Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

The 7/12 narrowing in to cover their 10 is pretty standard in rugby though. Most 10's aren't defensive stalwarts like Sexton or Wilkinson were.

There will always be an element of needing to look after your flyhalf. If we get to the stage where he can reliably make most tackles, even if they're soaks and we lose ground, that's fine. You can carry a 10 that you know will lose a few metres, provided he excels elsewhere, which he hasn't this season.

It is, but not to the same extent, imo. It was particularly noticeably in the France game.

And I stand by everything else I said about his physicality with regards soaking tackles and his poor reaction time / athleticism.

He's had some disastrous moments in games over the last 12 months. Also his weaknesses in defence were there from the start maybe not glaringly obvious but they were there none the less. The Luke Fitzgerald commentary on Prendergast unfortunately isnt far off the mark and he probably voiced an opinion that other ex-pros in the media werent willing to go that far criticising one of their own

This is the thing

His weakness in defence was always there.

Cullen and Nienaber haven’t been able to address this in 2 years of coaching.

If anything it’s getting worse.

Why?

This is the bigger question that needs to be asked.

This is bang on, and most of the discussion here reinforces it, or at least these points have been made here by several people for 2 years. The ideal was to have two tens at the required standard coming in the WC having learned a tough lesson in the last one. Reading the debate here as picking on Crowley because he's a muck savage from Munster is very selective and paranoid, which is the house style of several posters from all the provinces when it comes to their own players. I'm big Crowley fan, he was hard done by being dropped for SP, but his form was poor and I hoped Prendergast would do the business and we'd be set. Hasn't worked out for SP but, as expected, Crowley is a hard bastard and he sorted himself out and came back better than ever. That does not change the fact that Munster is very poorly run, has made several coaching selection errors over the last 15 years, hasn't efficiently addressed the development problem, appointed a sporting events marketing guy as CEO when a rugby development emphasis was required to rebuild the club, not the brand, etc. The rapeman stuff is the sorry end of season cluster f*ck thats been in the post.

On whether Farrell will give SP another shot, he might. But on current evidence will he bring him on in the 1/4 final against SA or the ABs in the WC? That is what Farrell's decision will come down to. If he defends the way he has done this season, no chance.

Ask anyone 12 months ago would Harry Byrne be the starting 10 for Leinster in a years time not one person would agree. Do i think SP will make a comeback in the next 12 months highly unlikely, i happen to agree with Luke Fitgerald. The point about Frawley is that we were still in the game when he replaced Crowley, I'm not attributing the blame for the loss purely on that substitution just trying to point out even though Crowley had a couple of poor moments it's not like we were being heavily beaten when he was on the pitch

Instead of wasting everyone’s time bringing him to SA in 2024 or Georgia and Portugal last year, Sam should have been put on a diet and weights program over the summer to fill out his 6’4 frame. I think a lot of his physicality issues boil down to the fact that he’s not physically built for pro rugby at the highest level. I mean, it’s obvious to look at him.

Yeah, Prendergast's first job is to get his head right.

Like, we know he's an excellent kicker but he couldn't kick snow off a rope in the 6N. He didn't forget how to kick, just the voices in his head were telling him 20 different things.

When Toulon got that try with him on the wing, you could see him changing his mind on what he wanted to do - I'll smash him into touch, no, I'll let him land and then hit him, no, maybe I can hold him up… oh crap he's gone.

I don't know if we have a mental skills coach on the payroll but if we do, he needs to be meeting with SP a lot over the summer.

There are still a lot of good things that SP can do better than any of the alternatives, he just needs to get himself into a position where we can actually put him on the pitch.

Rugby Players Ireland Awards 2026, nominees:

Men's XVs Players' Player of the Year:

• Tadhg Beirne - Munster
• Jamison Gibson Park - Leinster
• Dan Sheehan - Leinster
• Stuart McCloskey - Ulster

Women's XVs Players' Player of the Year:

• Eve Higgins - Leinster
• Brittany Hogan - Sale Sharks
• Cliodhna Moloney-McDonald - Exeter Chiefs

Nevin Spence Men's XVs Young Player of the Year:

• Billy Bohan - Connacht
• Joshua Kenny - Leinster
• Bryn Ward - Ulster

Women's XVs Young Player of the Year:

• Dannah O'Brien - Leinster
• Robyn O'Connor - Leinster
• Katie Whelan - Leinster

Men's XVs Try of the Year:

• Robert Baloucoune - for Ireland v Italy
• Tommy O'Brien - for Ireland v Scotland
• Dan Kelly - for Munster v Glasgow

Women's XVs Try of the Year:

• Eve Higgins - for Ireland v Japan
• Robyn O'Connor - for Ireland v Italy
• Beibhinn Parsons - for Ireland v Italy

Women's 7s Players' Player of the Year:

• Megan Burns - Leinster
• Alanna McInerney - Munster
• Robyn O'Connor - Leinster

It does seem highly influenced by a handful of good performances, but it was overall a strange enough season in Irish rugby.

I think McCloskey is a good shout for the Mens award - he was Ireland's best and most consistent player in the 6N. I can't recall anyone particularly holding up their hand from the November series.

If looking across the four provinces and asked to nominate 3 players for player of the season at each province (purely on provincial form), I would have gone for:

• Leinster: Tom Clarkson, Tommy O'Brien, Jamison Gibson Park
• Connacht: Sean Jansen, Cian Prendergast, Sam Gilbert
• Munster: Alex Nankivell, Jack Crowley, John Hodnett
• Ulster: Nathan Doak, Zac Ward, Nick Timoney

On rationale:

-at Leinster, the lack of continuity is very evident, and that makes it hard. Guys like Josh Kenny would be a shoe in for nomination early in the year, but he's had a disrupted last couple of months and misses out. Clarkson would win this for me, but I suspect it would go to TOB.

-Connacht - Jansen has been a revelation, and Prendergast's performances in 2026 have been largely all superb. Gilbert will seem a strange inclusion, but his signing and the reliability of his kicking (85% success rate from 35 shots at goal in the URC) has to be been such a game changer this season for Connacht. At the start of this season and last season they lost too many games purely because of poor goalkicking.

-Munster - Nankivell wasn't as good this year as previous, but he's still just so important. Played huge mins this season, and his stats for defender's beaten, line breaks, carries just leap off the page. Hodnett stood up in pivotal games, and Crowley is their most important player.

-Ulster - plenty of options here I thought. Zac Ward had lots of ups and downs, and some poor days, but he also won games by himself on occasion. Timoney has been absolutely immense (again) this season, and Doak took a leap in his development. Doak would be my winner here.