He’s absolutely right.
Despite Ireland having two classy, young 10s at their disposal, all is not rosey.
We saw, particularly during the Six Nations, just how toxic social media can get when fans are not pleased with selections.
This came to the fore when Leinster’s Sam Prendergast was picked ahead of Munster’s Jack Crowley, with criticism of the former teetering into abuse territory at times.
Ireland great, Johnny Sexton, made his return to rugby helping out Andy Farrell with Ireland’s out-halves during the Autumn Nations Series.
Now working with the Lions, Sexton was full of praise for Crowley and Prendergast during a press conference yesterday, urging Ireland fans to back the both of them.
He said: “One thing I disagree with is the narrative around it, in terms of there’s obviously a split in the country in terms of Munster and Leinster.
“I’ve been there before, I’ve been in that situation. With social getting bigger and bigger, it’s tough on them at times. We should be supporting whoever is picked and getting fully behind them.
“I told them to delete social media. I don’t know [if they did].
“Sometimes you can get a sense, but I’m not sure. All you can do is try to advise in terms of what worked for me.
“I was exposed to it a little bit at the very start and it’s tough, because as a kid all you want to do is play for Ireland and then you do it and suddenly you’re getting criticised – not all the time, but sometimes – and you’re like, ‘wow, this is tougher than I thought it’d be’, but it builds a resilience.
“You find out who are your mates, who you can trust and those you can lean on. Going forward, they’ll be stronger for it.”
