6N '25 Ireland v France Match Thread: Sat8th Mar 2:15 Farewell & Adieu to you POMs, Murrays & Healys

See previous response

If he doesn't bring added strength to his game attacking wise and defensively his time will probably be up in 12 months time. He can't survive on kicking alone although O'Gara made a career out of it. I do find it strange that it was the only experiment in such a key position, you either commit to looking to the future in a good few positions or not at all. The honouring of senior players just to give them a final send-off has to stop. Jack Boyle is in my opinion clearly a better player than Healy at this stage.

See, that's a reasonable opinion. One I disagree with as we are too slow to expose our players to the highest level and you end up with the situation where a player who should be in their prime - Frawley for example, has never got the opportunity to demonstrate their ability or develop at the very highest level.

France have no problem putting the likes of Bielle-Biarrey, Le Garrac or Ntamack at a very young age as they know they have the ability but they need to be exposed to that level to reach their potential. When we do and it doesnt 100% work out immediately we get the below instead.

Yes I honestly believe Sam is possibly the worst 10 to have ever played in green. He has nothing, literally nothing to offer. 

Noting positive. Not good passing, bravery bringing it to the line, excellent long range kicking - no nothing to offer!!

Prendergast is entirely capable of playing at this level. In every game this tournament, he's outperformed his opposite number. He was better than Ntamack on sat, who was an empty shirt. He was better than both of the Smiths, and I'd argue better than Russell. All this hanging wringing and faux concern is a load of bollox. Dan Carter could've been at 10 for us and we would've lost. We didn't take the chance to convert our early pressure into scores. If we had, I think the match would've gone our way. France were out on their feet at the end of the half, if we had been in front at that point, as we should have been, they would've been a tough spot.

The three main newspapers all rated Prendergast as one of our better performers on Saturday, including that noted bastion of the Dublin media, the Examiner.

Did he play well? Not especially. Was he exposed/shown up/out of his depth? No.

Plenty of people thought France would just run through him but that didn't really come to pass.

Way I saw it…

Sam is just getting up to the speed of international games… We can see that… This was a Top 4 game with another level of speed up again… Sam started well enough but was spent by 50 min.. To many defesive hits and you could see he was shattered…

Jack could have started but definately needed to replace Sam, but unfortunally Bundee was in wars all day and couldn't continue. In the 56 min Bundee was on the field he had Ireland's highest tackle count.

I think both Sam and Jack a vital for the future of Irish Rugby and they shouldn't be pitted against each other…

Personally I would have started Jack for this one… Jack is the best defending international out-half in the northern hemisphere (I think)…

I don’t know if we would have won but certainly the momentum was with us in a big way when Sheehan scored and there was a very positive vibe.

Then we instantly conceded a (debatable) try and a yellow card and suddenly it’s a different game again.

We didn’t deserve to win but at the same time we weren’t pre-destined to lose.

I still don't understand the explanation…

There is nothing in the ruleboook about retreating players… If nothing else the player is offside..

The point I think he was trying to make was O'Mahoney was, in his opinion, trying to entice the clearer into infringing. I cant find "matadoring" in the laws though. If the player infringed he infringed. O'Mahoney was detached and more than 1m away from the ruck when the "clearout" was made. It opened a clear hole for the prop to run though and was a bizarre decision, one consistent with Gardners general refereeing outlook which is to be lenient on the dominant team

It was a ridiculous decision. I presume Gardner was framing it in the context when a defender backs away from a ruck and the clearer goes straight off his feet. Which is also illegal, but that's a separate argument

We're not including Crowley in the old players bucket are we?

You are both making stuff up - France running through him, and putting the entirety of the responsibility of Prendergast's shoulders.

As shown by the "quality analysis in our Irish rugby media." France's tactic after preventing go forward ball through being dominant in contact thus resulting in slow ruck ball, was to squeeze as a line across the field and not shoot out after the ball carrier early a la the boks. Never being disconnected, where is what Ireland look to exploit. Same as England did last 6N and Australia, who were ultimately inferior to the other two, in the Autumn. This is a setup Ireland need to figure out how to get past and not related to a single outhalf. Our setup is now tuned to playing the Springboks and now we need to identify a plan B when faced with this idea. And Sam Prendergast needs to figure, with the help of the coaches, how he reacts too. As does Jack Crowley. and I am convinced, in spite of the nonsense we see online, they this is something they will work on together.

How's Ben Healy getting on in Scotland now out of interest?..

I think France's insane defending in the first half broke the Irish spirit to some extent. And this was compounded further when they scored their first try with relative ease after McCarthy went off.

Prendergast wasn't great. Very hard to win a game against France with a unsure No.10. I know he's young and its a huge stage for a 22 yr old to step onto etc etc but he's got a long way to go with the coaches yet.

Heres the question, with Hansen, Lowe, Furlong or Ringrose available .. Would it really have made such a difference that we would have won? Or if Crowley had come on sooner? Me personally I dont think so. Might have been a closer finish in points at the end but I think France just had too much in the bag. In every area of the game. Even with Dupont gone.

The 7/1 split worked! It was a power play and they overpowered us when they needed to ..