Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

I was waiting for the uproar over Frisch

Not sure how many changes there will be, but there needs to be some changes for saturdays game.

I would swap Hendo and McCarthy onto the bench. Possibly Behlam for Furlong. POM off at 50 mins if not benched for Baird altogether.

Reverting to a 5/3 split allows Casey back on the bench. Think Ringrose might make the bench as well, but that might be harsh on Mccloskey.

Would like Ringrose on wing, Baird to start, then subs of Casey( really should be Blade , but it wont be, may not even be Casey ) McCloskey , Harry Byrne . Then Henderson, Conan, Jager/ Bealham( prefer Bealham but they like Jager , Healy and Kelleher .

why would you start the best 13 on the wing though?

but playing the best players on the pitch would be playing a winger on the wing rather than a centre..........

If we've to start ringrose at 14 it really says alot of where we are with cover in that position.

More importantly it sends a complete lack of trust message to the wider squad that we have to move a 13 to the wing.

Couldn't see the 'best squad/camp' vibes that have been spoken about in the past lasting too long then

Faz will go with what's been around the wider squad already & it's prob Larmour if Nash is out

England deserved to win that match.

Dear god give me strength. Playing for a championship and you want to put a rusty, lacking fitness and match sharpness on the wing where he is grossly out of position. Even Stockdale for all his faults I'd put there before Ringrose. If Ringrose is fit to make the pitch it's at 13 and no where else. Sure while were at it, give Aki a rest and put Doris at 12.

McCarthy on the bench, Hendo to start. Sheehan to bench, Kelleher to start.

This is a crunch match, think we would all agree that the best possible 15 and bench has to be selected to set us up in the best way possible to win this match. By "freshen up" do you mean improve the starting 15 due to those that started last week being a bit tired and banged up?

If all players are recuperating fully, and I assume they will, I would start with our strongest available 15, which I believe is:

(1-8) Porter, Sheehan, Bealham, Beirne, McCarthy, O'Mahony, Van der Flier, Doris,

(9-15) Gibson-Park, Crowley, Lowe, Aki, Henshaw*, Larmour**, Keenan.

* I don't think it would be wise to bring Ringrose back in at this point, he could be OK or he could be terribly rusty, this match is too high stakes.

** I don't think Nash should be allowed play after that concussion last week.

Bench: (5/3 split) Kelleher, Healy, Furlong, Henderson, Baird, Murray, H Byrne, Stockdale.

I think Bealham has to start, Furlong doesn't seem to be adding anything beyond the scrum which I think Bealham can also lock out but offers more in the loose.

Conan would be unlucky to miss out, but feel we need cover in the backline and Baird is a more versatile option.

O'Mahony and Murray would need a good performance to address the criticisms levelled at them from last weekend which I think they would deliver.

Henderson was awful off the bench last weekend, Joe wasn't good either but not sure Henderson has done anything to get ahead of him.

Someone pointed out on Twitter that warming up with the team were McCloskey and Stockdale - a fit Ringrose might leapfrog McCloskey for the bench but it looks like if it's not Nash, it's Stockdale rather than Larmour.

To say the least unfortunately.

Stockdale is not starting on the right wing.

I would think he was in Twickenham primarily as backup to Lowe.

Imagine him attempting to defend against van der Merwe!

It would be nonsensical to select him over Larmour.

Stockdale would be a gaff, imo. I donate him anymore. Henderson could give us a good 50 minutes. I think it's obvious the Joe McCarthy hasn't played as well as he did in the opener. He's an International newbie! No harm in having him sprung from the bench.

We will beat the Scots and think we are world's best again but we have major problems, scrum always liable to give away penalties against the top teams and lineout is unreliable so POC may have to go, POM is a great leader but too old now and contributes very little in open play, time for baird or Doris to 6 and conan to 8 maybe, the 6-2 split needs 2 reserve backs in Murray and frawley who can't get on their provincial team so that's not ideal, we also have an aging team so need to start blooding guys