Ireland need to find something different against England otherwise another defeat is on the cards

Ireland face a sore England at Twickenham on Saturday hoping to eek out a win despite all the recent negative chat about Ireland’s outhalf situation.

It has been obvious to most Irish rugby fans for some time that the Sam Prendergast experiment needed to stop, as Ireland attempted to shoehorn the talented, but flawed, youngster into the Irish side, despite what all the evidence was suggesting.

Ever since his debut against Argentina in 2024 we have heard ad nauseam about what a ‘high ceiling’ Prendergast has.

As recently as the opening round of the Six Nations, when Ireland played France in Paris, the media ‘ceiling’ narrative was still being thrown out. In the Virgin Media studio in the pre-match chat that evening the number ten issue was discussed, and in three minutes the ‘ceiling’ reference was used five times. 

Were they trying to convince the audience or themselves?

15 caps later and we have yet to see it. Instead, we have got to witness the unravelling of a talented young player who should have been better protected by the Irish management.

Andy Farrell was extremely vocal, in the aftermath of the Italy win, about the levels of online abuse that has gone the way of Ireland’s two number 10s. 

He is 100% correct that Irish players should not be subjected to such vile abuse, but if he had not jettisoned the Six Nations winning fly half in 2024 and promoted a young kid, who clearly wasn’t ready, then all that would never have happened.

And what about how Ciaran Frawley was treated? Or Joey Carbery? Or the Byrne brothers? 

Or even the manner in which Ben Healy was effectively told he was not valued so he headed off to Scotland instead?

The no. 10 situation has been managed incredibly poorly in the past five years and what is happening now with Crowley and Prendergast is just the result of all this.

It is unlikely to go away anytime soon either, with many supporters watching Ireland matches now almost waiting for the young outhalves to make a mistake. 

Mistakes will happen. Every outhalf makes them. They should be allowed make mistakes so that they become comfortable when they do occur. Dan Carter, Johnny Sexton, Finn Russell – they made tonnes of errors in their careers, but without people roaring for them to be dropped.

The key difference between Crowley and Prendergast is that one makes mistakes, while the other has flaws in his game that means he is not yet ready for this level. There is a huge difference in that.

Hopefully Jack Crowley is now allowed to try and get back to where he was in 2024 and that Harry Byrne and Frawley are offered the chance to become comfortable at this level again.

Prendergast is not finished yet, but for his own sake he needs to go back to Leinster for a while and regroup. 

We would all love to see him re-emerge as a more robust player in a year or so as a no. 10 who can offer real value to Ireland, but without the current shortcomings.

The win over Italy was not convincing. One of the features of the game was that Ireland’s best players were the three Ulster players Stuart McCloskey, Robert Baloucoune and Cormac Izuchukwu. 

It is unlikely they would have started in a Farrell team if everyone had been available, yet they prospered, which flies in the face of the notion that Ireland do not have the players anymore. 

There are plenty of quality players in the country. They just need to be backed.

England’s defeat in Murrayfield was the least surprising shock ever, as losing in Round 1 to Italy and then beating England in Round 2 is the most Scotland thing ever.

That result ensures we don’t know what to expect this weekend as Ireland face a wounded England on home soil.

England coach Steve Borthwick has made what look like shrewd changes, with Tommy Freeman back in his best position on the wing with the dangerous Ollie Lawrence in at centre, while the mercurial Henry Pollock makes his first England start at number eight.

England will have taken note of what the South African and Italian front rows have done to Ireland recently and you would imagine, even if all the talk is about the outhalves, that the scrum could well end up deciding this one.