Ireland 22-19 Australia: Farrell ‘delighted with both’ but debate between Prendergast and Crowley will go on
Ireland were presented with the jersey for their final game against Australia in 2024 by legendary former halfback Ollie Campbell at their Shelbourne Hotel base on Wednesday evening.
The irony will not go away to seasoned observers of Irish rugby.
After all, Campbell was one half of Ireland’s first great No. 10 debate.
His feud with Tony Ward is probably the team’s most famous split in the sport’s most important jersey, but the sequel will include David Humphries vs. Ronan O’Gara, and then O’Gara Pull with Johnny Sexton.
The latter would be No. 1 on the team sheet for more than a decade, putting a pause on such discussions, but the captain’s retirement after last year’s World Cup ushered in a widespread renaissance.
Munster’s Jack Crawley started the game with a superb victory over France in the first game of the post-Sexton era to seal the Six Nations title.
The 24-year-old remains in place during the summer tour of South Africa but substitute Ciaran Frawley capped off the season with two goals in Durban as the back-to-back world champions clinched glory. this trip.
Crawley still started in the All Blacks’ humiliating defeat at the start of the month but struggled and his performances fell off across the board.
A week later against Argentina his strong first-half performance seemed to be overshadowed by the shuffling of substitute Sam Prendergast, sparking talk.
The Leinster man made his first start in the third game of the autumn against Fiji and his performance included a yellow card and a few mistakes but many classy touches saw the former Under-20 standout deserve to be labeled Player time to focus on.
