Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

I'm not worried about Jack. The issue I have is 9 & 10 are the most important positions on the field besides tight head prop and in that position we have Casey who, to my knowledge has only had tier 1 starts versus Italy, and Crowley who's only really been our starting 10 this 6N. I mean individually they are both good but I would have gathered them being next to someone more experienced.

Oh its the who were allowed to talk about police. Good fun

You don't get it though, its not about facts or logic. Its all about supporting a narrative that SA are forward thinking and everything is great whereas Ireland are old and past it….despite the facts pointing to the contrary. It makes we skeptical of everything that has been written in the preview to this game as none of it adds up

We have an inexperienced 9/10 axis at international level.

A second row with 11 caps

A brand new 15 with his first cap
A winger with 6 caps

All in the first team. Yeah the claims here is the team is predictable, nobody gets a chance, too conservative etc etc etc

As you say some people will be more than happy to see Osbourne have a poor game so they can run to the web with the "told you so posts", similar to when Henshaw was tried at 15 v England and people today, 5 years later, bring that up. A game which wasn't won or lost by the backs.

The options to play conservative was open to Farrell, he didn't pick them. Yet people are still moaning on here about it.

No No you asked for some rotation of players into the team that means you must be enthusiastic about a player being played out of position or your s hypocrite 🙄

The people claiming others like to be annoyed themselves like to be. Already multiple comments about people wanting to jump on osbourne if he plays poorly, im not sure iv seen anyone say a bad word about him most are very excited for him as a player to think its odd for a player to play his second senior game of rugby at 15 vs the world champions is odd is not unreasonable at all

It's a bit of a bizarre selection, but I've so little hype for this series it's difficult to be bothered by it.

About time Casey got a big start, no longevity in our other options.

I love this selection for a game we are expected to lose that is low stakes. This is what Summer tours should be about, build the team for next season and beyond. Hopefully Osborne does well and puts pressure on Keenan for the shirt. Hopefully Casey and Crowley can replicate some of the higher tempo play we like from JGP and gain more confidence together in green. The boks are the ones wetting the bed on social media, very little pressure on us for this match whereas if they lose Ireland establish themselves as a bogey treat for them and Rassie loses a little more cognition next week. Bring it on.

How Casey measures up in size to Du Pont and de Klerk is what Casey should be aiming at, in particular how Du Pont supports on the inside which provides half his tries, de Klerk is exceptional in the back field covering kicks, both not much bigger than Casey but more powerful and way ahead in the brains dept,.

Dupont does (and has probably dropped a couple of kilos to prepare for the Olympics). FDK doesn't though according to the available stats. His fitness is outrageous which allows him be everywhere and, as mentioned above, he's a very smart player. You rarely see him make a bad decision or do something silly despite touching the ball 50+ times in a game. He became first choice for SA at 24 and hasn't looked back. Those smarts/consistency is what Casey should aspire to but I'm not sure he has that capability (which is no criticism given the level we're talking about here).

I don't think Casey can really bulk up much. He's not skinny. He's just a small guy. FDK is the same weight but has a couple of inches on him. If Casey puts on 5kg, he'll find it hard going to keep playing with the same tempo as he is known for.

Players who have started at FB this season