Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

In hindsight we probably shouldn't have started Hansen either. It's clear he wasn't fit and JOB made a much better impression against the New Zealand defence. Broke multiple tackles iirc

For the man himself I'm delighted POM got a chance to captain the team to a 6 nations, I'd much prefer we have moved on however with Baird starting and Thomas Ahern on the bench. Also at scrum half I'd prefer to see Murray dropped and Casey or an alternative on the bench. I think there are plenty examples to show that Andy is an very loyal & conservative selector whatever your provincial bias. Results have been on the whole very good, but it is very fair to ask what might have been had he subbed Sexton pure speculation I know but I think AF got it wrong or bottled the decision. I think Sexton's status, historic reaction to being subbed when not injured etc all contributed to that at least subconsciously.

As for Prendergast, when he makes a Leinster squad for a Champions Cup game with both Byrne brothers fit then we can consider him for Ireland squads other than that, he is not ready for it, the people who see him every day who's jobs are on the line when they put a team out will know first.

Jamie George too. Sure he's 33, there's no way he'll make it to the next World Cup!!!!

Same with Antonio in France. Imagine talking a 34 year old prop out of international retirement instead of bringing in new talent. It's inconceivable!!!

I still think he was right to keep the lads like POM in situ for this 6N. It could have been a disaster without sexton, we were missing a main playmaker in Mack, and he wanted to make one of our inexperienced locks part of the main team.

If it hadn't worked out the way it did, our new captain could easily have been in charge of a 3rd/4th place finish, and suddenly questions are getting asked about who's at fault and are the new guys really up for it. If that happened with a couple of older players still there, then we have the easy fix of moving them on.

I'd be confident that neither Murray or POM will be there by November (barring some daft injury crisis), and I could even see some of the changes happening by/during the SA tour.

Genuinely think it's just as likely Wales make the semis in 2027 as we do.

Not sure what impact Crowley would have had to make McCarthy hit a clear out properly. The team went right down the pitch at the death to inside the NZ 22. Sexton was key in that, despite not making runs himself. The game was lost because of a defensive breakdown for Jordan's try and Kelleher butchering a walk over maul.

This idea that Crowley could have come on and changed things up ignores what transpired. It's a supposition based on a fantasy.

Well we also would have expected a drop off without sexton, and I think we managed that pretty well for the most part. In that context, I don't think it's useful to see it as a decline.

We can only beat what was put in front of us. England beat us this year, but last year they were down to 14 for a lot of that game and it made the difference.

The main thing I'd like to see us do now, is work on what we do in situations where we can't get into our phase-play rhythm. England last year, England this year, SA in the WC group and some parts of the QF (though not all of it) felt kind of similar. I'm not sure we really overcame it in any of them.

Putting aside your usual red biased hyperbole, that's an obviously nonsense statement. If sexton was just shoveling the ball on, we wouldn't have had the organization to go 60ms down the pitch. Who do you feel was marshalling the attack at that stage, if not sexton?

I swear folks didn't even watch the qf with some of the takes that come out on here

as great as gaining all that territory was, in reality ireland never really looked like scoring and probably only got as close as they did as they needed a try and not just a three-pointer. whether or not crowley would have made a difference is debatable - he probably would have provided more of a threat himself but maybe having a player with sexton's experience was more important at that stage despite how tired he was

I'll repeat (as an Irish rugby fan) Sexton wasn't key to us getting up the field. He was close to being a passenger on the team from about the 70th minute.