Fit-again Alex Mitchell set to play his first match in 140 days

Sopoaga was playing in NZ in 2017? and Anscombe had already been playing for Wales for years making him ineligible?

Mo'unga and Frizzell are the first 2 prime age ABs to permanently leave NZ to play overseas in nearly 10 years.

The big comparison in my mind would be the hype job around Harry Byrne, fantastic at club level excellent vision but couldn’t consistently operate at that level in Heineken Cup rugby or International rugby, Sam on the other hand while you can rightfully point out Fiji didn’t provide the most competitive opposition its also worth remembering he was in a much changed team on his second cap.

His skill execution is top notch even his spiral bomb that went out on the full was done under immense pressure but was inches away from being a highlight reel moment. His passing and his vision are excellent and the fact that he’s so young is what amazes a lot of us in Ireland.

I’m obviously blue lenses but it’s worth mentioning some of his detractors are very red biased and don’t like the idea of a Leinster wunderkid coming out of nowhere and usurping the guy they’ve been hyping.

Hopefully he has a breakout year with Leinster now, a few of us reckon by picking him to start Farrell is justifying putting pressure on Cullen to pick him more often from now on.

Like I said above I’ve been watching him play for a long while and the hype is very much justified, he could have it all cut short but his attitude is incredibly professional always has been and his skill level is off the chart, if he had a bit more pace he’d have the potential to have sextons brains and bods skills. I feel ridiculous saying that but he has the potential to be genuinely that good.

What cut Larmours career short in particular is that he had a very good step on him but his nuts and bolts skills weren’t up to par and once defences copped on and didn’t rush him or give him space to work with his effectiveness decreased he also had a season or two where he overbulked and lost a lot of pace he’s a strange case unfortunately.

I would hesitate to do so,as you have to tally the positives along with the negatives...

That Fiji game was a strange one. Ireland just seemed to smother them. and they made a lot of mistakes. Caleb Muntz did not get into the game to any great extent, apart from the one pice of brilliance. Also felt the Holly Davidson made some 50/50's against Fiji that gave Ireland momentum they might not have had. So I felt it was not a test of Sam playing in a tougher game.

Australia may well be a tougher test, though if Ireland play the way they did last week, could be a tough return to Dublin for Joe.

I guess the bottom line is that I am a Crowley man till Sam proves to me he is the best player at 10 for Ireland. And you are right in spades full...."Having Crowley there as well with both of them competing should help make them both reach their full potential."

Out of interest, where do you live in Ireland ?