I don't think it is clear at all. I still think SP is fundamentally a better 10 than Harry Byrne. Whether this is just second season syndrome or a permanent regression in SP remains to be seen.
Claiming dropping Crowley was borderline nefarious is just hysterical nonsense. He wasn't playing well, he got dropped. It happens to pro sports people all the time.
Lets have a chat about in a years time
borderline nefarious.
The maddest thing about the Crowley/Prendergast debate is the continuous claims that there is something more going on, beyond just trying to pick the best rugby team to represent Ireland, that Prendergast was being promoted above his station and Crowley was being deliberately sabotaged, for reasons that were never made clear.
Some of the beauties we heard over the last 18 months:
and on and on. It was and is absolutely mental.
Wasn't there the big hoohaw too around Crowley not appearing in a media poster as some sort of conspiracy that the IRFU was definitely excluding him from social media photos.
It really was nuts
BKT Rising Player Award | The winner | Sam Prendergast | 2025 - Guinness Men's Six Nations
Pure mental altogether as was hearing that some fans hated Farrell and their national team.
Sam Prendergast was on the grassy knoll.
The "big hoohaw" you're referring to being…. one poster on Twitter??
If you want to go down the route of beauties we heard over the last 18 months, FFF, I'm more than happy to oblige…
Hiding
Don't read the responses to the tweet then if you think it's only one poster
My own opinion - the social media abuse of Prendergast is shameful, and I do think it has affected it his game which is very unfortunate, and is a vicious circle.
I'm not saying this in any way to defend any abuse but some people can't help themselves when posting online, in this very forum we recently had a poster calling a player scumbag. Some of the stuff posted on X is vile.
The best thing a player can do is stay off social media, I know a parent of a current Munster and Irish player who left Social Media during the year.
"Like, we know he's an excellent kicker …."
yeah right. What are his kicking stats at international level?
I've watched him miss howlers left, right & centre , and the D4 mejia just developed cognitive dissonance about the errors & the other negative effects on the whole team of the other poor aspects of his play also. E.g. Reconfiguring of whole defensive lines, being caught out trying to hide him on the wing in defence, other players having to give yards outside them to mind his weak channel inside, etc, etc, etc.
It wasn't wrong to try out SP at all im, but it was completely fuppin stupid to try to persevere with him. It cost team Ireland a 6Ns, a pile of money and put back the development of Crowley at international level by at least 12 months. It was a complete cluster fup.
p.s. Imho they should have used SP as a bench option, and in maybe a few of the easier AIs to blood him & assess him at intl level, and then send him back to his province to develop into a more all round 10. Instead they tried to double down on selecting a very incomplete 10, when he was clearly way out of his depth over several campaigncampaigns & matches too many, & in doing so they damn nearly fupped him & Crowley up simultaneously imho. That takes some (lack of) selection skill!?
The repeated selection at 10 of SP was a complete fiasco imho, equally the management's handling of Crowley's omission during this period was simply woeful (some of media utterances alone were truly cringeworthy…. You wouldn't have heard them from school coaches let alone supposed internationainternational class coaches ).
the whole experience casts a very bad light on the Irish management imho.
P.P.s. the 1st thing the IRFU should do in response, is to tell Jonny Sexton to piss off & learn his trade at Club level somewhere, before clearly allowing his biases & lack of coaching & selection (advice) skills help mess up several Irish campaigns. Truly pathetic!!
Just in case, we don't want to go down that road.
D4 media.
Jesus wept
Nope
D4 mejia
Even better
I stoppers reading after that.
Who exactly is the d4 mejia?
yeah - tbh, for the person dishing it out probably the best thing they can do is leave social media. Cant be healthy for anyone if they think its ok to do that.
100%, it seems a lot of people have anger issues
Ask daithi.
Agreed, the physical stuff is well down the list. SP is physically comparable to Liam Williams for example. Williams is a couple of inches shorter and 10lbs lighter, according to online stats. Williams is also a guy who looks skinny out there relative to other players, but Ive never seen it add up to him looking out of place physically. Even if SP doesn't come back into the frame I'm glad Farrell gave him a shot. Most of us get frustrated by Ireland's seeming conservatism when it comes to selection. It's a perennial complaint that players don't get test opportunities early enough inter careers and the suspicion persists that players development suffers as a result. Going with the tried and tested has a development price. Farrell threw the dice with SP and maybe it didn't work but I hope he keeps doing it with other players. The sky didn't falll in.
He was good offensively but horrendous on defense from the very start and that never changed.
He's not strong enough and never was. He was brought in too early, he wasn't fully prepared for international level. It was a terrible decision to bring him into the Ireland setup.
He needs to bulk up and learn how to tackle properly and then he'll be ready.
Schoolboy levels of discourse. It's embarrassing behaviour for a grown adult.
So you can't address the rugby issue being discussed, hence you feel you have to try to attack the poster personally instead!?
now that is embarrassing behaviour for a grown adult, assuming you are one right!? Are you?
That's fine analysis in hindsight. I wonder if you remember what you thought at the time? I remember the consensus being to bring him into the Ireland setup quickly to give him experience and development opportunity.
Have you changed your mind on Prendergast being given a shot or were you always one of the few who were opposed to it?
The "D4 meeja" isn't a rugby issue.
The talent demanded inclusion, there wasn't weakness at under 20 level in that it was never mentioned at all. He had a good start at Leinster and looked absolutely brilliant until he didn't. The focus on his issues probably didn't help but that's pro rugby.
It is a long time since we have had a talent with as high a ceiling as Sam and we will be waiting a long time again. Hopefully they can get him purring at Leinster next season and back into the International mix. We are lucky that we have other high quality options and can give him the time he needs to work through his tackle issues.
It would be a shame if an over focus on a weakness (every player has weaknesses) or a bias undermined any potential international player regardless of which province they represent. We have such a small pool of players we can't be wasteful.
Currently Jack Crowley is doing an excellent job of leading both Munster and Ireland and Harry Byrne is doing a cracking job at Leinster there is certainly plenty of room for more competition.
Who exactly is in this d4 meija? Can you name them?
