Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

I like our front row and its replacements. There's a lot of power and youth there.

Despite the protestations, there's plenty of work going on to build squad depth.

Agree with this. Think management need to figure out the 23 jersey and not just have a rotating Aki/Henshaw/Ringrose 23.

No. One poor performance shouldn't be enough to drop a player imo. Otherwise we'd be changing half the team for this game. And a fear of making mistakes isn't want you want in your 10.

If we constantly rotate between Crowley and Prendergast because they make mistakes then we are going to have two outhalfs that are completely afraid of taking any risks.

McCarthy should be dropped, it wasn't just a poor performance but an absolute brain-dead yellow card.

Crowley got 100% shafted after the new Zealand game and he has been shafted in the six nations. Do you think starting him against Italy helps that?

Crowley shafted by playing in every match...ffs. I can see why Irish rugby supporters are getting a bad name. Crying cause they lost a match or their favourite player doesnt get to start every match.

I haven't contributed much on the Prendergast vs. Crowley debate but this is my 2 cents.

The selection so far has been completely backwards. And IMO this weekend Prendergast should have been started again, given what's gone before and given, we are most likely to finish 3rd now even if we hammer Italy.

Everyone needs to remember that Jack Crowley is only 25, not 35. Yes we need 2 quality OH's for RWC 2027, but we have 1 in Crowley, and the other has 2 full seasons to develop. What has been done is a rushed and botched effort to propel Prendergast into the 10 jersey when he's only in his first full senior season. This all seems to be a knee-jerk reaction by the management team to the fact that in the NZ game in RWC 2023 they hadn't blooded Jack Crowley and therefore had to leave a crippled Johnny Sexton on the pitch for the final 10 mins with the game in the melting pot.

What should have been done is start Crowley for the England and Scotland games and have Prendergast come in after 60mins. All going well, the team and Crowley sets up the win both times and Prendergast gets the experience of guiding the ship home. Then we had a rest week, perfect chance to change tack and give Prendergast the start vs. a sub-par Welsh side. You still have Crowley on the bench as cover if it's going awry, but Sam get's the experience of leading the back-line in an away 6N fixture. Then another rest week, switch back to Jack for the big championship game vs. France. Again, Sam is there to steer the ship home and gain more vital experience. If we win, go for the same selection in the GS game against Italy. If we lose to France, give Prendergast the 10 shirt in another away game. That would have been the ideal approach. If Crowley played well in that selection, he goes on the Lions tour. Also, you get the added benefit of approx. 160 mins of 6N test rugby for Prendergast to take back to Leinster where he will also be starting no.10 for their CC and URC title challenges. And Prendergast would then get the starting 10 shirt in the summer tour.

Now what we have is a complete mess. A guy in his first season has shown he capable at this level and some lovely play but has had some glaring weaknesses exposed on the biggest stage including an embarrassing intercept in the GS crunch game. And a guy who guided his club to a URC title and his country to a 6N title in the last 2 seasons has been relegated to cameo appearances off the bench, most of which are not in his favoured position. Crowley also now has zero chance of going on the Lions tour. And because we at Munster are in a sorry state he also won't see much top level action to put himself in the frame for the Lions over the coming weeks. We will almost certainly lose to La Rochelle and will struggle to make the URC playoffs. None of which is on Jack Crowley, the overall squad just isn't good enough.

So now we face an issue where 1 of the no.10s is sitting on a 2-year contract offer from the IRFU and contemplating a big contract from an English club. And the player we have blooded has been benched after his first bad performance. What a complete and utter mess.

Indeed I don't remember too many of the posters insinuating it would be a slight on his character to leave doing the same to Sexton, indeed I remember an awful lot of digs and whinging about Ireland and the IRFU back then


I can’t argue against what may or may not have been said by unnamed posters 12 years ago, but would point out that at that time players were not giving up their Ireland career by moving abroad. As soon as Sexton was told he would no longer be eligible, he came home. You can tell me how any of that is relevant because I haven’t a clue nor have I any clue why you brought it up.

Excellent post.

Strong Italian team, with best centre partnership in the championship . Very strong front and back row. Won't be easy at all.

ITALY: Tommaso Allan; Ange Capuozzo, Juan Ignacio Brex (capt), Tommaso Menoncello, Monty Ioane; Paolo Garbisi, Martin Page-Relo, Danilo Fischetti, Gianmarco Lucchesi; Dino Lamb, Fedrico Ruzza; Sebastian Negri, Manuel Zuliani, Lorenze Cannone.

Replacements: Giacomo Nicotera, Mirco Spagnolo, Giosue Zilocchi, Niccolo Cannone, Michele Lamaro, Ross Vintcent, Stephen Varney, Leonado Marin.