Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Yeah true enough if a wing gets Injured as i said Ringrose can filter out there and i do think that if ringrose is missing aki starts 12 and henshaw starts 13.

What I was saying was that crowley and Jimmy o brien offers more cover than the byrne and aki combo.. I wasn't just focusing on aki v job.

if Keenan gets injured/concussed as we saw v England this year JOB or maybe even crowley can slot straight into Full back. Hansen maybe can cover full back I'm not sure he played there much this season for Connacht. Lowe hasn't played there in Ireland.

Ps England away last year by the time henshaw came on England had been playing with 14 men for over and hour. Easier make an impact.

Wales this year Bundee came on for 20 minutes. Wales were down to 14 men for 10 of those. He Made no passes, 2 tackles and made 7 metres.

France this year. Bundee came on for 15 minutes.. made no passes 3 tackles and made 8 meters and conceded a turn over.

The 1st test v Nz we lost. Played 24 minutes. Made a total of 2 metres and got a try.

2nd test. Ringrose got injured early so aki was on for an hour. Played well. But not really the impact sub situation we are talking about.

I think Hansen and Lowe played joint most minutes for ireland in the 6 nations and keenan rarely comes off so very difficult to say a back 3 sub made an impact this year as there has been no situation where we have had one coming on for 20 minutes similar to Aki.

Which comes First the chicken or the egg? Hard for a back 3 player to make an impact off the bench if there are none picked there... but Jimmy o brien did very well v both South africa and England last season when asked to come in as injury cover for mid game for keenan and mccloskey.

Maybe, I was assuming he was referring to the 5 between JGP and Lowe.

I’d agree with this but haven’t they played poorly against the same team three times in a row?

There are things la rochelle do that make leinster play poorly.

99%. Wee bit arrogant.

I can see both sides to be honest. But just the simple fact of attack playmaking doesn't sit totally right with me.

Organisation and discipline make up a huge part of it.

Would you say somebody who gets a higher number of intercepts is a playmaker?

You can find like for like plays with Haley

Keenan is one of the few Irish players who would walk into any other team in the world. Absolute Cadillac of a player

No. A player who gets lots of intercepts wouldn't be called a playmaker for that. Same as one that gets lots of turnovers or lineout steals.

Right so. I'm not sure what a playmaker is any more.

Is it a risk taker, mad offloads..ala Russel or something different?

I'm not picking on you at all, I'm interested in people's opinions. Different to mine, excellent. I don't mind being turned.

Jean Kleyn named in the south African training squad. I was a bit surprised after the season he had that he missed out on the Irish squad but it makes a bit more sense now.

The overreactions to this are going to be painful

Can't see him making the team given the competition. Will Munster be allowed keep another high cost NIQ player?

I don't know if it would be wise of Kleyn to accept a Bok cap. Whether it be Ireland or SA he's likely to only get a handful of caps at best but if those caps are Bok caps that could affect his future of playing professional rugby in Ireland if NIQ spots are in short supply.

He's a pretty limited player, and has been no loss to Ireland. Another in a long line of Munster heroes who are bang average .

I'd be more interested in Steve Kenny's team for the game against Greece next weekend, much more current!