RWC23 Warmups - Ireland v Italy, Sat 5th Aug, KO 8PM - TV: RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, Amazon Prime Video

I think the poor tackle attempt trumps everything positive. Couldn't be trusted in a tight match. I also don't think he has the all round game to match his rivals for the squad position but the tackle attempt is the big one.

Has anyone taken a punt and named those they think are on the plane yet?

I think he was forced into that when JOB hot hurt. He wanted to see Frawley at 10 so the only option was to move Crowley to 15.

It was a fairly ragged team towards the end with lots of players out of position. Prendergast at 7, Earls at 13, Crowley at 15 with a really inexperienced 10 and Blade at 9 who wasn't playing at the same tempo and cadence as the team expected.

I thought Doris was incredibly good, but he did give away about 3 penalties. One of which was pretty brainless. Needs to maintain his discipline even though the game was a bit of a shambles by then.

The team was thrown together in a manner where some players were in the mindset of of 'heres my chance, i won't get another' which doesn't lead to a cohesive team performance

Stockdale was busy, loads of involvement but he would have been better if he was bringing his teammates into the game instead of trying to make the big plays himself.

Kilcoyne had loads of involvement too, but many were not that effective. Hitting rucks but not impacting them, getting stopped dead when carrying

Earls did ok but I would have preferred to see more of Nash with Earls maybe coming off the bench where he could still cover centre (although he's only a barely passable centre option when we're stuck)

Henshaw was anonymous for me and McCloskey was the most impactful of the 2 starting centres. Not everything worked but he asked more questions of the Italians and so created more space. Henshaw delivered nothing to Earls in the whole game so Earls was in a sweeper role until he moved to centre

I thought every player made a few disappointing mistakes. Nobody had a flawless game and the first 20 minutes were very laboured and it wasn't until the yellow card that Ireland were able to cut open the Italians when the half backs injected pace as the pack started to deliver clean ball.

The game against England will most likely be an almost first choice Irish selection against an English squad with a massive amount to prove. Ross Byrne needs to show what he's made of here. This should be the game to solidify the pecking order behind Sexton. Ross can lay claim, but only if he puts in an impressive performance, the kind we would need against South Africa and NZ/France

In comparison to what NZ, South Africa and France showed in their first games this summer with heavily rotated teams, I think we looked pretty far off the pace yesterday in comparison to them. NZ annihilated Argentina, SA dismantled Australia, and a 3rd string French team ran Scotland bloody close in Edinburgh, while we laboured past Italy at home. I think we (once again) saw that our "depth" isn't quite as good as some would like to believe. We'll need most, if not all of our first XV fit and in form if we're to get past the quarters.

O'Toole, Henderson, McCarthy, Doris and Casey are the only players who I'd say had "good" games.

On the plane (27)

Porter Healy Sheehan Kelleher Herring Bealham TOT

Beirne Ryan Henderson

Doris POM VDF Conan Baird

JGP Murray Casey

Sexton Byrne

Ringrose Henshaw Aki

Hansen Lowe Keenan JOB

Very close

Kilcoyne (if we bring 6 props)

Mccarthy

Crowley

McCloskey

After that I think you've maybe six or seven guys fighting for three or four places.

I would put Stewart, Osborne, Treadwell, Blade and Nash as the least likely to go.

Haven't been as involved as previous years but I wouldn't read too much into that game for the team as a whole. It's just a game for fringe players and then used for match fitness for the others. I would imagine guaranteed squad players do not want to play in the warm ups in case they get injured. You can also see the intensity yesterday was well below international level.

You put your first reason to select Earls as "sentiment"?

Bloody hell.

NZ have gone full strength all through the rugby championship so not comparable. The springboks have been hit and miss.

I wouldn't be worried by Irelands performance at all. I can't ever remember an entertaining RWC warm up game.

My only concerns are Jack Conans ankle/foot and JOBs shoulder.

Which is exactly how it should be imo

After a four year RWC cycle and six weeks of camp, it shouldn't matter if one guy shoots the lights out against Italy and another guy had an off day.

After watching the game yesterday I think Crowley is pretty locked on as third 10.

It depends on how you read it.

I think the plan was probably to sub in frawley at 10 at maybe 50/55 and then either move crowley to 15 or just take him off. JOB’s injury short circuited that a bit.

To me that was bad for frawley in terms of making the squad. If he plays at 15, that promotes his versatility and utility back is an easier spot to take. Going as the third 10 would indicate something just astounding in practice because he hasn’t really done anything to show he is a better 10 than crowley in games pretty much ever, including yesterday.

OTOH, Crowley played well at 10 for 40, and then got to audition at 15 which helps his chances or making 23s.

I mean obviously anything can happen but it would be surprising to see frawley over Crowley at 10. It would really be on the extreme end of going with the guy you like. At some point you have to show it at your province or for ireland somewhat recently. Frawley hasn’t really done either ever.

He's not being picked on sentiment, that's only a view being out forward by a few posters and it looks like it's to wind people up.

Crowley has played 12 for munster recently, his versatility at 10, 12 and 15 makes him very valuable

Some really brainless moments from him though. He ran laterally about 15-20 meters to get bundled into touch and flung a blind off load to make a bad situation worse. Against a France or NZ that alone could have been a try. He had a lot of hunger for the ball which was impressive but he made some howlers that will live long in Farrells memory.