{"id":300729,"date":"2026-02-16T10:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T10:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/300729\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T10:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T10:20:09","slug":"farrell-angrily-hits-out-at-ireland-fans-targeting-prendergast-and-crowley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/300729\/","title":{"rendered":"Farrell angrily hits out at Ireland fans targeting Prendergast and Crowley"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Andy Farrell angrily hits out at Ireland fans who are targeting Sam Prendergast and Jack Crowley\" width=\"620\" height=\"500\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"w-full object-cover rounded-md\" style=\"color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url(&quot;data:image\/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg' viewBox='0 0 620 500'%3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'\/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'\/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'\/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'\/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'\/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'\/%3E%3C\/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAQAAACEN3D\/AAAAL0lEQVR42mP4z8DAwMiAARgZGJhY+P\/\/PwMDAwPDfwYGBgaGhgYGhgYGAAD9Hwlr5xRngAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg=='\/%3E%3C\/svg%3E&quot;)\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771237209_576_image.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Farrell desperately wanted this off his chest <\/p>\n<p>Ireland head coach Andy Farrell didn&#8217;t hold back as he hit out at &#8220;keyboard warriors&#8221; who are contributing to a negative environment around the Ireland out-half debate.<\/p>\n<p>Farrell has insisted on opting for Sam Prendergast in recent matches, with Jack Crowley in contention to claim the spot, but mixed performances from both has only added fuel to the debate.<\/p>\n<p>After he was asked about his selection for Saturday&#8217;s Six Nations clash at Twickenham against England, Farrell took the opportunity to air his frustrations about the discussion.<\/p>\n<p>Farrell said: \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<\/p>\n<p>\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<p>\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<p>After huge cheers for arrival of Crowley during Saturday&#8217;s win over Italy, Farrell dismissed the idea that the crowd were happier to see Prendergast leave the pitch, than Crowley enter it.<\/p>\n<p>\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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Farrell desperately wanted this off his chest Ireland head coach Andy Farrell didn&#8217;t hold back as he hit&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-300729","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300729","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=300729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}