Joe

And did you think the line speed on Saturday was every bit as aggressive as we've seen?

it probably was a little bit off than when it was against La Rochelle but I think what's point is good that maybe they got burned against La Rochelle so maybe they choked the motor a little bit yeah and it was but it was a wet day so there was even less reason to choke the motor that's what I mean like it's a wet if ever you're going to say right exactly what have we been working on for two years it's a wet day they're going to be like you know handling's going to be tough we smother them so I was expecting I was expecting we're going to see I thought we'd see Jack Nenebar smoking a cigar in the coach's box saying this is what I'm talking about

And actually it was the opposite.

So I think they might be, I honestly, I think they might be softening.

I really do.

Ian Mulligan said, I think, early in the La Rochelle game, they hadn't lost a line out in the competition yet.

He's opening things up.

He was going lateral and you thought, he's in trouble here.

He's going to get smothered up and then, you know, glides past the pace and then he's straight in the line.

And, you know, it was brilliant.

Like, as you said, something out of nothing, which Irish teams need.

It's funny.

Virgin Media had their Six Nations launch and Conor Murray's one of the pundits.

And this wasn't off the record.

You know, we're doing the whole Prendergast Crowley talk to us.

And he was like, yeah, look, my sense from being in the meetings at the start of the week where the nines and tens would all get together and talk about a week.

My sense is that Andy likes Sam, that he the way Sam talks in those meetings for a young guy, you can tell he is tactically brilliant and has a great sense of the game.

The way he breaks down opposition, the way he talks, you know, this whole how they run the week line that people mention all the time.

And Murray's sense from those meetings is that Farrell really likes Prendergast and Prendergast's feel for rugby, his analytical brain, which was quite interesting.

Rob Carney was there as well at the launch.