A baffling change in style: How Ireland blew the Six Nations chance of a century and a half | Rugby Union News

Never in the 142-year history of the Six Nations championship has a side clinched three titles outright in succession. Ireland had that chance in 2025 when they got to round four still on for a Grand Slam against France in Dublin. They blew it royally, though. How?

Since 2020, Ireland have transitioned from the ruck-heavy, risk-adverse, set-piece-focused rugby – with the odd stunning strike-play – implemented by Joe Schmidt, to a far more positive, attractive, sensational ball-playing side under Andy Farrell. The change in style brought them a historic 2-1 series victory over the All Blacks in New Zealand, a 2023 Six Nations Grand Slam and the world No 1 ranking heading to the 2023 World Cup.

At that tournament Ireland again produced some fabulous rugby, beating eventual winners South Africa in the pool stages, ripping Scotland apart, and falling just short in a humdinger of a quarter-final against New Zealand in Paris. Their game-plan was consistent: treasuring the ball and possession, playing at pace and connecting through forwards and backs with passes to open up defences.

It didn’t rely on huge power, and certainly wasn’t focused on kicking from hand in most attacks.

In 2024, Ireland played largely the same way as Jack Crowley came in to replace the retired Johnny Sexton at fly-half. Such a style put France to the sword 38-17 in Marseille, beat Italy 36-0 and Wales 31-7, before their Grand Slam hopes died with the final kick at Twickenham against an inspired England side.

A nervy enough victory over Scotland in Dublin still brought the 2024 Six Nations title, with Ireland then going on to beat the Springboks in South Africa last summer as part of a thrilling 1-1 series draw, in addition to securing November wins over Argentina and Australia – coming after a disappointing loss to New Zealand in Dublin.

Farrell was on secondment with the British and Irish Lions for the 2025 Six Nations, and although Ireland did secure a 14th Triple Crown, having effectively been 80 minutes away from making history, they did not have a good Six Nations – and the stats back that up. Indeed, they ultimately slipped to third place in the table behind England, whom they had beaten comprehensively on the opening weekend.

In a marked change of style, Ireland’s possession dropped to 50 per cent across their five fixtures, with their territory at 54 per cent. They only scored 17 tries – France scored 30, England 25 – finishing with the fewest number of scores of any side on turnover ball (just one try).

Ireland ranked second from bottom for metres made and turnovers won, down in fourth for carries made, offloads and line-breaks, dead last for defenders beaten, tackle breaks and goal-kicking (66.7 per cent, with only 59 per cent of tries converted), and top of the list for what Opta stats terms ‘bad passes’ (61).

Ireland went from a side who treasured the ball, to one intent on kicking to compete. Why? Two main reasons. First, the influence of South African World Cup winning coach Jacques Nienaber at Leinster, where the majority of this current Ireland side play. Leinster now prefer to kick possession away, trust their defence, and look to strike via efficient 22 entries and set-piece domination. Ireland have undoubtedly looked to sync up playing styles in a bid to maintain cohesion.

The second reason for such a drastic change was the introduction of Leinster’s Sam Prendergast at fly-half. The 22-year-old was trusted and backed to start and play no matter what, with his main qualities centring around his skill with the boot.

Farrell selected Prendergast ahead of Crowley against Australia in November, and despite Ireland struggling in the Test and Crowley emerging alongside zippy scrum-half Craig Casey when the side were 19-15 down to change the endgame in a 22-19 victory, Prendergast’s provincial form behind an all-star Leinster pack prompted interim Ireland head coach Simon Easterby to select the younger man to start against England for their Six Nations opener.

Prendergast, despite some bizarre coverage to the contrary in Ireland afterwards, did not play well against England, missing a simple conversion, kicking poorly from hand, and failing to get the attack clicking. Crowley emerged from the bench on 58 minutes, and the pace and tempo of the Test changed instantly – fellow subs Jack Conan and Dan Sheehan also thrived.

The impact was so obvious opposition coach Steve Borthwick even said afterwards: “The change at 10 was a pretty significant one. They played really well when he [Crowley] came on in the final part of the game.”

Crowley, the 10 who played every minute of Ireland’s 2024 title success and who came on to turn tight games into victories in successive Tests against Australia and England in Dublin, appeared a certainty to start in round two away to Scotland. At least, he did from the outside.

Not only was the attack improved with Crowley and more akin to their old style of play, but defensively the Munsterman was far more secure, with Prendergast’s defence the weakest of any player in the Six Nations. And visibly so. The slightly-built half-back would finish the championship with 18 missed tackles – more than anyone, seven more than the next fly-half (Finn Russell) and double that of Fin Smith (9) – and conceded seven turnovers.

More coverage from Ireland unusually suggested the Ireland team had been selected for the first block of rounds one and two ahead of time, and so Prendergast was likely to retain his place for that reason. It’s an argument never uttered before during a Six Nations campaign.

