Ireland Team Announcement Press Conference

Simon Easterby spoke to the media about the Ireland team selection to play Italy in the final round of the Guinness Men’s Six Nations.

Jack Crowley will start at out-half and Easterby commented, “Jack is a great fella who takes everything in his stride.He’s dealt with a lot of stuff, with Same getting selected ahead of him, and he’s managed that incredibly well.

“Jack has been brilliant, working away, supporting Sam in his first experience of the Six Nations, Jack had that last year and we want him to lead the week this week.”

Asked about the reaction to the injury to Antoine Dupont, Easterby said, “It’s the game unfortunately. No player goes out to injure another player. It was a rugby incident.

Ireland Team To Play Italy

“Whatever the insinuations were from different people, post-game, it’s disappointing because the unfortunate thing is that people who don’t really understand the game pick up on it, and it creates a bit of a storm where people are getting abuse.

“It’s just unnecessary, and it’s not acceptable, but it happens. Those things could have been avoided had maybe other things been said post-game by certain individuals.

“The French camp have obviously come out pretty strongly post-game about the incident and it could have been handled in a better way.

“And I think on the back of that, it’s created some unnecessary ill-feeling and it’s affected other people in the wider group and that’s disappointing.”