Crowley 'clearly disappointed' - Easterby

Jack Crowley played every minute of Ireland's Six Nations title win last year

Ireland interim head coach Simon Easterby spoke to reporters after naming his team for Sunday's Six Nations game against Scotland (15:00 GMT).

On recalling former captain Peter O'Mahony:

"Certainly after the England performance, we felt like it was a good chance to bring Pete in and bring his experience to the table and keep Bairdo [Ryan Baird] involved off the bench."

On why playing Scotland brings out the best in O'Mahony:

"He has that ability, doesn't he, to play big when it's needed.

"He had the edge around him in training last week when he wasn't involved and brought a lot of competition to the group to those who were starting. He was disappointed not to get the selection in the 15 or 23 for England.

"I think what he does do when he plays against sides like Scotland is he plays right on the edge, he's confrontational.

"He leads by example, other players will certainly follow that example and he brings the type of experience that takes time and caps to build the know-how and knowledge."

On sticking with Sam Prendergast at fly-half ahead of Jack Crowley:

"He [Crowley] was disappointed and so were a lot of other players that didn't make the starting 15 or the bench.

"Keeping some continuity in selection was important. I agree that Jack was good coming off the bench last week. The game had opened up a bit and that was party due to the way he played in different areas of the pitch. He did add real quality off the bench as did a lot of other guys.

"Jack's clearly disappointed but he's an unbelievable person, he's so supportive. His own disappointment doesn't allow that to reflect on how he trained yesterday, how he is around the camp and the way he is supporting Sam and the other players.

"He's a great fella and we're fortunate to have those two. Jack started every game in the Six Nations last year.

"He had those experiences and we're trying to grow both of them and grow Sam's experiences not just at home last week in a huge game for him and us as a team but also this week away from home, how does he handle those experiences which are very different to last week."

On Ireland's recent dominance against Scotland:

"I'm not sure it matters that much. We're always continually trying to evolve, as are Scotland and they showed that in the autumn that they can mix it with the best.

"It's been spoken about outside the camp but we're just trying to focus on getting our own game in order and delivering a better performance than we did against England because that's what it'll take to beat Scotland in Murrayfield."