SAM PRENDERGAST HAS come out on top in Ireland’s fascinating selection battle at 10 for this weekend’s Six Nations opener against England, but Simon Easterby says he expects the Leinster man and Munster’s Jack Crowley to both play important roles across the championship.
Crowley played every minute of Ireland’s title-winning Six Nations campaign last year and went into the November window as the starting out-half. However Prendergast has since moved ahead of Crowley in the pecking order, backing up an impressive November with a string of strong performances for Leinster. Prendergast will wear the 10 jersey this weekend and Saturday’s Six Nations meeting with England will be the 21-year-old’s first appearance in the competition.
Having watched the two players go head-to-head for the starting jersey in November, Ireland’s interim head coach says he expects the pair to keep that level of competition going across the Six Nations.
“Those two are going to play a lot of rugby and they are going to compete with each other, along with a few others, Ciarán Frawley also in the squad,” Easterby said.
“They are going to play a lot of rugby and compete for a long time. This decision has gone Sam’s way. We felt like he did really well in November, he got a taste for international rugby. He went away and played really well for Leinster in a good period for them, but he was a big part of the successes across the December window and into the New Year.
We feel like he’s the right man this weekend to lead the team.
“He’s a lot of experience around him and even though the way Jack has trained and played coming into the Six Nations means that Sam knows he’s got to keep raising his game and keep getting better.”
Crowley had some mixed performances for Munster over the Christmas period but finished on a high with an excellent display as the province lost away to Northampton Saints in the Champions Cup.
“Jack played really well in Northampton in the week prior to camp and he also comes in with a lot of credit in the bank, in terms of what he’s done in the last 18 months, two years. Also in the back end of that Australia game (in November), he came on and finished the game really strongly and saw out the game so yeah, one of the tough calls but there was probably six or seven of those decisions throughout the team selection that we would have been happy to go either way with players.
“The decision on Sam is one that we feel is for this game is the right decision, but also we know that the game these days, the starting 10 often isn’t the finishing 10 and we feel Sam will be really well supported and connected around players that he’s going to be playing with,” Easterby continued.
“Likewise, when Jack gets his opportunity he’ll be able to come on and impact the game in the right way like he did in November.
“So there was certainly no preconceived ideas. Selection isn’t a perfect science, it’s conversations that you have with players and with other coaches along the way and then over a period of time you start to formulate your plans. But certainly we were pleased with the way both of them went in November, but we also felt for the team to evolve, those two need to keep evolving and getting better as well.”
In the Ireland midfield, Bundee Aki gets the nod to start alongside Garry Ringrose, with Robbie Henshaw named on the bench.
“Robbie has been playing very well, as you would have seen in his provincial colours. And that was a really tight call between him and the other two centres. So, I guess to have Robbie around, he is such a strong player for us and having his experience around that backline we feel is the right thing.
“Frawls gives us a slightly different dynamic in the bench spot, as does Jamie (Osborne), but we just felt Robbie will come on and bring his experience, but also that type of game we know we will need in terms of the physicality that we will need to bring throughout the game and the latter stages, I think will be a big impact.”
Easterby also explained that second row Joe McCarthy was ruled out of the game following a heavy collision in training.
“Yeah, Joe took a knock to the head yesterday in training and unfortunately it put him out straight away for this game,” Easterby said.
“It’s a real disappointment for him and for the team, but he’s good now. Fortunately there’s no long-standing issue there in terms of any breaks or anything. He might have damaged his nose a bit, it might look like mine a little bit now, but other than that he’s good and he’ll hopefully be joining up with the squad this weekend, but unfortunately not available this weekend.
“It was a rugby kind of collision. It was really innocuous in terms of it was just an unfortunate set of circumstances, someone’s head landed on his head and it was a nasty blow. He’s come around well and he should be good to go (next week).”
Leinster prop Tadhg Furlong had been ruled out earlier in the week.
“Tadhg unfortunately had a recurrence of the calf (injury) and it’s nothing major to be honest,” Easterby added.
“It’s wasn’t quite right and we weren’t prepared to try and push him through this week, so we made the right decision for Tadhg and the team for him to go and get back and rehab and make sure that he was comfortable with his plan over the next couple of weeks. It’s not a major issue but it wasn’t one where were prepared to take any risk on this weekend.”
Superb piece.
I was at the Dundalk game in Cobh, he was outstanding.
Long road for Shane, but his honestly is inspiring.
Best of luck to Cobh Ramblers in the final in Derry.
You can do it
Their is a stability now in his life , a home town job , a girlfriend and baby , he can enjoy his football . Nobody can change the past , but they can certainly shape the future . Good luck and play as long as you can .
Good honest interview.Would be great if Ramblers can do it next week.
Best of luck kid
Great article and very honest from Shane. Great to see young men talking openly about their struggles. It helps others as well as themselves. I’ll be cheering for Cobh in the final.
Another interesting League of Ireland story on the42.ie. Good luck Shane. #SuperRams
Glad things are on the up! It’s great how Paddy Power and their likes are always on hand to help to the vulnerable – leeches!