Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Change the team all you like but what will we learn if they play well? That they are better than the guys who played last night? Or that Italy at home is a hell of a lot easier than France away? The latter is probably the more realistic conclusion.

I think the team will be largely the same next week, if they struggle in that game then by all means change it up for England.

Immune from criticism?

It's hard to think of any Irish international over the past decade who's been subject to more scrutiny and criticism (some of which is patently unfair) than him.

Crowley should start by improving his own form for his club first.

People seem to want to ignore that for a bizarre reason. Prendergast has shown more even with his weaknesses.

Crowley had the jersey at the start of November, because he was playing well up to that point. Since then, for club and country, he has been poor. If people want to say 'but Toulon' then fine. However one acceptable performance since Croke Park? Is that really the bar you want to set this at?

The exact same thing happened last year. Crowley lost the jersey because his form from November onwards was stink.

weird paranoid take

If that's his defence improved then please permit me to shudder. There's a few 'tackles' that didn't even make the stats as they weren't even attempts. One in the second half in mid-field where he sort of slid on his knees past the player, bizarre. As usual, post-contact metres on the ones he made are big I'd imagine. Lauding someone for finally making a few tackles (while missing 7) isn't the progress some are thinking it is. JGP and Ringrose were very poor as well in defence and shouldn't escape criticism.

Wasn't SP close to breaking the Six Nations record for most missed tackles last year? He missed 17 (?) last year I think, he's off to a flyer already with 7. In a position where most outhalves are typically making 70+% he puts in 50+%ers. Crowley was 81% for the 6 Nations we won with him before giving this fella the reins.

There's a real stench of "Emperor's new clothes" about him and his 'high ceiling'. Unopposed, unpressured, structured play - he shines. Anything else, he doesn't seem to be able to handle it at all. Silly fly-hacking, silly passes in his in-goal, customary intercept pass, hospital pass, endless kicks (that surely must be coach-directed). Really struggle to see how someone can sit there and go 'he played well'/'that was one of his best games in green', God help us.

Firstly, because it was a statement of fact. I said Farrell has never selected him in the centre for Ireland and that is absolutely true.

Because he actively chose to select him at 14 against France in the 2025 6 Nations despite the presence of other players in the squad who were healthy and could have been selected.

Selecting him to start for the Lions in the last midweek game of the tour, when the Lions were doing anything they could to protect players from the Test side (especially in the centres where there were injury doubts around a lot of players) doesn't tell me a lot.

I, personally, would prefer if Leinster and Ireland would see him and use him as a centre, but I just don't expect it to happen based on all of his selection history to date.

Crowley and Prendergast's tackle success rate from last night is similar, if that's how you want to compare the two.

It was definitely a quiet game for Josh. But I don’t think he has been playing badly across the season. He was very good on the Lions. And he has been very good for Leinster. Can’t remember how he was in the AIs.

Based on one cameo off the bench when France had taken their foot off the gas?

Put him in from the start against the French team and see how he goes.

Its amazing how reactionary people here are. I'll agree that Timoney played well but Josh wasn't exactly found wanting in the first half. His stats are practically equal with Cian Prendergast, yet one is judged to have played well and the other needs to be dropped?

Someone make sense of that one, for me.

I'd also wager that Prendergast's tackling stopped the scoreline from being worse than it was.

Or is that context not allowed?

I also wasn't the one who brought the tackle success rate into this debate. The OP did and conveniently ignored Crowley's tackling success rate.