Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

my point is if prendergast starts, then develop a game plan around him. Crowley would be fine at 15, Osborne into centre.

for all the bitching about prendergast, if there is only change for the England game then it’s ringrose who has to be dropped.
Like a headless chicken running around.

Prendergast will look a lot better if Crowley is 15, and they interchange as required.

Scenes of Farrell on the telly yesterday looking on as if to say "who in God's name picked this team"

You did Andy, you did!

Lowe had a good game yesterday but I’m not getting carried away just yet. It’s the first time he’s played well for Ireland since England last year. Let’s wait and see how he goes away to England next week before we declare that he’s back.

Who else is there?

Suprising or perhaps unsuprising to see the tonal shift in the last 24 hours, both in the media and on forums such as here around the Crowley/Prendergast sitaution.

So now both arent good enough according to some. Some saying lets maybe look at Byrne or Carbery. Anyone but Crowley who isnt good enough apparently. And despite the fact that Prendergast is obviously the worst of the two, lets still not admit it but lets now say theyre both not good enough. Anything but admit the last year with him at 10 has been terrible team management, terrible player management and an insult to all of us who could see past our noses.

Also not good enough for what? Because last I checked we're looking who is good enough to be Irelands starting 10. So they are competing against eachother for that spot and the best of them is defacto good enough. What do some people want, if theyre not as good as Sexton, lets not start anyone at 10? We know theyre not Sexton or O'Gara or Carter or Wilkinson. We know this. Theyre not competing with Sexton. Saying theyre both not good enough is just a cop out, a means of not admitting right now Crowley is better than Prendergast and the last year has been a circus created by the coaching team and cheerled by many in media and online.

This new narrative proves what I have thought. This was never a case of Crowley/Munster fan boys or anti-Leinster biased Prendergast bullies pushing for him to fail. All along this has been a blinkered mission of promoting the Leinster great white hope regardless of any and all evidence and at any cost, and a gaslighting of anyone who attempts to call it out.

For a year I have been told by many to ignore my lieing eyes. Told that Prendergast is the superior 10 to Crowley. A weaker defender yes, but better off the boot, off the tee, from the hand, a better attacker in every way and with a higher ceiling. Been told to ignore the 24 Six Nations, ignore the Munster URC win. Ignore the obvious fact that Prendergast cant defend and use any semi-positive move, kick or pass by him as evidence of his high ceiling. And if I dared speak out, be prepared to be labelled as a Munster biased anti Leinster bully.

The fact is that right now at top International test level Prendergast cannot tackle, cannot ruck, and is visible seen to avoid contact. He can be side stepped easily as evidenced by the last two games. He is now predictable in attack and his ability to kick from hand or pass long is stymied at this level. He does not appear to command the position, and organise his backline. Where as Crowley, when compared to Prendergast, tackles better, is braver, appears to be much more vocal, appears to demand the ball and attack the line better, appears to control is backline more, and appears to want to play at a higher tempo than Prendergast. Kicks better off the tee. This is companing them to eachother, not comparing to Sexton or other world class 10s.

Prendergast no doubt can do things other 10s we have might not be able to do when allowed to. But that is useless at this level when he wont be given the time or space her currently needs to do those things. So he has become predictable in attack and a liability in defence.

A wasted year in the deveolpment of both players. 24, 25 and 26 should have been Crowleys to own at 10 while Prendergast used the URC and Champions Cup to develop and come into the 2027 Six nations preparing for a world cup with an experienced 27 year old fly half being challenged by a 24 year old upcomming talent with 2 and a half years expenience with his Provence, sub appearances for Ireland in big games and Ireland starts against lower teams in autumn and summer internationals. What a position that would have been.

We would then know where his ceiling may actually be (high or low) and have proper, fair competition between the two.

Instead we have this mess.

That’s because prendergast is used to having JGP make the majority of the decisions with the ball. When Casey just looks to past to 10 and let them dictate play like they do in their clubs it’s after showing the problem.

Casey and Crowley should always play together as Crowley is the majority decision and playmaker and JGP and SP should play together as JGP is the majority playmaker and decision maker. Some of SP’s peibkem yesterday was that he had to do more play and decision making than he is used to from playing alongside JGp

I agree whole heartedly. The issue here is that neither is as good as Sexton, or O'Gara for that matter. And neither probably ever will be. But that's a side show to the real issue. We're not picking the best that we currently have, Jack Crowley. And we haven't done so for the past 12-18 months. The result has been two no.10s now very low on confidence and constant chopping and changing in that position. Crowley has essentially been used as a utility back in the past 12 months by Farrell.

I also agree about the gaslighting. On forums like this and by the media. As I said yesterday I fully expect the knives to be out for Sam by the same media that blew him out of all proportion over the last 12-18 months.

There were many here and in the media claiming that Sam should have been on the Lions tour FFS!

The fact of the matter is that the best 10 on the pitch yesterday was Italian and we just have to pick the best guy available to us. Currently Jack Crowley.

Yup it's Craig Casey's fault that Sam had a poor game yesterday. Always someone else's fault.

How about this for an alternative? Play the best players available in their best position. In the case of the Irish 9 and 10 that's JGP and Crowley respectively at this moment in time.

Is it possible to get rid of Sexton from the coaching staff? He has no real experience of coaching, and the kicking has really suffered because Johnny can't help guys get good at kicking, all he is able to do, with his limited experience is show them how he kicks - that's much different to actually coaching kicking. Funny that Finn and Marcus Smiths' kicking fell off a cliff post lions too.

Fogarty should also be on the chopping block.

in an alternate universe Antoine Fritsch could be playing 13 for Ireland now

I never said it was Casey’s fault, it what I posted was to complicated for you to understand and you dont see the differences between those players and how they play the game that’s on you.

It’s not at all complicated.

JGP is a playmaker, he controls the game and dictates where Ireland attack a lot of the time. He analyses the defense before passing from the base of the ruck, He makes it easier for SP because it means JGP is deciding a lot of the time what happens, if it goes to forwards, what side it goes to, if they kick or play out the backs and his decision making is excellent.

Casey plays different, he try’s to get the ball into the 10’s hands asap if he hasn’t already decided to kick and then the 10 is the playmaker and decision maker.

When Casey plays with SP it means SP has to manage the game more than he normally does and make calls more that he’s used to, and neither of him or Casey are an attacking threat

when Crowley plays with JGP it means both are looking for chances, looking for space and weakness all the time and the defence has more problems to contend with.

Simply put Crowley is a better player with JGP and SP is a worse player with Casey.