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.”
No better test for Prendergast.
Now is the time to try these things in preparation for the next World Cup.
As a Munster fan, best of luck to him.
@Eoin Philpott: ah don’t be talking sense.
@Eoin Philpott: Well said..and Crowley will get a chance and get starts in this 6N. It’s not as if he’s been discarded.
And there you are. Go well for Leinster and the shirts yours
@Adrian Breen: it’s more if you prove yourself on multiple occasions in an environment full of internationals then yes, you get a shot
@Adrian Breen: I mean not really. People forget against Clermont he set up all Leinsters points and against La Rochelle he nailed all his kicks, in a game Leinster won by two points and he was took off after 60 mins. Leinster have been in tight games and Sam has dragged them through it.
@Eoin H: think you just proved my point
@Adrian Breen: your point states the bleedin obvious and applies to all professional sports
@Adrian Breen: Want him for Lions probs. Long as he holds the ball he’ll be a shoe in.
@Adrian Breen: makes sense
The Irish coaching staff are best placed to decide who is the right man to lead on Saturday…nobody on social media has greater insight on the selection so let’s put our trust in them. Support Sam and then Jack when he comes on and has an impact.
@anthony davoren: stop talking sense
Petition to make ireland wear blue.
As its basically a leinster team
@Liam Collins: now we’re talking
@Liam Collins: Union Jack jerseys for the Irish Soccer team too
@Liam Collins: Hmmm… I suppose St Patrick’s Blue is the national colour after all!!
@Liam Collins: Blue was the national colour long before green.
@Liam Collins: to be semantic, many believe blue should be the national colour as it is St Patrock’s colour and the colour in state symbols etc. and green is the colour of Leinster
Presume England will really target him physically. Crowley probably stronger in that department. Great to have two proper players competing for the out half position. PS while I’m a Leinster fan, I I wish people on all sides would give up the petty tribalism when Ireland are playing.
Leinster team and a couple of foreigners
@Brian Flynn: worrying thing is the other provinces’ international players are also from Leinster or have not come through Irish system eg. Izzy born and raised in Leinster, Beirne came through Leinster academy, Cian P also Leinster obv, Jack Aungier recently called up is from Dublin and came through Leinster academy. Bundee, Mack, Bealham came to Ireland as adults. Have other examples too
@adizlack up93:
Not one of the starting 15 have come from either the Connacht, Ulster or Leinster academies.
Worrying trend
@Brian Flynn:should be Munster
@Brian Flynn: very, and add the fact that Munster have only 2 players under the age of 33 in the 36 man squad. Huge pressure on Leinster to keep producing
@adizlack93: Captain comes from Mayo, not Leinster, Robbie is Connacht man
@Tony Brennan: captain went to Blackrock college as did his father and uncle. His parents are both from Dublin and went to Trinity College before moving west. He also has a south Dublin accent and has captained Leinster at every age grade level through schools. These are all facts.
@Tony Brennan: Henshaw is a Leinster man.
@adizlack93: Sextons parents were from Kerry I believe
@Thesaltyurchin: did Sexton go to boarding school in Kerry and go on to captain Munster with a Kerry accent?
@Thesaltyurchin:
You can feel the Kerryness just oozing of him
@damien reidy: Was a Munster fan as a kid! ;)
@adizlack93: Your a child
@adizlack93: what a childish exchange between adults (do called). Talking about where parents went to school , accents etc. Have you any idea how pathetic this sounds. Jesus… get over yourselves
@JJB: respectfully, blow it out your a$$
@adizlack93: Super clever. Deep!
@Thesaltyurchin: mate don’t take me seriously, I’m here for a laugh
@adizlack93: fair.
@adizlack93: classy D4 swagger to that
@Thesaltyurchin: his old man is from Kerry yeah. Lots of family from that way it seems. His uncle (from Munster) also played for Ireland believe it or not!
