{"id":213276,"date":"2025-10-14T18:05:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T18:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/213276\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T18:05:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T18:05:09","slug":"ireland-rugby-key-questions-as-returning-boss-andy-farrell-prepares-to-name-autumn-squad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/213276\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland rugby: Key questions as returning boss Andy Farrell prepares to name autumn squad"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Farrell would have loved to see one of his fly-halves definitively seize the 10 jersey during his Lions sabbatical. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It didn&#8217;t quite pan out that way. Sam Prendergast, who made his Test debut in last year&#8217;s autumn series, began the Six Nations as the starting 10. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">However, after a tough afternoon against a rampant France, he dropped to the bench behind Jack Crowley for Ireland&#8217;s final game in Italy. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Neither player made Farrell&#8217;s Lions squad and they started one summer Test apiece for Ireland, leaving the picture unclear heading into the autumn. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">They are, however, poised to play against each other for the first time in Saturday&#8217;s interpro at Croke Park. Crowley has enjoyed the stronger start to the 2025-26 season, but both players have one last chance to shape Farrell&#8217;s thinking before Chicago. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Harry Byrne has also attracted positive reviews recently. Keen to accelerate his development, he joined Bristol on loan for the second half of the 2024-25 season and impressed in his first Leinster start in over a year against an admittedly poor Sharks side last weekend. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Byrne, who last played for Ireland in the 2024 Six Nations, may be included in the squad, but the 10 jersey for the All Blacks game is Prendergast or Crowley&#8217;s to claim. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Farrell would have loved to see one of his fly-halves definitively seize the 10 jersey during his Lions&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213277,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-213276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}