Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Finding the narrative around this series to be getting worse and worse. Feels like we've been brought down to their level too, after weeks of badgering from the Boks, a few questionable refereeing decisions has blown the whole thing up.

In general I'm finding them to be incredibly distasteful

In general I'm finding them to be incredibly distasteful

I think it all comes from the top tbh, but they are a particularly classless bunch of men.

The TMO is doign what during this period?

In Pearce's defence, you could hear Whitehouse over the comms saying it was "just a collision" or something similar, and that's how the TMO system is supposed to work.

Quite how Whitehouse came to that conclusion is unclear given it was very obvious what Snyman was up to, but he did review it.

I was reacting to basically every podcast asking what happened between him and the ref, and talking about it like its a problem.

You also don't HAVE to be the captain at your club to be an international captain, but wouldn't the experience help? By implication, you seem to be saying he isn't?

Its not really here nor there whether Pierce's behaviour was 'acceptable'. He's supposed to be managed by the captain. That's always how rugby has worked.

Some relatively good news at least. Bar Casey and Sheehan it looks like everyone is available for selection.

Modern scrummaging is basically politics anyway, so its smart to get your message out there. Effective messages contain some element of truth, and honestly this one is at least partially true.

Whitehouse is a liability, any game I seen him in he wants to run the show and take over from the ref, it turns into the Whitehouse show with him missing glaring issues but finding stupid issues which he can be f**king around for minutes on replays.

In the England v Oz game it was seamless that morning, TMO decision in background, ref would call peno, one replay on screen and game went on, so it can be done. not the sh*tshow we had

Pearce is in the position he's in because he's relatively good at it. Take him out and promote someone else and maybe you get someone who communicates better, but they are probably less good overall. Be careful what you wish for.

If Doris was talking to the ref a lot before he was made captain and irritated him that's an issue. I'm impressed by how on the ball Doris seems to be in picking up things in real time when everything's happening at a million miles an hour, but he has to pick his moments, and say things with the aim of getting the ref to watch out for something next time.

I like Pearse, I still think he can't talk to a captain like that.

It would be a statement to all ref's they need to talk to a captain and stop this bulls**t of declaring on the pitch they don't want to talk to them

As I said at the same time the constant chatter from players has to stop, so it goes both ways.

If Ireland have POM as captain and he is going off after 40 mins or whatever, the ref should be aware it will be Doris as captain after that and so he gets the respect, but only after POM is off. Before that Doris is just another player so no chatter

Refs should never have to tolerate players speaking rudely or dismissively to them.

Captains should never have to tolerate Refs speaking rudely if dismissively to them.

Pearse is a top class international referee who chose to rely on Whitehouse, who is not a top class international referee. The Referee is the sole arbiter of fact, not the TMO.

He def captained leinster in some games before 2005 just from memory.

Either way though he was a lion and already considered one of the best irish players of all time when he was made captain.

It doesn't seem comparable to Doris who seems to have two current irish players ahead of him for the job at Leinster. Even if you said Ryan might not start, ringrose will once he gets a run of fitness again.

Also, Doris is having problems in his limited time, so its not unreasonable to let him be captain at leinster first. He has nowhere near the profile in the public or ref's eyes that BOD had.

Laughed out loud when Pearce called that penalty against us. SA player cartwheeling through our side of the ruck, perfectly fine. McCarthy laying flat on the ground, not interfering with the ruck, penalty SA.

Pearce seemed to be annoyed that multiple players were saying things to him at one stage, when he fussed out Doris. That is one area where Ireland as team could look at themselves. Bit more discipline in that respect would help to prevent getting on the wrong side of refs. I thought Pearce's treatment of Doris was totally unacceptable at that stage, and I wish Doris had said that to him. Respect is a two way street, and if the captain is having to bring up multiple things in a short space of time, it might be an indication that a ref isn't doing great. It's all well and good for a ref to realise his errors in the post game review, but it doesn't help a team who lost in part because of them.

I find this is a negligent attitude in particular with Irish rugby medics, “ah he’s grand let him play on”, “ah that’s not a concussion ref, look at me Ryan you’re grand”. It’s all very hush hush and authoritarian. They use their credentials to hamper player safety because they’re driven by a ruthless rugby philosophy/mentality of winning at all costs. “Our lads are so tough they’ll play on with an injury.”

It especially started at schoolboy level with some of the big 5 schools where players were coached to play to the whistle until the strict concussion protocols were brought in. But it is still common occurrence in all the provinces and clubs around the country and I’m sick of it. When you see the condition of guys like Carl Hayman and Steve Thompson you really worry for players who are kept on the pitch when they really shouldn’t be. Frawley just two months ago in the Heineken cup was in bad nick wobbling and falling down and he was kept on and had to make another tackle while still delirious.

Thats a harsh assessment of the Irish Locks skillset. Ryan > JK…but opinions and all that!

McCarthy is about 10kg too big to be an 8.

Ryan had an avg RWC and I dont think hes played very well this season.

WR just put up the RWC match!

I hope for a similar opening 42 secs this time…..

The lineout and penalty decions get worse on each viewing.

4 consecutive pens kicked to touch (lost them all!!).

5th pen kicked to touch Ryan & win. Pen SA!

its kind of amazing that Ireland still managed to win that game.