@adizlack93: Doris from Mayo
@Comeonyouknow: Mayo accent sounds awfully similar to that of South Dublin so
I wonder at some of the comments on this site. Isn’t the Irish team the sum of the four provinces united to form the best team to represent our country,Leinster are dominating at the moment so more players are picked but that will change it always does. So come on Ireland by 7
@Phillip Keohane: I welcome the success of the national team but I genuinely don’t see any reason why Leinster’s current dominance is likely to change and plenty of reasons why it is likely to continue.
First of all I’m a Connacht supporter. I can’t understand all the anti Leinster hyperbole here. It’s hardly Leinsters fault they are producing most of the internationals. There was a time when Munster were dominating that they had most of the internationals, maybe not to the same effect but that’s the rest of the province’s problem…….
@anthony davoren: …..It’s time Connacht, Munster and Ulster got their sh/t together and closed the gap. Rugby has died in Limerick once the home of it. West Cork thankfully is propping the province up. Connacht is fighting a losing battle to generate more talent given it only has one city and a very rural demographic. Ulster has been in disarray of late but hopefully there is signs of it turning. Leinster are maximizing their potential and are now feeding the other province’s. Stop whinging and get behind the Irish squad ffs
@anthony davoren: Same
@anthony davoren: Limerick City, population just over 100,000 (worth noting). Rugby died because the Munster branch and rugby people in general (at the time) we’re absolute morons and couldn’t believe their luck what the pro era hit, pow! massive success. We only agreed to support Munster because it was the best of our club teams, (plenty of club fans today don’t really support Munster). Unlike Dublin and the ‘home counties’ the clubs (rather than private schools) were the mainststay of fandom in the game. Limericks tribal nature playing beautifully into the different burrows, that all died a death with little or no investment at a key stage (sorta like how the country is ballixed because when we had the boom people just took for themselves)… to compound all that the sport mad city rolled into a Hurling legacy that we’re still living through (a bit) which saw young lads picking up Hurleys instead of rugby balls. All these things a massive factor in the evolution of rugby in Limerick. (imo)
@Thesaltyurchin: I absolutely agree with you. But Munster rugby have had years to address the issue and didn’t. As you said the province has been run in to the ground…akin to Man United in football. We in other province’s can’t be pointing fingers at Leinster without pointing within first. There are plenty of private schools around the country.. tapping into them and public schools is the onus of their respective provincial board
@anthony davoren: it’s jealousy obviously. Leinster are hated beyond the borders of the province by the looks of it. Instead of looking inwards and acknowledging their own deficiencies, fans turn their outrage towards Leinster and the Irish coaches. It’s reached an all time high with Leinster having to turn off their comments on IG for now. This happens in all walks of life, the internet is a hell hole these days and people should not get so riled it up by a comments section on a bloody sports app. Their team selection opinions mean nothing to the team or coaches
@anthony davoren: Very sensible comments. That’s the thing, Munster (both some fans and the org) don’t look inward and course correct. Apportion blame elsewhere. Leinster’s success in 09 was after years of putting the right structures in place and investing wisely. You simply can’t say Munster did the same after their success. Took a short term view and paying the price now. In simple terms instead of trying to cut the legs from Leinster, the other provinces should look at how they elevate themselves to get to same level. Why can’t that be done? Leinster made the most of their talent resources. Have Munster done the same in the last few years by giving certain underage GAA players a viable pathway for example? The Munster academy has improved a lot in the last few years tbf.
@Thesaltyurchin: Smoke and mirrors. Limerick city artfically expanded their population by adding a lot of what used to be in the county to boost their population. Cork done this too, fact, check it out.
@Carmine Lorenzo: i’d say it can’t be done because the most important component of Leinsters talent development pipeline is strong schools rugby for which strong club rugby is not an effective substitute.
I don’t want to say that the powers that be in Munster get nothing wrong, current coaching saga is proof to the contrary, but i’ve never hear anyone say in convincing detail what specific decisions the respective branches made that explains their current respective fortunes.
