Approaching summer, Ireland’s out-half depth chart appeared fairly bleak.
After piecing together an impressive Six Nations and hitting career-best form with Munster, incumbent 10 Jack Crowley missed the Nations Championship summer series, ruled out indefinitely with a complicated blood-vessel condition. Sam Prendergast was only beginning to rediscover his feet: having been omitted entirely from Leinster’s Champions Cup final squad, he produced a strong finish to the eastern province’s URC campaign, including a man-of-the-match display against the Bulls as Leinster retained their league title.
Harry Byrne’s form had trailed off towards the end of a season of ups and downs, while Connacht-bound Ciarán Frawley was essentially jettisoned for Leinster’s URC play-off run as Leo Cullen opted to expose Prendergast and Byrne to as much knockout rugby as possible.
Munster's Jack Crowley will miss Ireland's November series. Nick Elliott / INPHO
Nick Elliott / INPHO / INPHO
Prendergast, Byrne and Frawley were all named in Andy Farrell’s 36-man summer squad, none of them imbuing supporters with a great deal of confidence ahead of Tests away to Australia and New Zealand in particular.
Farrell will on Wednesday announce his Ireland squad for November’s home Nations Championship Tests, and the picture at 10 has taken on an altogether more optimistic hue since the start of the season.
Prendergast has picked up where he left off. Once more oozing the confidence that he appeared to lack in the back half of last season, the 23-year-old earned another man-of-the-match award during Leinster’s Champions Cup opener away to Clermont.
His try at Stade Marcel-Michelin, which he initiated with a wonderful piece of attacking instinct from deep and finished through sheer work rate, exemplified his return to form.
Little has changed in Prendergast’s game from a technical perspective: he has tacked on some mass over the summer, certainly, and one might argue he has shown a greater appetite for physical contact — albeit he scarcely had to defend against Clermont, making just two tackles and slipping off one or two more. But the Kildare man is conspicuously enjoying his rugby after the kind of dip that one should expect from a player at his career juncture, and, as tends to be the case when a player is freed of inhibition, the things he is trying are typically coming off.
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Sam Prendergast celebrating at full-time at Stade Marcel-Michelin. Ben Brady / INPHO
Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO
It’s an exciting prospect for Ireland fans, with the Leinster 10 almost certain to start for Ireland in their bigger Tests next month.
But so thrilling has been Ciarán Frawley’s start to life at Connacht that there will exist at least some debate as to who Farrell selects at 10 when Argentina pull up to the Aviva on Friday, 6 November.
Frawley’s two-try, player-of-the-match display during Connacht’s all-timer of a Champions Cup victory over Saracens will last long in the memory out west.
Notably, however, the Sarries fixture marked only the second time in Frawley’s career in which he’s been given the opportunity to start at out-half for a third consecutive game.
Having already proven himself Connacht’s game-winner away to Benetton in the URC a couple of weeks earlier, Frawley was the outstanding out-half on the field opposite Owen Farrell last Saturday. Granted, there was an underwhelming performance away to Glasgow sandwiched in between, but the prospect of a big, athletic Irish out-half running game weeks for an attack-focused Stuart Lancaster-coached side is one to be enthused by. That the 28-year-old Frawley has already seemingly won Connacht’s out-half battle against a very good player in Josh Ioane augurs well, too.
Ciarán Frawley is embraced by Bundee Aki after Connacht's Champions Cup win over Saracens. Tom O’Hanlon / INPHO
Tom O’Hanlon / INPHO / INPHO
What may count against him in the crunch when it comes to Ireland selection is that the metronomic Sam Gilbert has retained his place-kicking duties from fullback, but Frawley can’t yet be counted out in the race to start against Argentina and he may face off directly against Prendergast in an interpro a week beforehand.
But while the inclusions of Prendergast and Frawley in Wednesday’s squad are a given, there likely remains one spot open for a newer face to stick their hand up in Carton House and beyond next month.
