Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Surely the fact that Calvin Nash has been brought in ahead of already capped guys like Larmour and Baloucoune proves that there's really no grand conspiracy against Munster players, and that they can play their way into the squad if they sufficiently impress the coaches? Coombes getting dropped in November for Deegan but now being ahead of him also proves this. Frisch and Daly were on the same EI tour that Nash was on, so had the same opportunity to impress the coaches that Nash had.

People aren’t claiming a grand conspiracy. They are claiming that playing for Leinster is advantageous when it comes to Ireland selection. In fact its pretty obvious that is the case. So, obvious that Kinsella throws it out on a podcast to ZERO protest.

I think its on any podcast platform. 42 rugby weekly podcast. Maybe its a members one. If it is, i wrote exactly what he said a few comments above.

I feel like with Balacoune specifically, it's almost an indictment of Farrell's system that he hasn't stood out. The guy is Ferrari and Farrell likes his wingers to be pickup trucks. Balacoune is closer to a Penaud type of a player, lethal given time and space. If you have someone like that in your team, you ought to be building a gameplan around giving them the ball in space. I thought he was the only Ulster back who did anything to trouble the Leinster defense in the 1/4.

Where is that dude talking about strawmen earlier. We need him in here.

How big an advantage is it for the SH teams to play the championship in July, take a couple of weeks off and then back into camp. Seems like ideal prep for the WC.

Farrell appears to want his back three to have well rounded skill sets. Lowe, Hansen and Keenan are all comfortable at moving into the midfield and acting as secondary playmakers. I've not seen Baloucoune, at least in green, be half as prominent on the ball as the other three. He's definitely the quickest and the most dangerous runner so he needs to add that element to his game.

It's also why Jimmy O'Brien has become more prominent in Ireland squads. He has played 10,13, and all across the back three to a high level. He has the skills to distribute and link when needed.

I've said it before but I'd be very interested to see Baloucoune get a run at 13 for Ulster. For me he's got a lot of the essentials. He's a very canny defender, and a good tackler. And while he's been criticised for not coming in off his wing enough and acting as a playmaker I think he actually has good awareness when it comes to finding supporting players with a pass or offload; several good examples of this come to mind. Teams would have to be so wary of his pace on an outside break. A bit like Radradra played centre instead of wing when he came from league to get him more involved maybe this is what Baloucoune could do with?

All these arguments for Baloucoune are based on his potential to do XYZ, not on his proven ability to do XYZ.

As noted by @pickarooney yesterday, that ship has sailed. We can't pick guys on potential with the RWC three months away, and we definitely can't change our style to suit a given player.

On Balacoune, I don't see that he's busy enough to challenge Hanson. He's a stay at home winger.

I'm still mystified over kilkoyne making the squad over Loughman or even potentially Milne.

And the fact they only have 3 LH props in the squad means he's going to the WC.

Similar to joey C kilkoyne hasn't been seen since the Sharks match in the champions cup.. dropped from the squad for 5 games.

Munster played South African opposition 3 times since then. 3 big scrummaging opponents and Kilkoyne was left at home.

I know Kilkoyne benched in the 6 nations when healy was injured but Loughman was also injured at that time.. I'm just not sure what Kilkoyne has done to be still ahead of him?

That’s true and there are many other considerations that I don't understand enough about to comment on. In one area there’s zero comparison between them - pace. Any decent wing who gets past Hansen won’t be caught by him. I just feel Baloucoune offers the option of something more like a South African winger which we don’t otherwise have in our back line. It could unsettle other teams.