IRELAND HEAD COACH Andy Farrell said he will continue considering Antoine Frisch for a possible call-up to his squad even after the Munster centre trained with his native France.
Frisch spent the early part of this week in France’s Six Nations camp after a call-up from less Bleus boss Fabien Galthié, who has been tracking the Munster closely for several seasons.
However, Frisch won’t be capped by the French in their final Six Nations game against England tomorrow, meaning he remains Ireland-eligible.
Having joined Munster on a three-season deal in 2022 and played for the Emerging Ireland development squad that year, it seemed clear that Frisch was fully committed to chasing caps in a green jersey, something he openly stated in several interviews.
However, having continued to miss out on selection for Farrell’s squad, Frisch opted to accept an invitation from Galthié to come into France camp in recent days.
France have a development tour to South America this summer when they will leave many of their frontliners at home and also be without players from clubs involved in the Top 14 semi-finals and final, meaning Galthié is likely to cap several new faces.
In contrast, Ireland have a tough two-Test tour against the world champion Springboks to come, meaning there won’t be anywhere near as much scope for blooding new players.
So it does seem that Frisch has a greater chance of playing Test rugby with France this summer. It’s understood that several Top 14 clubs are now monitoring the situation closely and would be keen to sign Frisch if he continues to pursue international rugby with the French.
Frisch is contracted to Munster until the summer of 2025 and as things stand, he is still eligible to play for Ireland. Speaking yesterday, Ireland boss Farrell said they will continue to consider him for a call-up.
“He’s in our thoughts and I understand you asking that question,” said Farrell. “I spoke to Antoine previously in regards to what we think of him and I know he was very ambitious to play international rugby for Ireland as well.
“I suppose the call came [from France] and he jumped at it immediately because he wanted to show his ambition to play international rugby and see how far he could push himself in that regard.
“He’s 100% still at the front of our minds. The competition for us in that position has been fierce for a number of years now. Stu McCloskey is unbelievably unlucky to miss out this week [against Scotland] because he’s been in flying form so you can see the type of competition that’s there.
“But taking him [Frisch] on the Emerging Ireland tour, he’s someone that was straight to the top of the list as far as pushing for places and we think he’s a great player.”
There have been suggestions that Ireland should have given Frisch a cap by now to ensure he was ‘captured’ and could not play for France or England, for whom he also qualifies.
But Farrell said he doesn’t view Test matches as the place for such tactics.
“Well, I mean, these games are pretty important that we’ve got,” said Farrell.
“It’s my duty to do the team justice by making sure the right people, if available, are in the squad. That’s a matter of opinion sometimes but in that position, it’s a tough one and Antoine would be the first one to admit that as well.”
The Ireland boss said he will be closely watching Frisch play for Munster for the remainder of this campaign as he considers his squad for the tour of South Africa.
“Now, for the rest of the season, he’s obviously got an opportunity to show his worth, his improvement and therefore be in the running like everyone else.”
