Keyboard warriors caused Andy Farrell to get quite frustrated in the aftermath of Saturday’s win over Italy in the Aviva. He turned on them and asked people to “cop on” when it came to the debate about who the Ireland 10 should be, Jack Crowley is 26 and Sam Prendergast is 23. They are two very different players of course in style terms and bring differing strong qualities to the game.
What that statement from Farrell did probably do is open the door for debate on how easy it has become for the majority to have an opinion be it informed or ill-informed and that goes for any debate in relation to anything in life.
Social Media has come along since the early days of the 2000s and changed how we in the general public consume everything from news to deaths and everything in between. No longer do we read, access, form an opinion and make an informed statement on a subject.
Now it’s far quicker and in some cases it’s only a headline or tag line, we take it and then people jump on the subject and have a field day with the subject.
I still use my media training when reading or accessing a story, who, what, why, where and when. It has helped me avoid jumping in at the deep end and making statements that will cause harm somewhere along the line.
Healthy debate is always welcome and scrutiny of decisions of coaches is this instance is always welcome but there is a line and you just cannot cross it, I have made that error and have learned from it thankfully.
Both Sam and Jack will be there for the long term along with others like Harry Byrne and Jack Murphy. Ireland are fortunate to have these 4 boys currently pushing each other to be the best version of themselves, it will only help Irish rugby in the long term to have this level of competition.
Andy Farrell felt it was the best time to make that statement on Saturday evening, some will say it was deflection from a mixed showing and more will say it was well timed and he was defending his players. Andy Farrell is very well qualified to give an opinion having spent his whole life in the spot light have debuted for Wigan Warriors aged 17.
He will also know that he will need to answer some tough questions heading to face England on Saturday evening in Twickenham. Ireland go to London with two mixed outings against France and Italy. Himself and his coaches will have some tough decisions to make when picking the 23 to take on England.
As for the key board warriors, they will continue to be there no matter what and will continue to spread nasty ill-informed opinions into the future. While debate and criticism is healthy, the line is there and no matter how strong your feelings, it just can’t be crossed, take it from one who did it and learned from it……