I am starting to enjoy rugby again. This comes from watching the ‘interpro’ derbies as an analyst on eir Sports and revisiting stadiums I used to play in.
Not that I fell out of love with the game. We all needed a break after Japan. A change of direction.
That’s why I am very disappointed with the level of scrutiny about team selections over Christmas rather than what was happening on the field. This may have been a valid complaint a few years ago, when the gap between the regular starter and squad player was obvious, but we currently have three provinces with enough resources to deliver quality performances every week.
Or should do.
Sadly, Connacht are not there yet. Andy Friend’s squad has been decimated by injuries. They need all the support the IRFU high performance department can muster and they need it now.
Friend shouldn’t have to make a plea for players in the “main population area” to seek Pro 14 and Champions Cup minutes in Galway. But that’s what he was compelled to say after Leinster’s clinical deconstruction at the RDS.
We have been down this road before and will be again unless they receive improved support. The loan system between provinces can always be more fluid.
Connacht are about to undergo tortuous weekends with Toulouse coming to Galway and a trip to Montpellier. They want to be competitive but Friend knows the only way of achieving success this year is to make the Pro 14 playoffs. Europe is irrelevant now and even if it wasn’t their squad cannot cope with the strain.
Don’t be surprised to see Bundee Aki used sparingly but I’d go the other way with Jack Carty. The local outhalf admitted to struggling for form since the World Cup but a bad-looking injury to Conor Fitzgerald means Carty can relax and play himself back up to the standards reached when dislodging Ross Byrne from the national squad last year. Funny how it works out but Byrne and John Cooney, Ireland rejects six months ago, would be the starting halfbacks if the Scotland game was today.
After being humiliated by Ulster at The Kingspan Stadium last Friday, Munster's pain will run deep but, in contrast to Connacht, they should welcome the Champions Cup with open arms.
The IRFU player management policy is damaging Johann van Graan's ability to find continuity of selection but that's not a valid reason for the manner of defeat in Belfast when a largely home-grown Munster pack was physically dominated.
No team can expect to stay afloat when their big men are being overpowered. The Ulster front five had Jack McGrath, Rob Herring, an enthusiastic Marty Moore, Alan O’Connor and Iain Henderson while Munster fielded Jeremy Loughman, Niall Scannell, Kenyon Knox, Fineen Wycherley and Darren O’Shea.
High praise
All we know is what we saw. Ulster beat them up. Even a player with as much promise as Jack O’Donoghue will make no impact walking backwards.
If less talented Munster men could replicate this honesty of performance they would push Jack O'Donoghue into the national set-up
It’s worth stalling over the 25-year-old Waterford backrow. This is high praise, perhaps too high, but I thought about Rocky Elsom watching O’Donoghue in full flow over Christmas. It might be time to give him a permanent position. The ‘utility player’ has negative connotations in the Northern Hemisphere as it usually means he does not discover his full potential.
O’Donoghue increasingly looks the part when surrounded by the full Munster pack with CJ Stander and Dave Kilcoyne helping to carry ball.
He has always possessed the raw materials to become an established Ireland international. Or it could go another way. That’s up the man himself.
I’m not sure how Van Graan can leave O’Donoghue out of the team for Paris. He was the difference on a horrible night in Galway, with a genuine roll-up-the -sleeves effort that had older Munster heads nodding approvingly. Taking down mauls, strong carries and the all round dog-in-a-scrap mentality was the type of display that most Munster fans remember week in week out from Denis Leamy, David Wallace and Anthony Foley.
I’m not talking about the athletic feats of Wallace or clever movement of Foley, it’s an insatiable hunger to win collisions, move bodies off Munster ball or just let the opposition know he will be a nuisance to the very end.
If less talented Munster men could replicate this honesty of performance they would push Jack O’Donoghue into the national set-up.
The Springbok signings – Damian de Allende and RG Snyman – coming in this summer will sell tickets and may help during rest windows but at what cost? Could that money not go back into unearthing the next Shane Daly (a bright spark from an otherwise miserable journey north)?
We hear about the next Leinster player when he's only 15 or 16. That's why it is no major surprise to see 20-year-old Ryan Baird make 14 carries and 20 tackles in 57 minutes last weekend.
Word about special players gets around pretty quickly. Most supporters saw Baird, Caelan Doris and others in the Schools Cup or failing that on television for the Ireland under-20s.
In Munster you used to find a young Paul O’Connell in Young Munster colours or Ronan O’Gara kicking goals for Cork Con in big AIL games.
Rest period
Those days are gone. There are some names worth following. Jack O’Sullivan looks a special talent, as does Craig Casey and Kenyon Knox got to scrum against Jack McGrath last Friday.
Ulster looked a far superior outfit because they were largely untouched by the international rest period, and that’s because John Cooney, McGrath, Stuart McCloskey and others didn’t make the World Cup panel.
Not much more can be asked of McFarland and the players. The next step is to provide a clear player pathway to deliver long-term sustainable success
Otherwise, Ulster would have struggled over the holidays. Not to the same level as Munster but we would have learned more about their depth.
It is unfair to call Ulster’s revival “The McFarland effect” as I’m sure he would be the first to deflect credit onto Dwayne Peel’s attack and Jared Payne’s defensive coaching.
Also, the players are showing a resolve that hasn’t been there before or certainly not for a very long time. Their reliable starting panel has grown to 24 bodies and they are relatively injury-free.
Not much more can be asked of McFarland and the players. The next step is to provide a clear player pathway to deliver long-term sustainable success.
This weekend in Clermont could be one of those benchmark moments in what becomes the McFarland era. Leinster nicked a valuable bonus point down there to push the Schmidt years to new heights. There is no tougher European terrain than Stade Marcel-Michelin.
It’s a massive occasion for everyone involved but especially Stuart McCloskey. His form has been excellent, with ball handling a particular feature, but the time has come to stand up against the Clermont midfield and announce his candidacy for the Ireland 12 jersey.
Like O’Donoghue, we’ve been waiting a long while to see the 27-year-old take his game to the next level. The signs are encouraging.
Leinster used 44 players in the last three matches but not all of these selections were forced upon Leo Cullen. He also got a look at certain players and combinations.
Max Deegan and Doris made the biggest statements with talk of their number eight rivalry about to be changed to how the duo can combine in the blue and possibly green jerseys.
Deegan had a fantastic game against Connacht but Doris’s showing in Limerick was as good an exhibition in number eight play that I’ve seen from an Irish man since Jamie Heaslip was being selected for the Lions.
The pair of them are passing O'Donoghue out but that need not be the case. It should be neck and neck to see how one or even two of them squeeze into Ireland's Six Nations squad.
Game management
Now that Joey Carbery has rejoined Johnny Sexton in the damaged limb department, Ireland’s chances of success have regressed. Almost feels like 2019 all over again.
Ross Byrne’s game management makes him next up on merit.
Ciarán Frawley is not an outhalf like Ross or Harry Byrne. He has unique skills in how he takes ball to the gainline with balance and speed while seeking the second touch by maintaining his inside running line, as we saw for his try off Deegan's break. Younger outhalves should study and copy Frawley as he takes the best of Sexton and the Byrnes but the style is all his own making.
Leinster, again, are attaining new heights with Ross Byrne the driving force, which allowed Rowan Osborne shine at scrumhalf against Munster.
Some leap from playing AIL with Trinity but Osborne looked comfortable. Same can be said about Harry Byrne whenever he gets an opportunity, and we should see plenty of the younger Byrne brother in blue during the Six Nations as the older sibling should be part of the Ireland team.
