You mightn’t appreciate Irish strength in depth ‘til the World Cup

MIKE Prendergast would have had some head on him this week. That sort of bould Limerick ‘I told you so’ head.

He’s been bigging up Chris Farrell to me for years, reeling off his plusses like a citation. What’s not to like, he’d say. A juicy passer. Nice soft hands. The nice hard edge.

He wasn’t wrong. Farrell against Wales last Saturday was above exceptional. The bit that drove Mike mad was the perplexed reaction from the margins: where did that performance come from? It’s like Chris has been waiting years to be an overnight success. If Jordan Larmour had come in and performed the way Farrell did in his Six Nations debut, there’d be a national holiday in Donnybrook!