'That will come to bite England... but they hide him well'

The conversation around Prendergast is overlooking the obvious issue. He has been a fantastic 10 when playing and winning behind a generally dominant pack and going forward. This has been the case since his schools days. He will get there but it’s a completely foreign skill that he has to learn from scratch. Given that - in terms of exposure and development - he's 5 or 6 years ahead of his predecessors and learning on the fly, I think he should continue to be selected. It’s the fastest way to gain the skills and ability to defend the channel. Failing that, maybe the scouts should be looking for similarly talented outhalves from mediocre teams with less dominance where they will have already had that “boot camp”?? That's tosh. A part of the blooding process is getting humbled by better teams. You can't skip that chapter. Forget the 6N title and create more battle-hardened, wiser players for the future and more important objectives

It is an age old solution, protect a player who is not a good defender. I watched Naas Botha play at various levels when living in Southern Africa, and he was never asked to be a front line tackler. And why would any coach use such a player in a position where he will be targeted. Totally agree, when Sam plays, take him away from the defensive line.

But imo, he should not be starting as Ireland’s 10 again this year. Let him settle, gain confidence. Crowley for me is the man for 10. But in the longer term it will be Prendergast who starts. That could/should be in maybe 2/3 years time. Both men are good 10’s, Ireland fortunate to have them.

Just ponder what either would be like playing for UBB or Toulouse at club level. Sam esp. would benefit so much from those environments…..ofc “pipe dreams”.

Goode wanted Borthwick gone. I don't know why, but he really doesn't seem to like him. When they were losing he was all for him being fired. Now they are winning he sounds a bit gutted.

As for Prendgast. Well he’s tall and will bulk out. He is a lot better than last year. He actually made a couple of tackles against France.

I'd say his pace is more of an issue long term. He can't defend wide as he turns like an oil tanker and gets drifted past by any outside back. Pace isn't something easy to develop even in your early 20’s.

Agreed . Ford has an easy ride by england and sale.

The last 2 prem games , firstly a flanker ran around his last man defence , then Pollack ran straight past his lame attempt at getting across and was totally lost for speed.

Yes , against good opposition england may rule him at 10 .

When it matters he disappears.

You watch .

In France, Jalibert was put aside for his awful defense. Recently, Penaud as well. It turn out that Jalibert worked a lot in addition to his team trainings to erase these defensive flaws. And boom, is the 4th best french tackler with 10/12. And Penaud ? Replaced by Attissogbé who is clearly better to work on our weaknesses, even if he scores less. Penaud will have to work harder to get back his place. And we will have 2 number 14 ready to compete for the jersey. Seems like Predergast will always get that jersey, even if he’s awful and cost the victory (i’m not saying that he’s the only problem, but it’s too often him that allow the try to happen) to his team. Then, why working on his flaws ? He’s not Sexton or O’Gara. If he's not working to do the best, just change the player. Even a new guy will want to do the best to prove himself. Ireland needs new blood. All these guys are too confortably seated in this team.

weird that this article is about Prendergast, but the headline is about Ford.

Prendergast is weak defensively, but better in attack than he gets credit for. He’s not the reason Ireland are on the decline.

Ford is quite good defensively. Not as good as Farrell or Fin Smith. Possibly not as good as Marcus Smith, but he can’t be compared to Prendergast and Foley. His defence is unlikely to “come to bite” England.

You could… put him on the bench?

Short of having a 10 that can do everything well, it comes back to the argument of are you picking a player for what he can do or not selecting them because of what they can’t?

Admittedly, there comes a point when a player could become a liability to a team, but I don’t think Pendergast is solely to blame for Ireland’s recent failings. Problem for 10s is they’re the team lightening rod; if the team plays well, the 10 invariably gets a fair amount of the credit, play bad and the 10s performance gets scrutinized.

I do like Crowley, but I think Ireland’s problems run deeper than Pendergast’s tackling deficiencies.