“He looks pretty unflappable.”
Brian O’Driscoll has named the player that he believes will be Ireland’s key player in the Six Nations showdown with France.
There’s another massive selection call to make at out-half for Ireland head coach Simon Easterby, ahead of the crunch game with France next Saturday. The winner of the game will likely go on to win this year’s Six Nations Championship.
Leinster’s Sam Prendergast has started all three games so far, but there is a strong argument to go with the better defender in Jack Crowley, after the former missed eight out of 16 tackles against Wales.
Crowley was excellent off the bench against England in round one, yet he was confined to much briefer cameos from fullback in the next two games.
Iconic Ireland centre O’Driscoll reckons the coaching staff should leave the team as is.
He said: “Why would you change it now?. There was a chance… you maybe thought that Jack was going to get a game, but we’re very lucky that Jack came on and had a great 20, 25 minutes against England.
“If he does have to be called in for a 20-minute cameo he’s our guy for that too, we’re not losing a whole lot.
“The game you would have maybe thought they’d have given him a start was against Wales and I think now, after picking Sam three-in-a-row, you stay the course with it.”
Prendergast had a mixed bag in Ireland’s close win over Wales, but came up with huge moments in crunch time – notably his outrageous 50:22 – to help swing the game in Ireland’s favour.
Many, such as ex-Wales No 10 Dan Biggar and Leinster attack coach Tyler Bleyendaal, have praised the 22-year-old for this ability to bounce back after errors.
O’Driscoll echoed these thoughts: “He looks pretty unflappable. He looks pretty calm. When things have gone wrong he has had big-pressure kicks that he’s still knocked over. He missed the one off-the-post, no panic, he’s still going for the spiral 50-22, the spiral bomb.
“Even after he miscues the spiral kick into touch, what he doesn’t do is try to play the miracle pass to get himself out of that next time, like trying to make up excessively for an error.
“We’re lucky to have someone at the helm controlling things that sees things that way. Someone was saying to me ‘he seems very laid-back’. Like, is that a bad thing? ‘Excessively laid-back.’
