Simon Easterby expects Sam Prendergast and Jack Crowley to "compete for a long time" after naming the Leinster out-half to start against England.
Munster's fly-half Crowley started nine games in 2024 following the retirement of captain Johnny Sexton after the World Cup.
Within that run, Ireland retained their Guinness Six Nations Championship.
Prendergast, 21, made his debut as a replacement against Argentina in the Autumn Nations Series and started the next two games, wins over Fiji and Australia.
Ireland begin their campaign against England, who won last year’s fixture in Twickenham, on Saturday at Aviva Stadium (4.45pm).
"Those two are going to play a lot of rugby and they are going to compete with each other, along with a few others, Ciarán Frawley also in the squad," interim head coach Easterby told RTÉ Sport.
"They are going to play a lot of rugby and compete for a long time, I think.
"This decision has gone Sam’s way. We felt like he did really well in November, he got a taste for international rugby.
"He went away and played really well for Leinster in a good period for them, and he was a big part of the successes across the December window and into the new year.
"We feel like he’s the right man this weekend to lead the team.
"He’s a lot of experience around him and even the way Jack has trained and played coming into the Six Nations means that Sam knows he’s got to keep raising his game and keep getting better.
"Jack played really well in Northampton [for Munster in the Champions Cup] in the week prior to camp and he also comes in with a lot of credit in the bank, in terms of what he’s done in the last 18 months, two years."
On when the call on the 10 jersey was made, Easterby added: "There were certainly no preconceived ideas.
"When you come into camp, you have a feel of how players have come in, but also we had a feel from November, we reflected around our performances, both sides of the ball, and certainly we felt like we needed to keep evolving as a team, we need to keep pushing on.
"Other teams are going to see what we're doing and feel like they can try and get ahead of us. So we knew we had to keep progressing and getting better."
"The decision on Sam is one that we feel for this game is the right decision, but also we know that the game these days, the starting 10 often isn't the finishing 10 and we feel Sam will be really well supported and connected around players that he's going to be playing with.
"Likewise, when Jack gets his opportunity, he'll be able to come on and impact the game in the right way like he did in November."
Leinster forward Ryan Baird (above) was named on the blindside flank for his 24th cap, his fourth as a starter in the championship.
"He's got the bit between his teeth," said Easterby, part of the Ireland coaching set-up since 2014.
"He had a period of time where he wasn't playing after November but I thought he did well in La Rochelle in a big game over in France a couple of weeks ago for Leinster.
"He comes into camp with good form but also he's got his confidence back and he's looking strong and quick and athletic and he'll add very much to not only the lineout but also just his athletic ability is pretty special as well."
Meanwhile, lock Joe McCarthy (below) is expected to rejoin the squad after the weekend after being ruled out with a head injury suffered during training on Wednesday but is considered unlikely to be available for Sunday week's trip to Scotland.
Easterby said: "It's likely that it will be a 12-day return-to-play protocol."
He added: "Joe took a knock to the head yesterday in training and unfortunately it put him out straight away for this game.
"It's a real disappointment for him and for the team, but he's good now.
"Fortunately there's no long-standing issue there in terms of any breaks or anything.
"He might have damaged his nose a bit, it might look like mine a little bit now, but other than that he's good and he'll hopefully be joining up with the squad this weekend, but unfortunately not available this weekend.
"It was a rugby kind of collision. It was really innocuous in terms of it was just an unfortunate set of circumstances, someone's head landed on his head and it was a nasty blow. He's come around well and he should be good to go."
On prop Tadhg Furlong, who left camp in Portugal early to return for assessment on a calf injury recurrence, he said: "Tadhg unfortunately had a recurrence of the calf and it's nothing major to be honest.
"It wasn't quite right and we weren't prepared to try and push him through this week, so we made the right decision for Tadhg and the team for him to go and get back and rehab and make sure that he was comfortable with his plan over the next couple of weeks.
"It's not a major issue but it wasn't one where we were prepared to take any risk on this weekend."
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