Jack Crowley remains sidelined by his vascular issue, and Harry Byrne appears set to miss more time with a head injury.
As such, there should be room for a young contender — or perhaps a more experienced prodigal son — to join Farrell’s panel for the autumn series.
Ulster out-half Jack Murphy strikes as the most obvious candidate on paper. The 22-year-old enjoyed an excellent 2025/26 campaign with Ulster and represented Ireland ‘A’, which indicates an interest in his abilities from Ireland’s head coach.
However, Murphy’s new provincial teammate Jamie Benson — an English-born, Irish-qualified arrival from Harlequins — has enjoyed arguably a more impactful start to the new campaign, and is understood to have partaken in Ireland’s training camp during the summer.
Benson, 24, has been mostly utilised in midfield by Ulster, but he has played almost two thirds of his career at out-half and he started at 10 as his new side earned their first victory of the season away to Zebre in their Challenge Cup opener.
Benson, who can also cover fullback, is a Swiss army knife in the mould of Frawley, and he may even earn a call-up alongside Murphy such is his versatility and demonstrable talent.
Jack Murphy in action for Ulster against Munster. Dan Clohessy
Dan Clohessy
The most experienced ‘third man’ lies in Leinster, where 37-cap international Joey Carbery recently made his comeback — both to his original province and from an ACL injury suffered at Bordeaux which kept him sidelined for 10 months.
Carbery knows the reins, but Farrell may wish to see him build some kind of form-line before rebooting his Test career.
On the other end of the spectrum, and perhaps a more likely inclusion with an eye to the future, is Leinster’s Caspar Gabriel. The 21-year-old began the province’s campaign in South Africa at out-half and impressed with his gumption and physicality as well as his creativity.
And if Gabriel is to be considered, then so too must be the even younger Charlie O’Shea, who has been catalytic to Munster’s encouraging start to their new season. O’Shea, a recent Ireland U20 standout, has already impressed against high-level opposition in the Bulls and Racing 92, and, like that of Gabriel, his sheer fearlessness will doubtless have endeared him to Farrell.
All will be revealed on Wednesday when Ireland name their squad a year out from the World Cup.
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Ireland's out-half picture looks promising again, but will Farrell's squad also include a fresh contender?
WHAT A DIFFERENCE a few games make.
Approaching summer, Ireland’s out-half depth chart appeared fairly bleak.
After piecing together an impressive Six Nations and hitting career-best form with Munster, incumbent 10 Jack Crowley missed the Nations Championship summer series, ruled out indefinitely with a complicated blood-vessel condition. Sam Prendergast was only beginning to rediscover his feet: having been omitted entirely from Leinster’s Champions Cup final squad, he produced a strong finish to the eastern province’s URC campaign, including a man-of-the-match display against the Bulls as Leinster retained their league title.
Harry Byrne’s form had trailed off towards the end of a season of ups and downs, while Connacht-bound Ciarán Frawley was essentially jettisoned for Leinster’s URC play-off run as Leo Cullen opted to expose Prendergast and Byrne to as much knockout rugby as possible.
Prendergast, Byrne and Frawley were all named in Andy Farrell’s 36-man summer squad, none of them imbuing supporters with a great deal of confidence ahead of Tests away to Australia and New Zealand in particular.
Farrell will on Wednesday announce his Ireland squad for November’s home Nations Championship Tests, and the picture at 10 has taken on an altogether more optimistic hue since the start of the season.
Prendergast has picked up where he left off. Once more oozing the confidence that he appeared to lack in the back half of last season, the 23-year-old earned another man-of-the-match award during Leinster’s Champions Cup opener away to Clermont.
His try at Stade Marcel-Michelin, which he initiated with a wonderful piece of attacking instinct from deep and finished through sheer work rate, exemplified his return to form.