@Kevin Volf: Yeah but you could say that Leinster identified that particular talent pipeline, doubled down and invested in that pathway. It might be simplistic, but each summer I see incredible athletes lining out for Cork, Kerry, Limerick etc in both codes. Have Munster exhausted every avenue to entice some of these profiles into a rugby pathway and the promise of a pro career? I’d be genuinely curious. Leinster have even seen success in getting guys from outside the typical catchment area (Frawley, Osborne x 2, Furlong)
@Carmine Lorenzo: I’d put Nash and Casey at a similar level to Frawley and Osborne. I think Munster could possibly scout around a bit better and bring in another freak individual or two like a Furlong but i think that the more we learn about effective coaching the more processes of wide talent ID will become less important than processes of robust talent development. I think the other provinces will also continue to fall behind Leinster in their ability to put together a higly effective team with plenty of young players so i’m pretty blackpilled about Irish rugby’s ability to maintain interprovincial competition and rivalry over the medium term. Hope to be proven wrong over the next few years.
@adizlack93: I think jealousy is the wrong word and an over simplified version of what is wrong with the world… people in general find it very difficult to seek answers to problems from within, especially when they have little or no control or understanding of how to exact change. It is why racism and online hatred will spread like wildfire through what are otherwise good communities of people. Maybe disenfranchised is a better way to describe what is going on – it does not excuse abuse or hatred, but at least it helps to invite people into a conversation rather than alienation.
@Kevin Volf: There were no specific decisions made by the provinces to create the existing schools pipeline (or lack of). The schools cups pre date the Interprovincial Championships by approx 40 years in Munster and Connacht and 60 years in Leinster and Ulster. The schools are privately funded or funded by the DOE and whilst the provinces are involved in the scheduling and organisation, they are not involved in funding at all. Their only contribution may come in the form of regional resources such as CCRO’s (connected to clubs) who will visit schools in their catchment area. But this is about growing the club youths, not schools. In Leinster, 4 or 5 very well funded schools have developed professional standard rugby programs, and Leinster have benefitted but cannot claim the credit.
All the talk is going to be the starting 10. But that’s taking the attention away from how poor we were in the autumn internationals! Let’s see if there will be an improvement we looked really stale and predictable that should be the real conversation
Let’s hope they haven’t set up Prendergast to fail, not sure he is mature enough to handle losing such an important game as he has little or no experience of losing in a Blue or Green shirt. Hate to say it but there is no guarantee that Ireland will win on Saturday, not based on our Autumn performances.
@Eva Braun: Eva Braun ladies and gentleman, take a bow Eva. Some top quality spoofy speculation with a hint of hope to see him fail. Give us your analysis on Englands performaces in November now and tell us why they will beat us in Dublin.
@adizlack93: wow, are you the only one allowed to have/share an opinion? I made an honest comment, I am an Ireland fan, why on earth would I analyse England?
@Eva Braun: well, generally the opposition has a role to play in the match yes. I was asking for your opinion regarding England and you showed the depth of your rugby knowledge pretty quick
@adizlack93: Do you imagine your own ‘depths’ are uncharted or something, cause you seem like a clown?
@adizlack93: Please note, you asked for my analysis in your first reply, not my opinion, two very different things. It goes to show your poor understanding of the English language. With regard to the English team, never underestimate the English rugby team coming into a hostile environment with a point to prove. We surprisingly lost to them in Twickenham last year where everyone thought it was a given that we would beat them too. I take nothing for granted in a rugby game, especially the first game of a tournament. I truly hope Prendergast has a phenomenal game, I just think it’s a huge game for a young player to cut his teeth on.
@Thesaltyurchin: like the mariana trench
@Eva Braun: There are some who feel that Ireland don’t trust young talented players early enough in their careers and there is definitely still some of that going on in the existing squad with the selection of Healy and Henderson. But this 10 debate falls on partisan lines too often and the fact that I already know you are a Munster fan from your comment and that he is a Leinster fan from his reaction proves the point perfectly. We can debate the merits of one player over another, but to say a 21 year old is not ready is a little facetious. Did you say the same about Craig Casey, Conor Murray or Keith Earls who debut at a similar age? Win or lose this weekend, I think it is great that Ireland are testing some of our young players in big games. I just wish we would do more of it.
