I’m yet to see Project Hail Mary, but I feel ‘20 minutes too long’ describes most of cinema nowadays.

He’s going to get a lot of Ireland caps if he keeps playing like that.

Quite amazing that Ireland have tried switching two TH over to LH and had it pay off in the last 10 years.

Stuart McCloskey just always involved. Incredible tournament from that man #IREvSCO

This game is incredible #IREvSCO

I really don’t see any other reason for Aki to be in at 23 to be honest.

Really good opportunity for Murray as well, as I’m sure we will want that impact off the bench in the last quarter.

In all seriousness though, every week I see people criticizing the players, their efforts or performances.

At what point do you start to wonder if it’s a systemic issue, and that maybe the manager is the problem?

Lots of people like to say they’re letting him down, I think he’s letting them down.

If only there was a person whose job it was to motivate, organise and set up the team.

Almost like someone who was managing the players…

It’s incredible how close they were to pulling off the win in Dublin, too.

Like, really fine margins from being in with a good chance of winning the whole thing next week.

I cannot wait for the year they win it.

This is it. It is just totally unserious for an official Government account to be posting stuff like that. You’d be embarrassed if the party you supported posted this, no question about it.

He’s not going to lead them into the next election.

The question is how soon he accepts that. Hopefully soon, before Labour do themselves any more unnecessary damage.

The commitment to the criticism of O’Gara was class, though. Threads that must’ve taken hours to piece together to argue that O’Gara wasn’t that good (oh and did you know he wasn’t great defensively) a full 10 years after he retired.

Incredible stuff.

Stuart McCloskey. Again. #ENGvIRE

If someone could clip up a Big Stu highlight reel after this match, I’d really appreciate it. #ENGvIRE

Baloucoune is having a stormer (again). So pleased for him to finally get his chance to show his class.

Stu McCloskey is just class.

That call on O’Brien is absolutely shocking. I thought we wanted contestable kicks in rugby?

The rugby gods really want us to build depth. And I’m ok with that.

I think we need more provinces.

In all seriousness though, we need more competitive games - whether it’s loans or more ‘A’ type fixtures at club level.

Like during 6 nations there could be a whole ‘A’ interpro series

I do think loans are only realistic for 1-2 players a year, so not a ‘solution’

Well it will be easier not having to deal with Champions League at the same time…

I really, really dislike this selection.

I am really hoping to be proven wrong and see an Irish win, but this 23 just isn’t it for me.

Genuinely hate this selection. Izzy out of the squad entirely?

We are still doing the Beirne at 6 thing?

5/3 bench but no Sam P?

Tommy O’Brien recall makes me question how fit Ringrose is too.

Got it. It does make me laugh the idea that Farrell is sat there thinking up ways to have the smallest squad possible.

Hybrid loosehead/tighthead, hybrid lock/flanker. Just surprises me he hasn’t picked Doak yet for his ability to cover 9 and 10.

Hmm, I don’t think this line necessarily contradicts Neil’s point.

Because it still means less props overall getting picked or going through the squad. He can rely on 4 - 5 guys who cover 1 and 3 rather than needing to trust 7 or 8.

Or he’ll just stick Bundee in there when he’s 37+ and can’t run 😉

And to follow up on your previous post, more and more I’m getting the impression that Andy doesn’t actually want to rebuild this team, but try and get through WC 27 with ‘his’ guys before he moves on.

I mean this team (with the exception of Crowley) is just a case of back to the ‘old reliables’ no?

And I don’t mean that in a particularly positive way.

I agree on this. I think the reason it comes across as so shocking is because Farrell doesn’t rotate his squad really - so any time anyone falls out of the 23 it really is a case of being ‘dropped’.

I’m all for a bit more tactical rotation, if this is the start of it.

It means you end up with guys in the team despite being terribly out of form (our outplayed), and relying on certain traits can hamper the playing style and gameplay, as opposed to enhancing it.

If big Joe isn’t running through people or dominating the breakdown, what is he actually providing?

Something that has really crystallized in my mind in the past few weeks is the Ireland coaching set up are all about ‘traits’

They look past shortcomings (or lack of form etc) for those with special or unique traits

Let alone whether or not they are putting out the best team to execute a game plan

I can’t see Izzy dropped after this weekend to be honest - he was our lineout against Italy.

The thing I struggle with on that rule is: you catch it and it’s an intercept try, you don’t catch it and it’s a penalty and yellow card?

I know sport is all about risk and reward, but those two outcomes seem to far apart.

It has to be a penalty, but I would like the yellow card bit to go.