(9.) (am EST :
Teams
Research shows that most people in the world are comfortable with change as long it is mostly the same but a little bit of difference. For example, moving desks at work is OK as long as you get to keep your pictures and not end up next to that tosser who bangs on about Crossfit all the time.
Farrell has started his period of change with, on the face of it, a similar approach. Small numbers of changes have been made, some forced (Herring for the retired Best, Conway for the crocked Earls) and some unforced, and that’s where it gets more interesting. The titanic Munsterman, Peter O’Mahony, is on the bench to accommodate a move to blind-side for his clubmate CJ Stander while arguably the breakthrough player of the year, Caelan Doris, starts at Eight. O’Mahony has not been in the best form this year, but it’s still a big call and suggest Farrell wants a little bit more obvious brute force physicality from his back row. Conor Murray has fought off the creeping threat of the red hot John Cooney to start and Devin Toner is back on the bench after his World Cup exile.
Adam Hastings is in at fly-half for Scotland in place of the absent Finn Russell, who left the squad after a disagreement over booze and was last seen in Dubai with some booze, so that’s all going very well for all concerned, eh? Oh ..
Nick Haining makes his debut in an all-Edinburgh back row and Huw Jones returns after he appears to have turned around his profound dip in form from last year.
Ireland: – Jordan Larmour, 24 – Andrew Conway, Garry Ringrose,
– Bundee Aki, – Jacob Stockdale, 21 – Jonathan Sexton (captain), 9-Conor Murray; 1-Cian Healy; 2-Rob Herring, 3-Tadhg Furlong, 4-Iain Henderson, 5-James Ryan, 6-CJ Stander, 7-Josh van der Flier, 8-Caelan Doris
Replacements: – Ronan Kelleher, – Dave Kilcoyne, 30 – Andrew Porter, – Devin Toner, – Peter O’Mahony, – John Cooney, 31 – Ross Byrne, – Robbie Henshaw
Scotland: – Stuart Hogg (captain), – Sean Maitland, – Huw Jones, 24 – Sam Johnson, – Blair Kinghorn, 21 – Adam Hastings, 9-Ali Price; 1-Rory Sutherland, 2-Fraser Brown, 3-Zander Fagerson, 4-Scott Cummings, 5-Jonny Gray, 6-Jamie Ritchie, 7-Hamish Watson, 8-Nick Haining
Replacements: – Stuart McInally, – Allan Dell, 30 – Simon Berghan, – Ben Toolis, – Cornell du Preez, 33 – George Horne, 34 – Rory Hutchinson, – Chris Harris
)
9. (AM) (EST)
:
Preamble
Welcome to our coverage of the first visit of the (Six Nations) to Dublin in this outing.
There’s been quite a bit of transition talk in the past hours, and this will continue here as Ireland face the first challenge of the post-Schmidt era. Andy Farrell doesn’t have to bother himself with future trading relationships and borders and the like, but he will be mindful of some voices off murmuring that, for all his coaching achievements, none of them were with him as a head coach. Can he hack being the head honcho? The fact that he captained Wigan while most lads his age were still obsessing over whether they would get served without ID and then his country while still one of the youngest in the squad suggests that the burden of responsibility was never really a burden at all.
The men he is charged with rallying have been in quite the funk for the best part of a year; Playing a limited gameplan with diminishing returns and a whiff of not all being happy at the dog end of the Joe Schmidt’s previously successful reign. It’s a lot to take on with your first head role, and Farrell’s team will be expected to win here against a Scotland team
shorn of their mercurial superstar, Finn Russell .
Lose here, or labor to an unconvincing win, and some of those murmurings about lack of experience could become more full throated, but it should still be a while before any fat ladies start warming up their vocal chords.
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings