Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

I thought the English pack were pretty good. It has to be viewed in the context of the opposition but normally the Welsh pack can give them problems. Aside from the scrum, they physically dominated them and surely would have won by a comfortable distance if they didn't encounter so many disciplinary issues. It's incredible to think that a team that played almost 6 minutes of the second half with 12 men, still managed to have 73% territory in that half.

Farrell being out may be a blessing in disguise for them. He has had a poor year overall by his standards and Ford looked by far the most competent outhalf of the three options when he came on. He played sensible stuff and worked well with his pack. England will be one dimensional with their pack and Ford at 10 but that would be enough for them to get their sh*t together and be a functioning team in the RWC.

Discipline is a massive issue though. You can't have three yellow cards and a red card in a game and expect to win unless you're facing an incompetent opposition team. On another day, Adams' head collides with the ground and Steward is given a red card too. That was every bit as stupid as Farrell's hit. He looked up and clearly saw Adams jumping into the air and didn't attempt to pull out whatsoever.

It will be interesting to see what team they put out against Ireland. A few tweaks to the pack but I think it will largely remain the same. Ford and Youngs potentially to start at halfback and look to double down on their forward geared game.

Whilst it would be ideally a game plan for Keenan in a tournament fixture, it would probably be more beneficial to see someone else at full back for this game if Ford is the one looking to pepper the backfield.

The England game is shaping up to be a lose lose for anyone trying to make a case for a last minute inclusion.

If they play and we hammer England, it'll just be because England are in a crisis and we should have been beating them anyway.

If they play poorly against England, they'll have 'blown their opportunity'

I hope Coombes gets a chance to start on Saturday. I hope he plays out of skin, but I fear that even if he has the game of his career, there's nothing he can possibly do to get himself on the plane of Conan's leg recovers enough to get him on the plane.

On the other side of the coin. Players who are already pretty much nailed on for the 33 man squad could play really poorly on Saturday and as long as we win by the smallest margin or they don't make some really glaring errors, the logic will be that their job is just to avoid suspension or injury and mind themselves physically

Maybe the coaches don't but I don't think the England or Wales players took much notice as they seemed keen to knock lumps out of each other

I think the coaches have a set group of players they have in the squad already (about 29-30). Then they probably have about 6-8 more that are in competition for those last 3-4 spots. Then the remainder they want up to speed in case of injuries to specific players.

I think they've given significant insight into their preferences already with how they've chosen their match day squads over the past year or even the training squad in the 6N.

Nash, Stewart and Blade weren't in either of the 6N squads named this season so I'd expect they're making up the numbers in the event of injury, somewhat. Treadwell got a cap in the final 6N game but was only brought into the revised 6N squad after Beirne and McCarthy were injured so I'd imagine he's probably on the outside too.

Then we've Stockdale, Coombes and Osborne who were in squads but never received a cap this past season.

So straight away, there's 7 guys who are probably up against it to make the final cut as it stands barring injury.

I hope you are correct. Personally because of the way the groups and fixtures, I don't think any team from group b will get past quarters.

That's all well and good, and those were enjoyable at the time, but this team will ultimately be remembered for how it performs at the World Cup. The last 4 years have been building up to this tournament. Those achievements will mean nothing if we bomb in France. I'm tired of us being the laughing stock of rugby every 4 years.

I'm supposing that if we're struggling for form weeks out from the World Cup, then yes we should be worried. I don't see how that's controversial.

This team won a grand slam this year friend.

Dunno about you but I don't plan to forget that any time soon.

So "ultimately be remembered for how it performs at the world cup"?

Hyberbolic nonsense.

I guess its just baffling as to why you'd sit here thinking of hypothetical situations where you'd be disappointed with the team

His last home game? Yes he would