England Rugby World Cup-winning midfielder Will Greenwood has a bold solution to Ireland’s argument over Ciaran Frawley for next month’s Nations Championship.
The 28-year-old quit Leinster earlier this year after being overlooked by Leo Cullen in the battle for the No.10 shirt with Sam Prendergast and Harry Bryne.
Cullen instead used Prendergast as a utility option elsewhere in the Leinster back line and this resulted in Connacht boss Stuart Lancaster, a former Leinster senior coach, offering the player the chance to come to Galway on a two-year deal and have a proper run as starting out-half.
Frawley has begun the 2026/27 season impressively at his new club. He scored the winning try on his URC debut at Benetton and his Champions Cup form in last Saturday’s home win over Saracens has further fuelled the Ireland No.10 debate ahead of November’s matches against Argentina, Fiji and South Africa in Dublin.
“Why don’t you play him at 12?”
Irish boss Andy Farrell, who was at last Saturday’s game at Dexcom Stadium, will name his Nations Championship squad this Wednesday.
While nearly all Frawley’s 15 Test caps have come as a replacement, he is now seen as a genuine No.10 rival to Prendergast with Jack Crowley unavailable through injury.
However, rather than thrash out the merits of this head-to-head argument as to which player Farrell should pick, Greenwood, a World Cup-winning midfielder in 2003 with Clive Woodward’s England, suggested the solution is to select Frawley at inside centre alongside Prendergast at out-half.
“Why don’t you play him at 12? I mean, Bundee Aki’s 78 years old now and can keep going probably ’til he’s 90 and keep producing performances, but Crowley’s out at the moment and Prendergast, everyone says he is slow and then he scores the length of the field (for Leinster) against Clermont, admittedly supporting on the inside and had to run it in,” said Greenwood on Howler Sport.
“The joke we always had with Paul Grayson, everyone sort of said you’re slow and rubbish and then he scored one from the 35 against Scotland and we just jumped down and went slow, I’ll show you slow, so he covered the ground.
“The argument seems to be between those two, and if I’m Frawley and I’m 6’4 and I don’t mind having my head over my toes – and by that I mean I don’t mind taking it and going to the line and I’ve got an ability to play out the back – if I was him and if this looks like it’s tough for me to get in at 10, I’d go and play 12.
“(Robbie) Henshaw, what a servant. I know you’ve got (Stuart) McCloskey up in Ulster. I get it, but if you think McCloskey is the best thing at 12, the most close like for like would be a Frawley and I just see him as a real opportunity to go play 12.
Noel McNamara, the Bordeaux assistant coach, also appeared on the new RTE show, and his assessment of Frawley’s Ireland credentials came with a caveat about his lack of goal-kicking with Connacht. “Frawley was excellent; he has been excellent,” he said.
“The challenge for him will be around the goal kicking. It was (Sam) Gilbert that kicked again on Saturday, so it’s an interesting debate around the goal kicking. Fabien Galthie here (in France) would believe that the 10 shouldn’t goal kick, that you should take the pressure away from him and allow him to be free to run the game.
“It’s an interesting perspective, but Ciaran is an incredibly talented player and you can see it with the performances that he had over a number of weeks. He will be involved in November. I still think it will probably be Sam that will start, but for him just getting time and starting and playing regularly at 10, I have no doubt that will stand to him.
“He has had a great start to the season. He will be involved with Ireland. It’ll be great to see him continue to develop and that is what he needs, time in the saddle. Ideally, certainly with Ireland, the goal kicking will be important unless someone like Hugo Keenan discovers a hidden talent like Thomas Ramos or indeed Max Lucu, and the second thing is that Connacht are starting to emerge under Stuart and what he wants to see.”
McNamara also gave his verdict on Connacht’s start to their second season with Lancaster in charge. Just one of three URC matches have been won, but the manner of their 45-36 European victory over Saracens has fired up optimism that things are heading in the right direction.
“In terms of the Lancaster piece, when do you have an impact? He’s had an impact already. It’s been clear the end of last season, the start of this season. I don’t think you can expect miracles either.
“You know it is going to take a period of time, but what has he done? He’s established a very clear identity. He’s very clear in terms of how they want to play the game. He’s helping to improve the players and the thing that stood out for me is probably their best players played well.
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“You look at Cian Prendergast, you look at Ciaran Frawley, you look at Bundee Aki, you look at the young players that are starting to come through as well and ultimately that will be the measure for Stuart. It will be his ability to improve what is already there.
“It will be his ability to establish a really clear identity and to bring young players through. In the end it will be about winning games and how close they can get to winning a trophy as well, but he has made an awful lot of progress.”