Ireland vs England - 6N 2025 match thread

I guess you’ll have to forgive me for interpreting “He actually didn’t do very much” and “I think anyone naming Crowley in their team of the week is bit off their rocker” as disparaging.

Whatever about anything else, his first touch absolutely was an outstanding clearance kick. It was one of the best clearance kicks of the game. And I’d go as far as saying that every one of Crowley’s kicks from hand were better than all 3 of Prendergast’s kicks in the opening 10 minutes.

And again, this is an area where, supposedly, Prendergast has the upper hand.

More broadly, what you’re essentially doing is admitting there was a change of approach, admitting it worked well, but still judging Crowley as if there wasn’t one.

There was a very clear and concerted effort across the team to target England’s back 3 with kick pressure that was obviously pre-ordained, as soon as Marcus Smith was in the backfield. It’s very clear and obvious watching it back; not just Crowley, but I’m willing to bet all of Lowe, Keenan and Hansen upped their kick frequency during that period too.

That’s not happening by accident. You’ve literally admitted yourself that general phase play probably wasn’t what we were trying to do, but you’re still judging Crowley as if it were.

And I think that’s, at best, a mistake, and at worst, wilfully misleading.

Not really. Can you tell us, specifically, what he did so well?

Murphy's law of averages.

You never heard of an opinion?

I call 6 average, 7 good, 8 very good, 9 excellent and 10 out of this world.

5 is below average, 4 is not good, 3 is poor, 2 is awful and 1 is horrendous beyond belief.

I don't see Itoje as an England (or Lions) captain. Poor with BO'K & petulant. Captain Genge for me.

Itoje's general game of hanging around behind the breakdown is being negated by the new protections afforded scrum halves & he isn't adapting. Being last to arrive at a breakdown in order to lenghten the ruck so his 9 can box kick before jogging to the next breakdown is not that laudable. His game is not what it was.

your right, i agree Hodnett should start at 7 alright .

He threw a daft intercept and was very lucky that the ball grazed Itoje's arm as he made a tackle on Bealham and it was called back for a knockon. The pass he threw was incredibly dangerous (Ryle even said it live) and he was lucky to get away with it

He also missed some pretty glaring gaps where he could have ran in under the posts.
like this one below

Sam Prendergast played ok, he was grand, exactly at the level that you'd expect an inexperienced young professional starting out his career. He might improve and he could be a very important player for Ireland in the future. But he is not good enough yet, and it is not guaranteed that he will be either (despite so many people declaring out of nowhere that SP has a higher ceiling than Crowley to justify playing him now when he's not ready yet)

We've seen this before, how many out halves have been declared the next big thing by pundits over the past few years? Harry Byrne, Ross Byrne, Ciaran Frawley and Charlie Tector have all been declared with full confidence to be the next Irish out half for the coming generation. One by one, they have failed to meet the hype and were replaced by the next guy off the academy conveyor belt. Sam Prendergast is that guy today, but what has he actually done so far to justify the hype?

He has had a couple of good moments, and some very bad moments, and he has been lucky in some other moments (Still think he should have gotten a red card against Australia).

His play style relies on being behind a strong dominant pack. This week, Ireland played against a small English pack, we were not losing collisions, Prendergast was not really put under any real pressure and was able to stand back and take his time most of the time. He has been ropey under pressure, as ROG said this morning, he looked a little spooked. If he plays like this against France when Meafou, Moafana, Alldritt flying at him, will we see him standing even further back and kicking the ball away even more?

One other thing I noticed following the match. There was a lot of criticism of Bundee Aki in this thread. I thought Aki had a really good game, he made some crucial try saving tackles, he scored that try beating 3 defenders when any other player would have been pushed into touch in that situation, he hit rucks hard and when Henshaw came on to replace him, I don't think he added much that Aki wasn't already doing.

When people question why Healy is still being selected it's acceptable to think the coaches might have made the wrong call.

But when people question why Prendergast is selected, the fact that the coaches selected him means by definition it must be the right call (for some posters).

I have to challenge you taking thoughts from people's heads and posting it as an argument. I for one haven't thought that the coaches made the wrong call on Healy, I assumed that they thought he was the better alternative. They may revisit that after Saturday, but that's their job.

Similarly with Prendergast. Saturday was always going to be a tough match, first one of the tournament and a must win because of the way the fixtures play out and that being at home is the best chance of beating England. There were other good reasons for picking him to start. Not least for the fact that if it went very poorly, they could spring a more experienced player from the bench. But they left him out for almost 60 minutes.

TL:DR, I'm happy with whatever they decide to do, they're the coaches and know their plans/players best.

0 isn't a rating.

Good article by Gerry Thornley in the Irish Times, basically highlighting that even though the first half performance had errors the effort put in had the desired result with england a spent force in the second half. I think it would be easy to dismiss Prendergast performance and I'd have no issue with him starting against the Scots. As a neutral the I think he may just pip crowley in the next few years but having said that I think both are going to be a level below Sexton.

but [selection] does very definitely draw a distinction between internet fan hype and reality on the ground.

What a load of rubbish.

It’s not “internet fan hype” to suggest Crowley should start over Prendergast.

The guy played every minute in a 6 Nations last season, ffs.