Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Good win - without ever needing to get out of third gear IMO.

Pack absolutely strangled the life out of them - I can rarely remember a game where one team practically didn't fire a shot like this. Italians barely got into our half yesterday.

Set piece was very good - scrum was well on top before we changed the props, and 100% from our line out again.

Irish Times had a stat about 71% of our attacking rucks yesterday lasting under 3 seconds, which pretty much explains why the Italians were chasing shadows all day. Doris, Baird & Ryan really led the way on this front.

Everyone rates Dan Sheehan, but in a weird way I still feel he almost doesn't get the credit he deserves. This is a guy who delivers 8/10 at a minimum every single week. He's an incredible try scorer, a massive hitter in defence, great at clearing ruck ball, brilliant carrier and his lineout throwing has been flawless of late. He's probably the best hooker in the world right now.

Superb game from Jack Crowley again IMO - he's playing like a guy who is full of confidence and it's great to see. His handling was superb in the first half especially, and his carrying is adding a new dimension to our attack.

Craig Casey was busy around the park and the experience will stand to him. His kicking is the weakest part of his game - both in terms of execution and the decision around when to kick. He also needs to be smarter about when to snipe around the opposition line, but his pass is still excellent and he brings a good energy / tempo to our play. He's still the closest replica to JGP we have, even if he's obviously not at that level yet.

Thought the centres were superb. Henshaw made numerous line breaks and some great reads in defence too. I think right now Aki/Henshaw has to be the first choice centre pairing going forward. I thought McCloskey had a superb game - his offloading game has always been top class, but his passing in general was really good yesterday. He made two or three tries yesterday.

Back three were all good. Hugo was his excellent self, cutting them to pieces and covering everywhere in defence. Lowe is crucial to Ireland and Leinster in terms of how our backline attacks. Nash has been busy and is good at taking chances when presented - that's all you can ask of a winger.

As usual, got scrappier when the bench was introduced. Thought Harry Byrne had a decent to good cameo, showed some nice touches and played very flat to the line, putting guys in space a few times. JGP showed some nice touches. Replacement props both struggled a bit I felt.

Overall - the team is playing well, our set piece has been better than we'd have potentially feared, our attack and defence both look good and cohesive. The new guys we've bedded in have all been better than we'd have hoped, and both Crowley and McCarthy are adding new dimensions to our backline and pack.

No, I don't think he is, but it's as much about how much better Sheehan keeps getting than anything else.

If there was a Lions tour in the morning, I'd still expect Kelleher to be one of those selected.

The point on our depth is really valid - Stuart McCloskey is arguably our fourth choice centre and I think he'd start for every other 6N country apart from France. Henderson is fourth choice lock and is better than what most of our competitors have, same with guys like Jack Conan & Finlay Bealham.

Wales are in full rebuild but their real problems are in Welsh regional and club rugby. There won't be much point to Gatland's rebuild if they're relying on English clubs to develop most of their players in five years time.

England are undergoing a bit more of a rebuild than some people think. Their initial squad called up seven uncapped players and nine with less than ten caps. Some of those inexperienced players went straight into the starting team. Their first and second choice captains aren't playing anymore. They're also rebuilding their defensive system and tweaking their kicking game again. It's almost four weeks until we play them so I'd expect them to give us a more difficult game if they cut out their defensive errors. They'll still be poor in attack.

Scotland are their usual basket case. Just when they could be close to their strongest for years they can't perform. Maybe they'll turn it on for a game in two weeks just because England are in Murrayfield.

...and who know with the French. 🤷‍♂️ The club game is back in charge there and half the players are probably flogged after rolling two seasons together.

We're comfortably the best team in the 6N and we should take advantage to win a GS.