Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

He had a couple of outings in NZ that might have been described the same way.

Looks like Larmour & Harry Byrne in the side this week.

On the bench according to Gerry Thornley’s prediction;

Ireland v Italy (possible): Keenan; Nash, Henshaw, McCloskey, Lowe; Crowley, Murray; Porter, Sheehan, Bealham, McCarthy, Ryan, Baird, Doris, Conan. 

Replacements: Kelleher, Healy/Loughman, O’Toole, Henderson/Beirne, van der Flier, Casey/Gibson-Park, H Byrne, Larmour.

GT suggests that any player with a slight knock will be rested (specifically Furlong, POM, JGP and Aki, with Beirne’s minutes being managed).

With Ryan and Doris both tipped to start it’ll be interesting to see who would be the captain. I believe Doris took on the role at the end of Friday’s match when both were on the pitch together.

There are far more changes in that side than I expected. Might be the biggest shift in squad selection Farrell has ever made from one game to the next.

If it's to keep players fresh and to heal up niggles it's completely understandable. Would worry that it's an unfamiliar side that might get coughs on the hop a bit.

Murray, good lord.

Otherwise, very strong team, I like it. Beirne is obviously one of the first names on the team sheet, but for this game as he's played so much this season, would like to see Henderson in. He probably won't feature otherwise.

On that possible team would prefer Crowley to play again with JGP & Aki if possible. But understand if players rested due to knocks?

There's one called Scholars that has rugby on. Give them a buzz I'd say, I watched a Munster match in there before. Think they do food, it's your typical enough Irish pub abroad, nice staff

Think the proposed team shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. A couple more changes than anticipated due to knocks but it's very much in line with previous years when Ireland have made 5-7 changes for this fixture. Those who weren't in attendance at training aren't predicted to start with the exception of Bealham who was absent due to the birth of his child.

Somewhat unexepected about the two changes in the backline and I'd imagine that's just as much about giving some rest to guys as it is knocks as Aki and JGP appeared to be fully involved in training on Tuesday.

I wouldn't be concerned about Italy, particularly. Not quite sure where this idea that they'll put it up to us is coming from. If they do, it will be against expectations. They're without two of their most influential forwards and their depth is much less than ours. Yes, they pushed England last week but in that middle third of the game, England blew them away and absolutely dominated possession and the scoreboard. Ireland should have far more cohesion in attack.

If Ireland can get their defence right and not concede sloppy scores (which isn't a guarantee if they're relaxed) then I'd expect a 30+ point win.

I think the murray ahead of casey pick would be the one headscratcher

I'm perfectly fine with the team but there aren't any new faces at all really, everyone is an experienced international. In fact there's one very old face who shouldn't be in the extended panel nevermind starting a 6N game.