‘They Have Loads Of Potential’ – Farrell On New Caps

‘Loads and loads of potential’ is how Andy Farrell described the selection of Cormac Izuchukwu and Gus McCarthy for their international debuts against Fiji on Saturday afternoon in Aviva Stadium.

Farrell also spoke about Tadhg Furlong’s injury and the selection of Jacob Stockdale.

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Speaking about Ulster back row Izuchukwu, Farrell said, “He’s been in around our squad for a while now. The Emerging Ireland tour, the first tour, was when we first came across him. But the difference between the first tour and the second tour was like chalk and cheese. He was young on that first one but his ability, his point of difference with the maturity – he deserves a chance to show us what he’s got.”

McCarthy captained the Ireland U20s last season and while he was originally named as a Development, Farrell has been impressed with his work in camp, “What a rise in such a short space of time. He’s been captain and you can see why with his maturity.

Rugby is a strange game, you think there’s a pecking order and all of a sudden a kid gets an opportunity and shows up really well. We took him on the training week (in Portugal) as a development player  and he showed up really well and he’s forced our hand and deserves a shot as well.”

Asked about the selection of Sam Prendergast for his first full start after his debut off the bench against Argentina he said, “I’m confident from what we’ve seen. He went on the Emerging Ireland tour and played all the games. The aim of that was for him to grab hold of that time treat it like his own and like he was in charge and he did that in spades.”

Ireland Team Selection