Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

I agree with most of this (other than Kleyn being just a decent player.. i’d say he’s a really good player). However, munster did start him over Snyman in the URC final.

I’d also say as a capped springbok, he’s making more next contract either way.

Snyman is the only guy in ireland who is that level of physical freak. He’s less so than those guys obviously but very skilled.

Size wise and skills wise, Ahern has a lot of the raw materials of Snyman. I mean the chances of reaching that are low but they have similarities. Then Edogbo has a lot of the traits of that big french style THL that plays at 130kg+.

I’d guess McCarthy is the most likely to be like Ryan.

I think edogbo is going to end up quite a bit heavier than mccarthy and he’s not as explosive as mccarthy, at least right now. Edogbo took a pretty big jump in one year though so who knows. If he was a couple of weeks younger he would be on the u20 team .

Has nothing to do with the Ireland team.

This is the Ireland thread in the lead up to the World Cup. He will not be part of that. Must remember that.

I have no problem with YOU or anybody else discussing him but why not discuss him in the appropriate Munster thread or create a South African thread? What’s next up? A ROG vs Sexton debate?

Josh Lord pretty quiet so far for NZ

Good point and something which was done for the last few weeks. He’s not available anymore. So by that token we can move on and discuss the players at our disposal.

Has anyone watched Ireland over the last couple of years, winning triple crowns, series in NZ, grand slams and thought "what this team really needs is a Jean Kleyn"?

Like, maybe he's a better option than Treadwell or McCarthy, I'm happy to concede that. But is he really so good to warrant the amount of outrage his omission has gotten? Ireland have been really f*cking good over the last two years, winning lots of games and playing a good brand of rugby. People seem to have forgotten this.

And if Kleyn ends up playing against us in the RWC, I'll be delighted, because it will mean that at least one of Etzebeth, De Jager, Mostert and Snyman is injured.

I’d say the fact that he is 29 and our lock depth is weak enough that guys like mccarthy or treadwell are even in the squad at all, makes it an obvious tactical error long term.

We could easily have another coach after Farrell who would like to have an international level tight head lock at his disposal.

South Africa, probably the most loaded country in the world talent wise dipping back into ireland for a lock at all in any squad is a decent enough indicator that it was probably an evaluation mistake in its own right.

It will take a lot more than one grand slam and a tour win against NZ to convince me that we are as deep as south africa and we can afford to let guys like that go. South Africa with the right coaching and time together could put out three or four fully competitive international teams, especially if they could get back all their guys who play for other countries. The idea of them coming back for a guy we don’t pick is insane. It shouldn’t happen.