{"id":215009,"date":"2025-06-26T04:57:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T04:57:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/215009\/"},"modified":"2025-06-26T04:57:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T04:57:11","slug":"the-very-good-dynamic-in-irelands-fly-half-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/215009\/","title":{"rendered":"The ‘very good dynamic’ in Ireland’s fly-half battle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Stand-in Ireland<\/a> captain Craig Casey<\/a> possesses \u201call the leadership qualities\u201d required to spearhead his country\u2019s summer tour, according to interim attack coach Mike Prendergast.<\/p>\n

With 15 Ireland players involved with the British and Irish Lions<\/a> and regular skipper Caelan Doris<\/a> sidelined, Munster scrum-half Casey will lead a youthful squad into next month\u2019s Tests against Georgia<\/a> and Portugal.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old, who is also coached by Prendergast at provincial level, has accumulated 18 caps since making his debut against Italy<\/a> in 2021 but only six of those appearances have come as a starter.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s full of energy, he\u2019s a student of the game,\u201d Prendergast said of Casey, according to the Irish Examiner.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Georgia <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Ireland <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cGuys will listen because he\u2019s a guy who is incredibly diligent.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s all over his stuff and you always want people to follow that. So he hasn\u2019t been any different than what he would be down in Munster.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously through the week and through next week that will ramp up from his point of view, I would imagine.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut he brings a really good calmness to people as well. It\u2019s great to have him within the squad and as a captain. He has all the leadership qualities that you ask for from a person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ireland play Georgia on Saturday, July 5 in Tbilisi before taking on Portugal<\/a> a week later in Lisbon.<\/p>\n

With head coach Andy Farrell away leading the Lions in Australia, forwards coach Paul O\u2019Connell is in temporary charge of the team.<\/p>\n

Prendergast was drafted in as cover for Andrew Goodman, who \u2013 along with Ireland defence coach Simon Easterby<\/a> and scrum coach John Fogarty \u2013 is also on Lions duty.<\/p>\n

The 48-year-old believes the three contenders for Ireland\u2019s starting fly-half role have a \u201cvery good dynamic\u201d.<\/p>\n

Leinster\u2019s Sam Prendergast<\/a> took the number 10 jersey from Munster\u2019s Jack Crowley<\/a> last autumn, with Ciaran Frawley<\/a> the other option available to O\u2019Connell.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn terms of what I\u2019ve seen so far, they\u2019re pushing each other,\u201d Prendergast said of the trio, according to BBC Sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always speak about being competitive and getting the best out of each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way you get the best out of each other is being competitive. From what I\u2019ve seen, there\u2019s a very good dynamic there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stand-in Ireland captain Craig Casey possesses \u201call the leadership qualities\u201d required to spearhead his country\u2019s summer tour, according…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215010,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[4151,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-215009","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114747896234864380","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}