Little has changed in Prendergast’s game from a technical perspective: he has tacked on some mass over the summer, certainly, and one might argue he has shown a greater appetite for physical contact — albeit he scarcely had to defend against Clermont, making just two tackles and slipping off one or two more. But the Kildare man is conspicuously enjoying his rugby after the kind of dip that one should expect from a player at his career juncture, and, as tends to be the case when a player is freed of inhibition, the things he is trying are typically coming off.
It’s an exciting prospect for Ireland fans, with the Leinster 10 almost certain to start for Ireland in their bigger Tests next month.
But so thrilling has been Ciarán Frawley’s start to life at Connacht that there will exist at least some debate as to who Farrell selects at 10 when Argentina pull up to the Aviva on Friday, 6 November.
Frawley’s two-try, player-of-the-match display during Connacht’s all-timer of a Champions Cup victory over Saracens will last long in the memory out west.
Notably, however, the Sarries fixture marked only the second time in Frawley’s career in which he’s been given the opportunity to start at out-half for a third consecutive game.
Having already proven himself Connacht’s game-winner away to Benetton in the URC a couple of weeks earlier, Frawley was the outstanding out-half on the field opposite Owen Farrell last Saturday. Granted, there was an underwhelming performance away to Glasgow sandwiched in between, but the prospect of a big, athletic Irish out-half running game weeks for an attack-focused Stuart Lancaster-coached side is one to be enthused by. That the 28-year-old Frawley has already seemingly won Connacht’s out-half battle against a very good player in Josh Ioane augurs well, too.
What may count against him in the crunch when it comes to Ireland selection is that the metronomic Sam Gilbert has retained his place-kicking duties from fullback, but Frawley can’t yet be counted out in the race to start against Argentina and he may face off directly against Prendergast in an interpro a week beforehand.
But while the inclusions of Prendergast and Frawley in Wednesday’s squad are a given, there likely remains one spot open for a newer face to stick their hand up in Carton House and beyond next month.
Jack Crowley remains sidelined by his vascular issue, and Harry Byrne appears set to miss more time with a head injury.
As such, there should be room for a young contender — or perhaps a more experienced prodigal son — to join Farrell’s panel for the autumn series.
Ulster out-half Jack Murphy strikes as the most obvious candidate on paper. The 22-year-old enjoyed an excellent 2025/26 campaign with Ulster and represented Ireland ‘A’, which indicates an interest in his abilities from Ireland’s head coach.
However, Murphy’s new provincial teammate Jamie Benson — an English-born, Irish-qualified arrival from Harlequins — has enjoyed arguably a more impactful start to the new campaign, and is understood to have partaken in Ireland’s training camp during the summer.
Benson, 24, has been mostly utilised in midfield by Ulster, but he has played almost two thirds of his career at out-half and he started at 10 as his new side earned their first victory of the season away to Zebre in their Challenge Cup opener.
Benson, who can also cover fullback, is a Swiss army knife in the mould of Frawley, and he may even earn a call-up alongside Murphy such is his versatility and demonstrable talent.
The most experienced ‘third man’ lies in Leinster, where 37-cap international Joey Carbery recently made his comeback — both to his original province and from an ACL injury suffered at Bordeaux which kept him sidelined for 10 months.
Carbery knows the reins, but Farrell may wish to see him build some kind of form-line before rebooting his Test career.
On the other end of the spectrum, and perhaps a more likely inclusion with an eye to the future, is Leinster’s Caspar Gabriel. The 21-year-old began the province’s campaign in South Africa at out-half and impressed with his gumption and physicality as well as his creativity.
And if Gabriel is to be considered, then so too must be the even younger Charlie O’Shea, who has been catalytic to Munster’s encouraging start to their new season. O’Shea, a recent Ireland U20 standout, has already impressed against high-level opposition in the Bulls and Racing 92, and, like that of Gabriel, his sheer fearlessness will doubtless have endeared him to Farrell.
All will be revealed on Wednesday when Ireland name their squad a year out from the World Cup.
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Opportunity Rugby the men at 10