Six Nations: Why Ireland fans want Andy Farrell to roll the dice - Stephen Ferris
- Published
There is no perfect time for Farrell to give his young players a chance from the start
Oh how Andy Farrell would have loved to start life as Ireland's head coach with a nice little summer tour to North America.
Can you imagine the freedom he would have had to tweak his line-up if his reign began with three Tests against the USA?
Let's try Max Deegan at eight, not that effective? No bother, we'll put him at six the next game. While we're at it, let's give Andrew Porter a go on both sides of the scrum and give Billy Burns and Ross Byrne 80 minutes each to see how they link-up with John Cooney.
As it happens his head coaching baptism is being held in the greatest rugby competition in the northern hemisphere, where the scope for trying things out is a little smaller.
I know I speak for a lot of fans when I say I would happily forego one or two Six Nations wins if it meant blooding some of the talented kids at Ireland's disposal.
I want to see Ireland evolve into something more dynamic, not always so pragmatic. I want to see a team that tries to play with the shackles off a bit more.
But that is me as a fan. If I was a player in the Ireland dressing room, I would say to hell with experimentation. To hell with seeing what works.
Here's how Johnny Sexton and his team will be seeing things: we have played one game, played pretty badly, but won. The Championship is still on.
Farrell's team for the Wales game is a nod to the perceived significance of experience.
But here's the thing: experience doesn't guarantee success.
We had plenty of it in Japan and it didn't help.
Looking at Ireland's 2020 schedule and beyond, there is no perfect opportunity for experimentation but we need to see Ireland try something different, freshen things up.
It's not a jibe against Peter O'Mahony who was excellent against Scotland last week, but I'd love to have seen Max Deegan get a run out from the start, let's see what he can offer.
As a fan I want to see the team evolving, we want to see more line-breaks and higher intensity and that is going to require a new approach.
Murray and Cooney faced the press together on Monday
Case in point is the scrum-half debate.
I am one of the many people who believe John Cooney has earned his shot in the number nine jersey.
We don't need to go over the well-told form guide or the stats book, nor do we need to go over Conor Murray's CV.
The bottom line, as Ronan O'Gara said earlier this week, is that the noise for John Cooney is not going to go away.
It is, at some stage, going to happen and whether it will be a permanent shift in the hierarchy or not remains to be seen.
Like the rest of Ireland I want the old Conor Murray back - only he knows why his form has dipped over the last two years and it remains to be seen if he can come back again.
Bad Murray performance doesn't automatically bode well for Cooney
In retaining Murray for the Wales game, Farrell has created a potentially tricky scenario for Cooney.
If Conor fails to deliver again this weekend, John could be wheeled out against England at Twickenham in two weeks' time.
He would back himself to perform in that game every day of the week, but let's face it, England away is a tough ask for any player let alone one trying to prove why he deserves a regular starting spot.
A final thought on the scrum-half debate is word on the professionalism of both players.
Neither player has felt the need to talk themselves up in public, or even issue subtle hints about their place in the pecking order. Both of them are up for leaving all their talking to the training pitch.
Ireland's back row received plaudits after their win over Scotland last Saturday
Ireland did not click against Scotland, and they will probably know that the better team lost on the day. That won't bother them one bit though, I have played plenty of rugby matches and the better team doesn't always win.
Defensively Ireland did leave the Aviva Stadium with some credit, especially the back row whose work on the ground was exceptional.
'Soak tackles' won't be enough against England
I didn't like everything I saw from the back row though, and here the stats do them a service that masks an area of concern.
Josh van der Flier gets a lot of credit for his tackling stats, he had 15 on Saturday but I guarantee you a fair few of those were soak tackles.
A soak tackle is when you absorb the impact and pull a player down to the ground.
That's alright against Scotland, but those tackles won't be much use against the bigger, more dynamic lads Ireland will meet in the next few weeks.
When you come up against the best team you're going to have to stop them dead or push them back. At the moment Pete doesn't do it, van der Flier certainly doesn't do it and CJ Stander only does it now and again.
Curry and Underhill are sitting lads on their backside every single game - that has to be the standard.
Tackling people around the ankles against New Zealand or South Africa, or England in the Six Nations, isn't going to do it for you.
Stephen Ferris was speaking to BBC Sport's Michael Morrow.