Must say the rugby comment’s today mayby the worse ive seen ever
@Kevin: Honestly you have to be a neub
@Thesaltyurchin: charming
Been a pretty simple route for Sam really, hasn’t had to show too much playing in a massively dominant team, excited to see how he runs with Bundle inside him, England have chosen two v skilful players at 10 and 12, experienced too, big risk imo, still think England are a team of individuals and will suffer because of it. Reackon Sam starts starts most games this 6n, and they slip him into the Lions with Russel and Smith.
@Thesaltyurchin: Prendergast has made more line break assists than other players in Europe this seasons, one more than Antoine DuPont in second. He’s shown plenty for Leinster alright.
@Eoin H: Stats are tricky one, but I like ‘player comparison’ at RugbyPass… if you scroll down you can select both and it gives you a like for like comparison. pretty good. Its doesn’t have ‘assists’ on there but has some 28 other individual statistics, (has ‘Line Breaks’ at 4-1 to JC), Check it out and get back to me with what you find? https://www.rugbypass.com/european-champions-cup/stats/
@Thesaltyurchin: This is a very fair comment Salty… because yes, it is true that he hasn’t had to deal with the consequences and challenges that other 10s face week in week out behind a retreating pack or an inferior 9. But he now has this 6N to either prove he can do it in all weathers or at least learn from mistakes when it goes wrong for him. He is unbeaten this season so far and a defeat has to come sooner or later (hopefully later). I hope when it does come, everyone will get behind him they way we did Crowley after the England defeat last year.
@Thesaltyurchin: Love this… it is a brilliant feature.
@Thesaltyurchin: I got the stat above from Squidge rugby. Crowley certainly carries a lot more, but Prendergast has a much higher metres per carry ratio. Generally shows when Prendergast wants to run with the ball he can just as good as Crowley,
@Eoin H: Easily as good, I think all the fun in this competition is about where they can each get to, Squidge is great.
@Paul Ennis: Mad eh? I accidentally put Crowley (I’m sure it’s similar results for SP) next to N’Tamak and it’s like the French 10 has never played before!! maybe he’s been injured, or maybe we’re ridiculously hard on on our players. Really cool feature tho, assume the stats are accurate ;)
@Eoin H: I think that stat is probably correct but Sam stands deeper and is contact shy so there is a lot of sideways running. I wish Sam well on Saturday, this will be a proper test for him in steering this team against an improving, physical team.
@cge1957: it’s not correct. Squidge said that Sam Prendergast has ASSISTED more linebreaks than any other player this season. So that explains the discrepancy with what salty said about the stats on rugbypass. Still a nice stat to have but not one that supports claims about his running game (though to my eyes it looks fine as well).
@Thesaltyurchin: I’d be interested as to what they class a line break so. Since both Sam’s tries against Bristol should be counted as clean line breaks.
Having watched Healy and Boyle for Leinster this year, I really can’t see Healy as that much better a scrummager at this stage of his career. His power source is almost completely empty and he’s almost trying to survive in scrims now rather than dominate. Boyle has been excellent this season and had his best game yet last week vs Stormer, how long more Easterby? Make the change already.
Give the guy a break .. we could do with some depth at 10, and I believe they both can do a job In tandem .
Enjoy what both bring to this team because it’s been a long time since we had such talent 10′s in the race
I think that Crowley will start lots of games and will tactically be a better option for some opponents.
I doubt we’ll see Ireland back one outhalf and one outhalf only given the talent we have now.
Sam has earned his shot, Crowley is a competitor and will be chomping at the bit. Mack lucky get the nod over Nash, and Baird needs to grab the jersey with both hands, which he hasn’t really done yet. Should be a cracker but we’re at home and holders so no fear.