Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Don't Think you need to bring in soccer you couldn't any sport and while rugby was ahead it's dropped back a fair bit in recent times and social medias making things worse. Some people on sidelines will criticise refs for missing things when they've all the camera views etc and refs in general see things once. But those same people will never have the courage to take up the whistle.

You Can't have that strict set up where any player bar captain says anything to captain gets a yellow.. within reason and in right context there has to be dialogue between ref and players to ensure game is played to the best it can no matter what the level

The excuse that refs have only a second to see and make a decision is just that, an excuse.

Most of the talking points from the game last Saturday were reviewed by the officials but they still missed stuff.

One thing that really annoys me, when officials are reviewing a possible try, they often miss what the defenders are doing, like no arm tackles when trying to get the ball carrier into touch, the sliding tackle (knees first) goes unpunished in most cases.

It's not an excuse because if they tried to move things on you would then have people like you criticising them for not reviewing things. They can't win with yourattitude towards officials.

Maybe they're not missing or ignoring what defenders are doing. You can't and won't pull up anything that breaks the law to stop the awarding of a try

Rugby was always managed like that - strictly no crap allowed by the ref or else a penalty or move penalty 10m or yellow card etc. I see rugby now and the discipline in terms of respect to the ref has plummeted. And it needs to be addressed.

You're attacking the poster here, again.

There are loads of posts on the match thread and on this thread since the match about stuff the officials missed, take it up with those posters.

He's athletic enough to play 8 i think and he has a very 8 centric skill set. I think ideally also you would really load him up with carries to get the most out of him. 120kg is heavy but not insane.

Christ he is clueless

It's not the first and Im sure won't be the last strange recommendation

From standing beside and talking to Big Joe, he is called big Joe for a reason

Conan was beside of as well and looked tiny in comparison, yet would be classed as a big number 8.

This might explain better 😂

He's 6'5/6'6 120kg roughly. He's not will skelton or meafou who i probably spelled wrong.

There is no chance that ireland turn him into a tractor lock. Part of that skill set is typically absolutely destroying guys at the breakdown and that's not his game.

I mean if you had any reading comprehension at all (and the four people who liked it and also can't read?) the context was within the discussion of whether he would play for south africa or not.

I'm not surprised given your history but still.. be better.

Mod: Warned

Well, you stood near people in real life! So, i'm not going to question your knowledge on this.

Oh here we go - dispense your wisdom on the greatness of South African tight head locks please.

By the way - here are some rucking stats for you that you were looking for the other day. Using URC stats and comparing locks this season:

I looked at a quick sample set of locks, (Joe McCarthy, Eben Etzebeth, Iain Henderson, James Ryan, Tadhg Beirne, RG Snyman and Joe Joyce (Connacht), Alan O'Connor and Harry Sheridan.

McCarthy is by far out in front amongst the carrying stats - he has the highest dominant carry % (43.8%), second on the list is Etzebeth (41.9%)(despite your telling us he isn't a carrier and that isn't his game). Average of the group is 33.1%, and worst is Tadhg Beirne on 18.8%.

McCarthy also tops in Gainline % - 61%, Etzebeth by contrast there is on 46.9%, average for the group is 47%, worst is Iain Henderson on 29.4%.

On the offensive rucking effectiveness stats the two leaders are Tadhg Beirne (93.7%) and James Ryan (92.6%). Joe McCarthy has a very respectable (and above average) 82.4%, just marginally behind the supposedly almighty king of rucking Eben Etzebeth on 83.3%. Bottom of the pile (jointly) is Iain Henderson and Joe Joyce, both on around 75%. Only other players ahead of McCarthy are Beirne, Ryan & Snyman.

Joe McCarthy is a better tackler than either of the South African TH locks, who are both bottom of the list. Etzebeth has a much lower quantum of tackles (and lower minutes), but his tackle completion stats are 89.9%, Snyman last of this group on 89.6%. Joe McCarthy is middle of the pack on 91.4%, while best of this group is Sheridan (94.2%).

McCarthy is way out in front in number of dominant tackles - 13 - and the highest dominant tackle percentage at 14%, ahead of Etzebeth on 10.3%. Average is 7%, and Beirne is in last on 2.9%.

He has the second highest number of breakdown steals of the group with 3, Beirne leads the way on 6.

While Etzebeth has by far the highest defensive ruck effectiveness % at a staggering 40%, this is offset massively by the fact he only is credited with hitting 5 defensive rucks (when the average for this cohort is 34.

McCarthy's defensive ruck effectiveness is an acceptable 13.2%, which places him ahead of RG Snyman (12.8%), James Ryan (3.7%), Alan O'Connor (3.3%), Joe Joyce (7.7%) and only marginally behind Tadhg Beirne (15.2%) and Iain Henderson (15%).

All of this is to dispel the utter nonsense that has been spouted on here in recent days about how he's some sort of one trick pony, when the reality is his stats measure up really well against this cohort of experienced locks on any metric. There is no single stat tracked here where he is below average, and multiple stats where he tops the charts (offensive and defense).

His rucking stats are broadly similar to RG Snyman offensively and defensively (off very similar minutes and a likely tougher slate of opponents)(Snyman offensive rucking c. 3% higher, McCarthy defensive ruck 2% higher), and only marginally behind Etzebeth.

Yea, i saw that advanced stat URC stats. If they are correct Edwin Edogbo is the best lock on the island. I find that a bit questionable.

This isn't even baseball in 2004 never mind 2024. And all you need to see that is look at his 'average' offensive ruck stats and then watch him in a game and wonder where the hell that came from.

Your argument is actually he's a two trick pony rather than one. Ok.

When did i say cullen or farrell shouldn't play him at lock?

Nobody said they did

But trying to say every player who doesn’t play for SA is now bang average doesn’t really cut it

Plenty of times the claims on here is that SA players are better than others just based on having a WC medal

That’s not how it works