Ex-Ireland forward revisits ‘unsavoury’ Eben Etzebeth accusations and explains why Sam Prendergast ‘weakness’ should see Jack Crowley start against the Springboks
Springbok enforcer Eben Etzebeth and, inset, Ireland out-half Sam Prendergast.
Retired back-rower Alan Quinlan has revealed his “surprise” about last year’s Eben Etzebeth controversy leading into the two-match series between the Springboks and Ireland.
The veteran South African lock ignited a firestorm when he accused Ireland of arrogance during the procession of handshakes that followed the 2023 Rugby World Cup pool match between the sides.
Andy Farrell’s team took the victory that September night in Paris, and it was several months later when Etzebeth accused the Irish of arrogance due to what happened following full-time.
He claimed that about half of the Irish matchday 23 that he shook hands with post-game said ‘See you in the final’ even though they knew they had to play the All Blacks in the quarter-final.
“Look, you can read what you like into it…”
“Probably 12 out of the 23 when I shook the hands told me, ‘See you guys in the final’. Because the way the logs worked out, we were going to play France and they were going to play New Zealand and my immediate thought was, ‘Are these guys seriously not even thinking about the All Blacks in the World Cup quarter-final playing against them?’
“So that remark they made, ‘See you guys in the final’, I was just like these guys are making a big mistake to look past probably one of the most dominant teams, or probably the most dominant team in the last 20 to 30 years of Test rugby.
“I was just like, ‘Surely they can’t!’ Yeah, it just felt like they were just so, so confident saying things like that, ‘See you in the final’ when you knew you had got the mighty All Blacks coming in a World Cup quarter-final.
“It’s good to be confident, but you can never be arrogant in this game because that’s the thing about rugby, you can have the best season and you can have one slip-up, or one missed tackle, and a guy puts you on your arse. That is the beauty of this game – you are never on top forever.”
It was April 2024, three months before South Africa and Ireland drew their two-match series in Pretoria and Durban, when Etzebeth made his allegation stemming from the Paris match-up, and Quinlan has now touched on it in the lead-up to next Saturday’s Autumn Nations Series renewal of the rivalry in Dublin.
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Speaking with CasinoHawks, Quinlan said: “After the World Cup, we had Eben Etzebeth coming out saying that Ireland said they’ll see him in the final. It got a little unsavoury there, unnecessarily so.
“I genuinely don’t think any Irish player was meant to say, ‘We’re going to meet you in the final’. It was likely kind of in jest, to say, ‘Hard luck, we just beat you here, but you’re not finished; you’re going to have a lot to say in this tournament’.
“Look, you can read what you like into it. I don’t think it was pure arrogance. I just thought a lot was made of that, and it was a surprise that someone of his experience was talking about that stuff.
“Damian de Allende, who spent several years at Munster, came out with a few unsavoury comments. I was surprised, really, because deep down, South Africa respects Ireland but they see Ireland as a big scalp. They see someone who has annoyed them in the last couple of years in the sense that they can’t shake them off.”
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The big selection debate in Ireland in the build-up to Farrell’s team announcement on Thursday is whether Jack Crowley will be recalled at the expense of Sam Prendergast at out-half.
The Munster No.10 was chosen to start in the series-opening loss to the All Blacks and again for the humdrum win over Japan. It was Prendergast who stepped off the bench to see Ireland flourish in the final 25 minutes against the Japanese, and he then started in the win over Australia.
Ireland’s attack looked more threatening with Prendergast involved, but Quinlan believes defence will be the dominant factor when it comes to Farrell picking the out-half to face the Springboks. He felt Crowley would be the better option.
“Sam Prendergast was excellent at the weekend. His kicking and attack game was outstanding. There were some defensive frailties again, and it’s not a quick-fix solution.
“That’s something he has to work on; it’s probably the one weakness that keeps cropping up, and people will target him. He just has to work on that technique to get lower and get in better positions. The pecking order probably started with Jack Crowley being ahead with his performance for Munster in that Leinster game a few weeks ago in the URC.
“Then he starts in Chicago, and both of them made mistakes. Jack Crowley had a good first half, made some errors in the second half, and then Prendergast was on when the game was just carnage.
“It was great for Prendergast and his team that he could put in a performance like that against Australia. Crowley comes on for the last 20 minutes and does really well. Both of them would have been sitting there afterwards happy and with smiles on their faces.
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“I suspect that Crowley’s advantage over Sam Prendergast is defensively, with his physicality and ability to take contact himself. Prendergast’s advantage over Crowley is that he gets the attack going a little bit better.
“They are both very talented, and they are going to be in the limelight for a long time. If you’re going horses for courses this week, it may be back to Crowley. It would be a brave call to say we are going to put the defensive stuff to one side and enhance our attacking game.
“It’s not as if Crowley is a bad attacker either. Ireland have played very well at times under his attack, so it’s a story that’s going to keep rumbling on for a long time and we will probably see them chopping and changing a good bit. But I suspect they’ll go back to Crowley this week.
“If they do, if there is chopping and changing and it’s head down stuff when you are taken off or not picked, it can have an effect. The good thing from last weekend is that both of them would have come off the field and congratulated each other on what they did.”