Andy Farrell believes Jack Crowley is the right man to lead Ireland into the Twickenham cauldron with Sam Prendergast still learning his way on the international scene.
Prendergast, who started the last four Tests and four of last season’s championship games at out-half, misses out from the squad tasked with keeping Ireland’s Guinness Six Nations hopes alive by beating England in London for the first time since 2022.
The 23-year-old 15-cap Leinster out-half came in for criticism following last weekend’s performance against Italy when he missed two simple conversions and looked devoid of confidence before his withdrawal for Crowley in the 56th minute.
The 26-year-old Munster man, alongside the other replacements, had a big influence, kicking five points and was heavily involved in Rob Baloucoune’s crucial third try.
Speaking after the game Farrell hit out at the “keyboard warriors” who aim vitriol at both out-halves as they battle for the starting shirt.
And after naming a starting team with five changes and a further three on the bench, Farrell was asked about the decision to leave Prendergast out of the travelling party altogether, with versatile provincial team-mate Ciarán Frawley covering out-half.
“Sam’s a fantastic international player,” he told RTÉ Sport after omitting him from a squad just the second time since making his debut in 2024.
“He’s on a journey that’s obviously learning, like all of us. That will never stop.
Andy Farrell speaks to Sam Prendergast and Jack Crowley (r) at Ireland training
“It’s the same for Ciarán Frawley, like, we’ve talked all along about the four lads competing against one another and the balance is right for this team this weekend.
“Everyone gets feedback and we talk it through and we use it in the right manner to see where we’re going to go in the not too distant future. So, it’s the same for everyone.”
Asked why this particular game, in which England start as 11-point favourites, was the right match for the 30-cap Munster man, who last started against Japan in November, he said: “Because of what we’ve seen and how he’s come through and performed and playing confidently.
“I think the two lads probably came in to camp, I think they’ve probably been in better form.
“I’m not saying they were in bad form, in better form, but you see during training which way that you’re going to go through performance, etc.
“You back what you see and all of that. I suppose sometimes you see people come from the back, have nothing to lose and then just rip in.
Crowley in for Prendergast as Farrell makes five changes for England clash pic.twitter.com/8oVe2xs2ep
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) February 19, 2026
“And we’ve not just seen that with Jack, we’ve seen it with [lock] James Ryan – not selected to start in the first game, came on against France and had a storming game and has continued that.
“That’s because people are able to sit back a bit, make sense of it and rip into the performance.
“I think you saw that with Jack’s performance last week.”
Jamison Gibson-Park, Tadhg Furlong, Tadhg Beirne are all promoted from the bench with Josh van der Flier starting after missing out completely last weekend.
Forwards Edwin Edogbo and Cormac Izuchukwu, who both played against Italy, are also out of the 23 as Farrell opted for a 5:3 split.
Ireland went to England, beaten 31-20 last weekend by Scotland, two years ago as 12-point favourites but fell to a late Marcus Smith dropgoal.
“We go back into the dark ages sometimes, we go back further than two years sometimes,” said Farrell when asked about the 23-22 loss that derailed their back-to-back Grand Slam hopes.
“Obviously last year [a 27-22 win for Ireland] was a pretty exciting game as well, like you would expect it to be, but we’re ready for anything that’s going to be thrown at us because we expect England to have a reaction to that game, we know from what they’ve been saying, emotionally they thought they didn’t get it right.
“I suppose where they think their squad is at right now, they was obviously talking at the beginning of the tournament that they want to take it to the last weekend there in France and 1771525626 the Grand Slam is gone, but the competition’s still on for them, and we’d like to think for us as well.
“So it all adds up to what the Six Nations should be about.
“Different emotions week to week because of what’s happened the week before and here we are at the halfway stage and, we’ve got a cracker to look forward to.”
Watch England v Ireland in the Six Nations on Saturday from 1pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on the RTÉ News App and on rte.ie/sport. Listen to commentary on Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
Watch France v Italy in the Six Nations on Sunday from 2.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player