Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Put it this way, I'd be a lot more nervous seeing Frawley on the team sheet against South Africa than Coombes..

This seems bizzare to me. Would they not name the squad before the Samoa game and just stay there after it?

So what's the point of playing the match in France then?

To accommodate Samoa maybe

I meant 24th man.. Cos sexton will be suspended..

I'd say all the players, Dublin based or not, would be staying in a team hotel. It wouldn't do much for the team environment if 60 odd per cent (or whatever it is) got ot go home every night while the rest stayed in a hotel away from their families.

He caused a fair few ovulations with the blue-rinse brigade on here at the end of the season 😂

I think the "can't see past SA" line of thinking has taken a bit of a hit since last weekend. They have a lot of work to do and are desperately reliant on Pollard getting fit.

But they have the same problem as us, they'll meet either France or NZ in the QFs, which are both massive asks.

Definitely feel SA are overrated from their win last time out. They basically beat a Wales team over performing and England. NZ would've beaten them again imo, and I think either of France or NZ will handle them comfortably.

They are totally overrated from the last RWC. Yes they were good of course, all RWC winners are, but I would confidently say they are the weakest RWC winning side ever that had a pretty forgiving path to the RWC final and were average for most of the RWC but to their credit when it mattered most they turned up. I don't think they will be handled comfortably though as they will be better once their Japan based players get up to speed but I feel if they play like they did in the last RWC they wont win this one and will be lucky to get past the QF's as the draw this time is far less forgiving.

They also have a very old team (their starting XV that played NZL 13 of the 15 players will be 30 or over by the end of the year) and Im not so sure particularly the style they play that they will be able to go 4-5 big games in a row and win a RWC on this occasion.

Incorrect they play the 3rd, 4th & 8th best teams on the planet. If it was down to having a domestic league then why were there dramatic improvements when Jaguares where introduced? If anything they went backwards. There is no green tinted glasses, what you are seeing here from this "expert" is a very poor observation of where rugby is nowadays. If you meet him again make sure to remind him that there is actually rugby played between WC's. Let me take a wild guess, he's from the Southern Hemisphere but declared for USA?

I dont really see how Argentina's record means much when it comes to consistency considering they've only played twice in 20 years on neutral grounds. Not a single player in this French side has been to a semi or a final. You are clutching at straw's.

He is generally basing is predictions on World Cup history, but then bands Ireland and Argies in the same bracket as good for the one off performance which is a very flawed generalization, i think Ireland has had 3-4 one offs in their history, when the Argies did well they strung plenty performances together but very meh if not.

Then he cant see beyond on France who on WC form are the masters of the one off... and South Africa who only every needed one big performance each of the last two WCs they won. Fiji, Japan, Wales and Argies have been their quarter/semi final opponents folks.

If he is not basing it just on WC form ,then labelling of Ireland Argies as similarly inconsistent is way off. Leaving all the achievements in the past 2 years to one side, Ireland dont score 40 on Aus at home and then concede 40 to them away the next. Argies first win in NZ was followed by a pounding. RC maybe a great tournament but based on the last 3 tours in SANZAR even ignoring the Autumn Ireland are still far more consistent against the same opposition.

So to conclude , if going by WC history alone he has very flawed arguments. If going by recent form his thoughts on SA don't make sense, his thoughts on France do , his thoughts on Ireland don't. So its all over the place.

Lets be clear, his view is that SA and France are the favourites. that is not very controversial, France because they have an incredible team and SA because they have a very good team and are big WC performers. He compares Ireland to Argentina because they both have a record of one off big game performances (Ireland fewer) that they fail to back up in the WC. Again, hard to argue.

As for France being 'masters off the one off', you must be 5. They've been to 3 finals and 3 semi finals in 10 tournaments! Dismiss SAs route to finals all you like, they've won it 3 times and come third twice in 8 tournaments. This is a ridiculous argument. See my note to shehal above, people really will say anything to 'win' arguments.