Dave Hanratty

And for what, the guts of 40 minutes, they had a number 10 who really hadn't played there all year.

Something's gone wrong there.

There's no two ways about it.

Yeah.

And look, to be fair, we're in the cheap seats.

It is worth just saying, it's hard.

You know, like, I'm sure Andy Farrell, Owen Farrell's dad, and Johnny Sexton feel they can judge a 10.

And if they decide, we think Prendergast has the higher ceiling, as the phrase went,

and is better in attack and will bring his defence up to speed like they're entitled to pursue that but obviously you pursue it you have to pursue it for X number of games to give it a real chance and so it's very costly then when that choice turns out to have been the wrong one obviously when it works with Jameson Gibson Park it's a masterstroke and Farrell's had his fair share of masterstrokes Mike Hanson in you go straight away but

it's why he has such a great opportunity on friday yeah to stand up to deliver a good performance and then all of a sudden you're feeling a little bit better you know what though even in that i agree with you but like we'll get on to the bulls game in a moment like against the bulls last year crow park in the rain he made some big hits yeah he made some big tackles it was a huge talking point then and i think a lot of us thought as he headed off for the summer the pennies dropped what a great way to sign off because defensively he was teak tough that day it

bore no relevance to what we saw throughout this season.

Unfortunately, that just is the issue.

And you're talking about going to Eden Park.

How many tackles can he afford to fall off or miss, realistically, if you're trying to win that game?

Yeah.

Just one more line, I suppose, around Irish rugby before we get into Leinster Bulls preview.

Bernard Jackman had an interesting piece in the Sunday Independent at the weekend.

And the headline, or the byline was, with so many players leaving, I've never seen the mood as low amongst Irish rugby fans.

So we have this Irish squad going, the Connacht boys uncapped, you know, be feeling good.

But...