Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Excellent passing? Decion making ? I did notice his missed touch twice. Missed kicks.

There was times when it was debatable if he was kicking for touch or kicking long near the touchline.

I don't think he was missing touch with penalties.

Kicking long near the touchline can allow a a challenge and a tackle into touch and it probably a better opposition for competition than an opposition lineout.

That was a very unsettled team and I’d struggle to see any team missing all of Ringrose, Henshaw and Sexton doing the business in a knockout WC match. Still though, Italy are good and we put them away with room to spare with what’s close enough to a scratch team.

I think the hyperbole around Byrne has never made sense.

He was a good option and solid and has performed well at Leinster. He wasn't getting a look in at International level at all and was the 5th choice OH before the AIs (behind Sexton, Crowley, Carberry and Frawley). Freddie Burns, Harry Byrne and Jack Carty had gotten game time ahead of him in recent years.

Until the cameo against Australia people weren't suggesting him and were dismissing him. Of course he won't make a squad, then a big list of problems.

I agree that he isn't a world beater. He is a decent back up and thats his role.

I know there's a match thread but I haven't dipped in there yet, I was at the match and the scoreline flattered Italy, an intercept try and two missed conversions had the scoreline much closer than it should and that's ignoring the missed scores through ba few errors.

I think Farrell, if he had a full squad to pick from, might have made as many changes as that was enforced but I think he'd have picked different combinations so there was always going to be a few errors or getting timings wrong.

Wearing red tinted glasses I was disappointed that Crowley only got 2 mins and he looked more than ok in those few mins. I hoped he'd getting longer.

Any 80s pro wrestling fans - we are now the Ric Flair of rugby.

We'll come into your territory, face your toughest local talent, make them look like a million bucks, but ultimately win in the end.

Wales looked at their best in this 6N in the match against us (despite conceding a first half TBP).

We then had a match-of-the-year contender against France. Got the world talking about which one of us would win the RWC.

Today we made Italy look like the gosh dang All Blacks. But got out of town with the TBP win.

We go over, but we get guys over.

Stylin' and profilin', wooooooo!

Not going to happen. Italy needs too much to go right for them and France would need to much to go wrong for them.

I still think France could win the RWC and it could be our history or just fear of saying we could win it but I don't see Ireland winning it.

Today showed how much we missed a running threat at outhalf, Crowley probably showed more in his few minutes than Byrne did in his 78.

If Scotland were to get nothing from their French match - would I be right in saying that when we meet them Ireland could be playing to win the championship and Scotland to win the Triple Crown in Murrayfield on the day ?

I think Scotland would have cut us to shreds today. Our backline has limited pace and seriously, what kind of center defense was that? Very poor indeed. Ringrose is so much better than everyone else it's ridiculous. He was missed today.

We can't win the championship against Scotland.

We could win the championship by the end of round 4s weekend (if we get a try bonus point against Scotland and no other team gets to 15 points).

If France gets a try bonus point against Scotland the winner of France England will end on 15 points if they get a bonus point.

Indeed - even fully loaded, the Irish backline overall is inferior to the Scots and they have proven that they don't need a lot of possession to score a lot of points.

If the pack is not well on top it could get difficult.