Prendergast started at Murrayfield, and behind an Ireland pack which physically destroyed Scotland, looked more assured in attack – albeit still missing a conversion badly and showing extremely poor defence to let scrum-half Ben White in for a late try for Scotland.

Despite a stated aim to develop and use two fly-halves in Prendergast and Crowley, the former played the entire 80 minutes at 10, while the latter came on for a cameo at full-back.

If the arguments and predictions after the opening round were that Crowley would start Ireland’s third-round clash away to Wales in Cardiff ahead of a likely title-decider against France in Dublin, Edinburgh changed all that as the narrative shifted again: Prendergast had to gain as many minutes in the saddle as possible.

Ireland’s 2025 championship title hopes may have come crashing down at home to Les Bleus, but really it was events in Cardiff at the end of February that made sealing a historic third Six Nations in a row a virtual impossibility.

Facing a Wales side who were beaten 43-0 by France and were 19-3 adrift against Italy with 11 minutes left to play, Garry Ringrose’s 20-minute red card put Ireland in all sorts of bother as Prendergast made a catalogue of errors, particularly in defence where he was targeted and cut apart for eight missed tackles.

A penalty and then another conversion to lead were missed by Prendergast – as he did against England – while the decisions of Dan Sheehan, captaining Ireland for the first time with Caelan Doris out injured, to kick for points with penalties rather than seek tries very nearly cost Ireland dearly after Prendergast kicked out on the full from within his 22: Ellis Mee coming within inches of scoring for Wales with seven minutes to play – a try which would have given the hosts a conversion chance for the lead.

Ireland had also been more than a score behind early in the second half after a Prendergast knock-on and missed tackle invited Wales on to the attack and Tom Rogers to acrobatically fly over in the corner.

Whether or not the red card to Ringrose affected Easterby’s decision to potentially bring on Crowley, Prendergast was left on for the entire 80 minutes again. Crowley emerged for just eight minutes at full-back as Ireland clung on against a side England would score 68 points against in the same stadium.

Ireland left the Welsh capital without a bonus-point and with a young fly-half whose defensive deficiencies had become a massive problem. At the same time, they had a more experienced fly-half in 25-year-old Crowley who had now barely played despite his initial positive performance against England.

As such, Easterby and Ireland had almost backed themselves into a corner where Prendergast had to start against a monstrous France pack with a Grand Slam on the line.

Ireland started well in that game but failed to add points for such dominance in the opening 20 minutes. Prendergast missed a penalty from in front of the posts to lead, was shunted back all day in contact, kicked possession away when he did not have obvious pass options owing to the fact he is not a running threat either, was out-paced for France’s second try and threw an intercept pass under the posts with Ireland seemingly about to walk in a try – enabling Damian Penaud to score down the other end.

Even Easterby and Co noted the need for change, as Crowley came in to start for Ireland’s final-round clash against Italy in Rome. But by then it was too late. Failing to claim even a losing bonus-point versus France after the failure to score four tries in Cardiff left Ireland third behind an England side they had scored 22 unanswered points against to lead 27-10 until four minutes to play.

More than Prendergast, though, it is the total shift in playing style and tactics by Ireland’s coaching staff which leaves the biggest question marks.

Ireland turned into a side who appear happier without possession, choosing instead to compete more under high balls. Yet, they had the worst scrum success, tackle success and number of dominant tackles of any side. Ireland also finished with the worst maul of any side, making the least metres per game, while only Scotland lost more lineouts.

Ireland missed 135 tackles and produced 211 incomplete tackles – only Italy were worse. They conceded some 14 tries – more than the 2024 (7) and 2023 (6) campaigns combined. It’s a staggering stat in that it is the most in a single Irish campaign dating all the way back to 2002 (15). Ireland were a vastly different opponent back then.

Prendergast missed seven of 24 place-kicks, while only four players kicked from hand more than his 47 – all of them scrum-halves: Alex Mitchell, Ben White, Tomos Williams, Martin Page-Relo. It was the clearest illustration of Ireland’s shift in style.

The difference in Ireland’s discipline is also stark. Between the summer of 2021 and the end of the 2023 Rugby World Cup, Ireland were shown three yellow cards in 29 Tests – the best of any side in the world. Since the 2023 World Cup, Ireland have been shown 14 cards in 16 Tests – level with South Africa as the worst in the world.

From a yellow every nine games on average to virtually a card a game. Leinster have adopted a mantra of pushing the limits and going for everything, and this appears to have crept into the Irish set-up too. It’s proven to be damaging.

A massive rethink is needed. Ireland’s attack has regressed enormously, their defence is considerably worse and less reliable, as is their goal-kicking and discipline. They suffered with injuries, particularly ahead of facing France, but there were poor patches in each of their five performances.

They went with and stuck by a fly-half in Prendergast who just did not seem ready for this level. Until December, he had not even started a Champions Cup clash for Leinster. Easterby’s unwillingness to change things proved disastrous.

Who knows the next time Ireland will have such a chance at history. It’s certainly hard to foresee it being any time soon.

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