{"id":300601,"date":"2026-02-16T08:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T08:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/300601\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T08:26:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T08:26:08","slug":"andy-farrell-hits-out-at-keyboard-warriors-over-criticism-of-prendergast-and-crowley-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/300601\/","title":{"rendered":"Andy Farrell hits out at \u2018keyboard warriors\u2019 over criticism of Prendergast and Crowley \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andy Farrell<\/a> has hit out at the \u201ckeyboard warriors\u201d who have contributed to the negative and often nasty targeting of his young outhalves Sam Prendergast<\/a> and Jack Crowley<\/a> on social media<\/a> over the past year or two.<\/p>\n

Being asked about his selection at outhalf for next Saturday\u2019s Six Nations<\/a> match against England<\/a> at Twickenham prompted the Irish head coach to vent his frustrations.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you know what, I might be talking out of school here, but in my opinion, for what\u2019s gone on over the last year or something, especially with the keyboard warriors, I think people need to ask themselves, really, sometimes, \u2018Are we Irish? Do we want people to do well or not?\u2019\u201d said Farrell, scarcely able to conceal his incredulity or anger.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can be tough for these kids. I\u2019ve seen it, to-ing and fro-ing with both of them, and both of them are strong characters. It takes a lot to break kids like that. But I\u2019ve seen it affect people.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, the keyboard warriors on Twitter, or whatever you call it now, need to cop on and try to help these kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

Farrell wondered aloud whether vindictive people hiding under the cloak of anonymity should be given any oxygen, albeit he appreciated the outhalf issue is worthy of debate.<\/p>\n

As for the groans after each of Prendergast\u2019s two missed conversions, Farrell said: \u201cI\u2019ve heard worse than that, and I\u2019ve had worse groans that that, believe me. Everyone is allowed to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much has been made of the huge cheer that greeted the introduction of Crowley for Prendergast in the 56th minute, but the notion that this was partially a negative response directed at the latter also angered Farrell.<\/p>\n

\"SamSam Prendergast endured some tough moments during Ireland’s hard-fought win over Italy on Saturday. Photograph: Ben Brady\/Inpho <\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I don\u2019t believe that. No. You\u2019re making that up 100 per cent. I heard the cheer for Jack. That\u2019s for Jack. Jack\u2019s a good lad, you know? He\u2019s a good player. And Munster supporters and Irish supporters are allowed to cheer that. We don\u2019t need to make it out to be something it\u2019s not.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were other factors in Ireland achieving more tempo after the change at outhalf, not least the introduction of a quartet of Lions four minutes previously. But it would appear that Crowley\u2019s display has forced Farrell\u2019s hand for Twickenham, albeit the Munster player inadvertently kicked the game\u2019s last penalty dead when Ireland were seeking a bonus-point try.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll see, we\u2019ll see, but Jack did pretty well, didn\u2019t he? He\u2019s gutted about the kick into the corner obviously, but I said to him he did a lot more than that for us. He did a lot more good for us than harm and he can be proud of his performance today.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for Prendergast\u2019s performance, Farrell said: \u201cHe\u2019d be frustrated with bits. These things will stand to them, as in that\u2019s the journey, that\u2019s the career. Down the line, these two lads, and others, they will be the players that they want to be. Everyone goes through these types of scenarios.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prendergast only turned 23 last Thursday, and, when reminded that Johnny Sexton still hadn\u2019t won his first cap at that age, Farrell said: \u201cThey\u2019re young lads and good lads as well. We need to back them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Farrell said he had no regrets about giving Prendergast his first cap at the age of 21 against Argentina in 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I\u2019ve no problem at all. He was playing outstanding rugby and he will continue to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked whether the noise around the two outhalves has ever influenced his selection, Farrell said: \u201cThese things ebb and flow, don\u2019t they? Everyone\u2019s going through different types of feelings the whole time. I\u2019ve no doubt Jack felt there was nothing to lose. Jack Conan came on last week and played really well off the bench. So did James Ryan. It\u2019s a little bit easier in that regard but he still did it, Jack, so fair play to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CormacCormac Izuchukwu proved to be a valuable addition to Ireland’s team for Saturday’s match against Italy, especially at the lineout. Photograph: Inpho <\/p>\n

Farrell was entitled to be pleased with the performances of Robert Baloucoune and Cormac Izuchukwu, saying of the latter: \u201cHe\u2019s a fantastic lineout forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the scrum was again an Achilles\u2019 heel, with Farrell saying this would be \u201ca good learning for the experienced ones like Tadhg [Furlong] and Dan [Sheehan] and R\u00f3nan [Kelleher].<\/p>\n

\u201cThe overriding part of it for me is that we was obviously under pressure against an excellent, dynamic, powerful Italian scrum. But Tom O\u2019Toole came through with flying colours and that was a fantastic story.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ireland still sit fifth in the table and will be underdogs against a wounded England after Scotland ended their 12-match winning run with a 31-20 victory in Murrayfield.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0James Ryan\u2019s hard-nosed display: Five things we learned from this Six Nations wOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could say we have nothing to lose, but we do,\u201d said Farrell. \u201cWe want to win. We want to play better. We want to learn from a big-game experience away from home. Paris is a tough ask, and Twickenham is a similar type of task. So we need to grow through that experience and see what we can do with it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve no doubt people are going to write us off. These lads are learning fast on the job. Under extreme pressure, from us as a group and from our own expectation of trying to push them as quickly as we possibly can, because time is always of the essence at international rugby.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut also, we need to make sure that we understand where we\u2019re at as a group. The people that we\u2019ve got missing, the experience that we\u2019re trying to give and how that\u2019s going to stand to us down the line.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andy Farrell has hit out at the \u201ckeyboard warriors\u201d who have contributed to the negative and often nasty…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[25747,61,60,1449,132479,43771,12918,15551,58,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-300601","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-andy-farrell","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-ireland-rugby","12":"tag-italy-rugby","13":"tag-jack-crowley","14":"tag-sam-prendergast","15":"tag-six-nations","16":"tag-social-media","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}