Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

This will be another “fun” season on the out half selection front. All we can hope for is that we judge what we see on the pitch in a fair way and not take provincial positions.

I agree with you Ireland were not as good in 2025, as they were in 2024. Much of the reason for this was they didn't have nearly as good an outhalf starting in 2025, unfortunately.

Crowley basically helped rescue the game versus England , as when he came on instead of Prendergast after ~60mins, Ireland were just 13-10 ahead & struggling.

France hammered Ireland in Dublin, 42 - 27, with the French running through Prendergast, & picking off intercepts at will.

And, Ireland also really struggled against a very poor Welsh side in 2025. This was a real low point in Irish international performances in recent years imho, & Prendergast at 10, trying to hide away on the wing in defence, looked truly pathetic at times, tbh.

Crowley's physicality, acceleration & top line pace are all much better than Prendergast's. Further Crowley attacks the line & offers a superior attacking & running threat that Prendergast simply doesn't. And of course, Crowley's defence & tackling is infinitely better than Prendergast's. That's night & day.

Further, Prendergast's place kicking under pressure is highly suspect imho, e.g. how many simple conversions & penalties does he miss!? In contrast, Crowley relishes clutch kicks, & drop goals in closing stages to win games, are part of his considerable match day armoury. Leinster fans can surely attest to this!?

On nearly every objective measure, Crowley is the superior 10, imho. This is also backed up by their respective performances & stats when playing for Ireland.

Imho, Irish coaches may have opted for Prendergast in 2025 to try to develop a young alternative option before the next RWC, and possibly also for commercial reasons, as the IRFU have been losing money, so having a Leinster outhalf in an Irish 10 shirt might help ticket, jersey & merchandise sales, as well as with sponsorships & media coverage all of which are very Dublin oriented.

But on a purely rugby basis, Crowley is by far the better all round international 10 currently, imho.

Well, if one or other of them can make a convincing case and end the argument between now and February, I’ll take that as a great outcome

Good, so do we agree one Irish outhalf just helped his convincing case to be Ireland's first choice out half last weekend so !?

See below for details & analysis

I think it is easier to pick a winner when you have a Sexton or ROG. But now we have a different situation where one is established and the other has unreslised potential. I'd say they'll continue to give them both starts until they find a winner closer to the world cup

And Baird needs to get the finger out if he's going to nail down the 6 position. He's been given scope for a few years now and hasn't really found a flow. I think the likes of Ahern and Prendergast can rightly feel annoyed that Baird has gotten so much opportunity compared to them. I don't mind who plays 6 as long as they're the best for the job. It's difficult to really say they've given the others a similar opportunity to impress. It looks like they've picked their winner.

I want Baird to be better than the others (leinster fan) but I'm not sure we can say he is because the others have gotten so little opportunity.

Baird's performances at the back end of last season, especially the URC playoffs, were at a level that I think would see him take the Irish 6 jersey long term. I don't think we've seen Ahern or Prendergast play at that level yet.

Cormac Izuchukwu struggled to make an impact on his few appearances in an Irish shirt as of yet, but he was great for Ulster in week 1 and he's such a good athlete he's definitely still in the mix here too I think.

Baird was pretty good in the summer for Ireland too I thought and showed some leadership, but opposition was pretty awful. He was abject against the Stormers in round 1 of the URC, but better on Saturday v the Bulls playing in the second row.

Unfortunately for Baird - until Leinster are back to full complement of locks I think we'll need him to deputise in the second row as the Deeny/Mangan combo is too lightweight.

Coombes hasn't really played 6 in years has he? I'd be curious to see it, seems like it would be a good fit for him. It's going to be very interesting to see how the back row shakes out at Munster with all the talent coming through there.

I'm a big fan of Prendergast personally but think he needs to add a bit to his game if he's going to be a regular international. He's not far away though, and has the raw materials, work rate, and leadership chops. We'll see if Lancaster can get that extra gear out of him, I would like to see him playing in the middle of the pitch more. Wilkins used him as an edge forward a lot which I wasn't a huge fan of.

I think it's a position where we actually have a great potential pipeline, but none of them look the finished profile just yet.

All three of Baird, Ahern & Izuchukwu have elite athleticism - they're all huge men who are very fast, bring good strength and relatively good work ethics / energy levels (though I think all three could improve on this metric). They're all good line out forwards - Baird has called Leinster's lineout on a number of occasions and done well there. Ahern probably the strongest lineout forward of the three IMO. Izuchukwu is the strongest carrier of the four IMO, and I think Baird is the biggest hitter of the four defensively, or maybe Prendergast.

Prendergast is also a really good athlete, but doesn't quite have the freakish attributes of the three above I think. I think he's stronger than those three on the kind of nitty gritty pure blindside graft, and he probably brings the most intangible in terms of leadership etc.

All four are a great age profile - Baird is the oldest (born July 1999 - so 26), and then Izuchukwu (Jan '00), Ahern (Feb'00) and Prendergast (Feb'00 - Prendergast is a day younger than Ahern), all 25. It's good to have the four spread amongst the four provinces, and injury permitting, all four should see plenty of game time this year.

Baird is in pole position - he has 29 caps, Izuchukwu 3, Ahern 2 and Prendergast 5. As I mentioned before, his MotM performances in the URC semi and final last year I think were at a level I haven't seen the other three reach yet. Worth noting too that Baird has played in 9 of the last 10 potential 6Ns games, including starting a grand slam decider.

I don't think Coombes in in the mix realistically at 6. He obviously brings huge power, good handling and good general work rate to the table, but I don't think he covers the ground like these 4 and doesn't quite bring the elite athleticism.

It's a great problem to have though, and really hope all can stay healthy and properly duke it out for the position.

Prendergast missed one kick last week - a penalty from bang on the half way line. He kicked a penalty and four conversions from four. Crowley missed two conversions.

Crowley is not a better passer in any world whatsoever - I don't think he'd even try to claim that himself. How many times last season did Munster attempt to set up big wide passes only for Crowley to throw it forward or into touch? There is no way his passing is close to Prendergast's level. Prendergast has had games where he has picked defenses apart with the quality of his passing.

As others have said - claiming we won a 6N with Crowley, and failed to with Sam, kind of ignores the fact we won 4/5 in both seasons.

We drew a series in SA too - after Crowley was hooked with 20 mins to go and Ciaran Frawley kicked two late drop goals to rescue it.

It's all well and good talking about how good Crowley is at hitting and running the ball to the line, but those aren't the core skills of a 10. If they were - we'd pick Stuart McCloskey at 10.

You accuse everyone else of being "dishonest", "rubbish" and "bullshit" and then you post stuff like the above, so maybe take a good look in the mirror for yourself.