THE IRFU’S GRAPHIC announcing the 35-man Emerging Ireland for the upcoming trip to South Africa included the image of only one player: Ciarán Frawley.
He was listed in the out-halves section of the squad, rather than as a centre – where he has played the vast majority of his rugby for Leinster over the past two seasons.
Of course, his most recent game time came in Ireland’s number 10 shirt for the midweek team in New Zealand over the summer, the 24-year-old starting both games against the Māori All Blacks and showing enough to suggest he could establish himself in the Irish out-half pecking order behind Johnny Sexton and Joey Carbery.
Indeed, some believe Frawley has the skills to really challenge that pecking order. Whether Leinster now view him as more of an out-half than a centre remains to be seen. Sexton, Ross Byrne, and Harry Byrne will all expect time in the saddle there too.
But clearly, Andy Farrell and his Ireland coaching staff believe that Frawley has what it takes at out-half.
“We feel Frawls has the potential to lead in a number of different positions,” said Ireland assistant coach Simon Easterby, who will step up as head coach for the Emerging Ireland tour as Farrell stays at home.
“Obviously, he has played 12 a fair bit for Leinster but we see him – which he did in the Māori weeks – as being a guy who can lead from the front at 10, you know, lead a week.
“He’ll be asked in the next few weeks to do a slightly different role to what he did in New Zealand because he had lots of senior players around him. We feel he has the ability to step up and front the week, lead the week, as someone like at the extreme, Johnny Sexton does week in, week out and has done for a number of years.
“Giving those players like Frawls the opportunity to put himself at the forefront of a week, lead it, take the team to a performance at the weekend in that position at 10 is crucial for us. We’re still finding out a little bit about Frawls and the way he can play.
“You can see that when they’re playing for their provinces in the URC but it is slightly different and there’s not a huge difference, but there is a difference when you have them in your environment across a couple of weeks period.
“Hopefully, we can benefit from that time and Frawls can benefit from that time when he goes back into Leinster after this trip.”
Easterby said a captain hasn’t been picked yet for the tour, but the Irish coaches have two or three players in mind for the leadership group and the skipper will come from them.
Emerging Ireland players will be available to their provinces for the opening round of the URC this weekend, although it remains to be seen if their provincial head coaches include them or focus on players who won’t be heading away on tour.
Farrell will be present when the Emerging Ireland squad gather in Dublin for training on Friday 23 September but he will stay at home when they fly out that Sunday.
“As much as this is about the next few weeks, this is about the November internationals as well and there is a lot of Rugby World Cup stuff to organise as well,” explained Easterby when asked about Farrell remaining in Ireland.
“We are taking 35 players but there are another 35 players or more with the provinces.
“He will be getting around there and staying connected and making sure that come November we have not just some of those players coming on tour integrating into the squad but lots of those players with their provinces who are starting to get back into their rugby that Andy will stay connected with.”
