Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

I thought Jack Crowley was absolutely fantastic at the weekend.

I know the development landscape has changed in the last 15 years and I know they're not like for like.

But I do think it's incredible that he is still younger than Sexton was making his debut against Fiji in 2009. So to be able to do what he's doing at just 24 is a really encouraging thing. Although the Fiji debut is a small misnomer as the next week he started against South Africa and kicked all 15 points and played the game with a broken hand!

(Incidentally - in looking up their age comparison I did notice that Ireland played their 2 away games to France and England in the 6 nations in 2010 - the year a 24 year old Sexton started going toe to toe with ROG for the 10 shirt. Johnny started in Twickenham, played 70 minutes and played bloody well to steer Ireland to victory - so some very nice poetic comparisons)

Anyway. Digression begone.

Crowley went to one of the toughest away games against the toughest opponents and showed variety and confidence. I love how he strikes the ball. Drilled everything over the posts.

I wouldn't envy anyone who had to take over that 10 shirt. But so far he's done it with aplomb. Hopefully it continues

The nitpicking of Crowley is a bit silly. Lenihan is always a rock of sense.

Crowley is made of the right stuff. Plus there is no glaring weakness in his game. Very Important when it comes to the opposition analysing him.

He mixed the bad with the good but Ireland are 100% in the right hands with him at 10 and also with Farrell coaching him.

Of course the scrutiny of the outhalf is old as the game itself.

From The Archives: England 5 v 18 Ireland

Greatest Irish Victory on English Soil - Monday, February 10th, 1964,

Gibson the inspiration of Celtic Renaissance by John MacWeeney

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The most fascinating feature of this contest was the dominating part taken by the rival out-halves, both making their international debut. For a time it seemed as if the stockey, strong little Brophy was going to capture all the limelight time. Time after time he sidestepped through the apparently impenetrable wall of defence, slipping out of tackles in the manner which made P.B. Jackson such a problem to any opposition.

Brophy, in fact, made many more breaks into the open than Gibson, but so elaborate was his pattern-weaving that he lost touch with his support and the gaps, with just one exception, were sealed off, not however, without constant worry, and difficulty. Rogers and Philips did their best to keep track of the will-o- the-wisp out-half, but apart from helping in the try the more static Weston was hopelessly at sea and the veteran blindside flanker, Ford, was right out of his depth.

More reminiscent of the Welsh rather than the English type of out-half, Brophy had his critics as well as his admirers in this game. He could not maintain pace as convincingly as the more polished Gibson, and as a link he was not in the same class as his rival, but he added a wonderful excitement and stimulation to the affair, and the English selector, surely Mick to Build team around him, he could bring a sorely needed spirit of enterprise into his country’s football.

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You get really defensive about Munster players...

Crowley played very well. He's got all the attributes needed. He's there on merit. I'm a big fan. I hope he guides us to the slam.

its probably related to peak athleticism which is early 20s.

His grubber was poorly struck and probably not on anyway. I agree that those kicks create space by keeping defence guessing but I think he picked the wrong moment and executed poorly. Giving up promising attacking position in the 22 is not recommended so as to create space later. .

he had another cross field in the last 20 that was on advantage but kicked to a spot where there was no Irish player. And he had at least one other example of the wrong kick at the wrong time. Noting wrong with any of it and I’d say Farrel’s view would be to keep doing it but let’s look at the decision about when and why. Crowley brings a whole new array of attacking options to the team and he’ll get plenty of time from me to make it work. He showed insane promise on Friday.

NZ get the cream of the crop in terms of talent in NZ, as the number 1 sport if you are a good sports person rugby

In Ireland in reality a lot of the best sports stars end up playing GAA. If we had all those GAA players coming into rugby maybe we would be different

Fogarty must not have sent the scrum memo to Dickson!

Very interesting to read the CJBotha analysis of the scrum.

I remember Joe Schmidt used to send a detailed referee report to the Six Nations after games.

And it used to annoy Nigel Owens apparently! '50 things we got wrong...', 'We'd just not reply', 'the best coaches would send you a handful of things' - We'll Sorry Nigel!

Scrum was also the focal point of JS reports of Barnes and Gardner games v Wales in 2015 (Barnes..and im sure many others of his games) and 2019 (Gardner).

It didn't do Ireland any favours over the years. Owens comments are a case in point.

Dickson (again), Raynal (v England '22), Barnes (again. And again. And yet again), have all created the perception that Ireland can be penalsed at scrum.

Not sure what is the next step for Ireland...'Perception is reality until proven otherwise'

Ref change for Sunday's game

Brousset replaced by Luke Pearce

I doubt anyone can complain about that switch