and Dorris both play 6/8 when needed I consider those positions together. Conan POM and Doris are also awesome.

I do feel that despite Deegan getting ahead of Coombes in the AIs that Deegan has fallen behind now. Furthermore he is injured at the moment so won't necessarily get to play his way back in.

I wonder if Ryan Baird has a chance to add to his international tally. He seems to have changed position to 6 which adds to the congested backrow.

But my point is its completely irrelevant to Deegan playing now. It was 2016. he has 2 senior caps. nearly 3 years ago. talking about an under 20 award is completely irrelevant to what he is doing now.

That's true. My point is that the competition for the jersey in Leinster is nuts. The depth is incredible. 3 very very good players! Competing for the 8 shirt. The standards are high.

Conan may have had a drop off in form. He's been in the squad for yonks and is trusted. Coombes hasn't achieved this yet. Nor has Deegan.

I suppose my point is that the assumption keeps coming back to Coombes being next cab off the rank, but nothing we've seen from Farrell actually backs that up. Like, everyone is talking about Coombes v Conan, but Timoney, Prendergast and Deegan have all been capped more recently than Coombes, and if Baird is now a back-row, that's another one in the mix who has been a Farrell favourite.

People keep talking about Conan's form (and that's fair enough) but it's not Conan keeping Coombes from earning caps.

The point I’m making is that there isn’t really anyone (that I’ve seen at least) claiming that Coombes isn’t good enough and shouldn’t be near the team. What people seem to be saying is that while his form is good he still has work to do to get into it.

FFF summed it up well above. People are talking about Coombes being involved ahead of Conan, but he hasn’t been able to get ahead of the guys behind Conan yet. If he hopes to be in the 23 he’s going to need to prove he’s better and more deserving than a list of players. And maybe he can, but that remains to be seen. But for some people a reasonable position like that can’t simply illicit a “I get that and respectfully disagree” type post. It has to illicit a “blind provincialism” type response instead.

What we don’t get is a whole lot of analysis of anything at all. Coombes possess a skill set that few others in the Irish squad do in terms of his carrying. And while he also does have a wider range of skills beyond that, one thing I’ve rarely, if ever, seen from him is the link play and decision making we look for from our back row a lot. Those tip on passes and the decision making ability of when to give them vs when to go out the back. The short line and footwork in contact to exploit gaps and dog legs etc. Now I’ll freely admit that I don’t see as much of Munster as I would like and so possibly have missed things, but he’s never seemed that player to me at all. And if he isn’t then he’ll have trouble getting into an Irish 23 because of how we play and what we want from our back rows.

Either way it is fair to say that the guy has work to do. He was the only one dropped in November despite not being the only one who performed poorly in that NZ A game. So there must be a reason beyond that singular performance that caused that. In as much as we know he is currently behind a good few players in Farrells mind. As you and others have said, there’s no reason why that can’t change, but like Lowe before him, if he has been dropped he’ll have been told what he needs to improve on to get a look in again. If he’s shown he has he’ll get a look in again. If he hasn’t then he won’t. Unlike Lowe we aren’t sure exactly what he has been told to work on so it’s much harder to assess his chances this 6Ns.

I wonder if Baird is going to be the sub backrow for Ireland. He seems to be Leinster's first choice now at 6 (though small sample size to go from), he's playing very well there and he's already in the Ireland squad and has caps under Farrell. There's not really much question of anyone breaking up the starting backrow at the moment I would have thought.

I would necessary have POM as an automatic nailed on starter in back row, I think it's the 1 position that we lack is an out and out number 6. Don't get me wrong he is very good but can seem lightweight and goes missing in games but his line out is excellent. I wonder would baird or even Doris move to 6 and put conan back in at 8 work. Anyway ya it's POM's Jersey at the minute and I just hope he proves me wrong but it's great to have quality options as back ups.

Then you have Connors coming back who's our 2nd best 7 after Josh. It'll depend on how much the injuries have taken out of him.

In fairness to Coombes he's going well this season and has been Munsters best Backrow. The NZ XV was the worst I've seen him play but he's bounced back.

An Irish Backrow of 6 Dorris 7 VDF 8 Coombes is probably the form one and would be good to get a look at in a competitive game.

POM and Conan are going well but neither are at their best this season. They both have credit in the bank though which Farrell holds highly. He's a fan of Baird too who's going very well at 6.

Prendergast, Timoney and Deegan will need injuries to see any important game time.

We'll know soon what Farrell is thinking.

I'd imagine for the 6 nations he'll go with Dorris, Josh, Conan, POM, Baird(might be brought as a row) then that only leaves 1 spot. I think he might go with Timoney as he covers across the 3 positions or maybe he'll go Coombes.

Probably because of Dorris, Conan and Deegan! Ridiculous talent at 8 already. I'd imagine he'd fill in fine there though if needed

Connors has run out of time for the WC. I think he's class but It's a long road back. When is he even due back? He's played..... 8 games of rugby in 2 years. Only 306 mins.

I just don't see why Farrell would want to bring a different player into such a well oiled machine as the pack. You can always get better but is Coombes (or Prendergast, Connors or Timoney) going to improve it? Doubt it. Of those outside of the 23 Coombes and Baird have the potential to provide a real impact from the bench.

For the 6N Squad I'd say Farrell will pick both Baird (5.5) and it's between Coombes and Prendergast.

2022 6N Squad:

Tadhg Beirne

James Ryan

Iain Henderson

Kieran Treadwell? - Joe McCarthy for 2023 6N Squad

Baird

Caelan Doris

Josh van der Flier

Peter O’Mahony

Jack Conan

Coombes? or Prendergast

Nick Timoney? or maybe Penny for 2023 6N Squad

I'd like to see an Irish back row of 6 Doris, 7 Van der Flier, and 8 Baird, with Deegan off the bench.