LAST UPDATE | 4 Nov 2022
THERE ARE TWO things to be won tonight for Ireland’s A players. The first – a rugby match against a New Zealand XV – is daunting enough. Yet there’s a bigger prize on offer.
Every Irish player involved in this de-facto international (kick-off 7.45pm, Virgin Media) is on trial. A year from now there will be 33 players on the plane to France and it’s already clear what the current pecking order is.
Given that Andy Farrell has prioritised 24 players (15 starters, eight replacements and a match-day reserve) for tomorrow’s date with the world champion Springboks, it’s fair to assume that tonight’s 23-man squad are starting down the grid in the race to make it to next year’s World Cup.
Bear in mind too that the names on Ireland’s team-sheet for tomorrow’s South Africa Test don’t include injured frontliners, Iain Henderson, Ronan Kelleher, Keith Earls, James Lowe or Andrew Conway, or indeed the suspended Bundee Aki.
Assuming all six become available next autumn, assuming too the 24 named to face South Africa remain fit, then tonight’s crew, the second string, will be slogging it out to get the three remaining spots on the plane.
It has to be said those are big assumptions. Injuries are everyday occurrences in modern rugby and we only have to think back to the seminal 2015 World Cup pool victory against France for a reminder of that. This was the day, remember, when Paul O’Connell, Johnny Sexton and Peter O’Mahony went down. So, a week later, did an injury-ravaged Ireland against Argentina.
There may be a bottleneck up ahead, then, but the 23 Irish players involved tonight can’t afford to worry about the traffic. This instead is about searching for an opening.
Each has a chance of a promotion, certain players more than others. To start with, the starting front-row knows there are at least two spots, probably three, available to them. In some respects then, Jeremy Loughman’s biggest competition tonight isn’t New Zealand’s tightheads Tevita Mafileo or Tamaiti Williams but his fellow Irish loosehead, Dave Kilcoyne.
Flexibility is vital when it comes to World Cups. Loughman showed a couple of weeks ago that he’s capable of switching across to tighthead – we all know Andrew Porter has mapped out that particular journey – so the Kildare man has an edge. Even better, he delivered in the fourth game of the summer tour, against the New Zealand Maori in Wellington.
Farrell admires his skill set and has a tendency to favour players like him over one-dimensional specialists. That has been one of the themes of Irish selections across the last while, how the coach has not been shy to promote players such as Loughman, Kieran Treadwell, Tom O’Toole and Ciaran Frawley even when it’s clear their provincial coaches rate others more highly.
You can’t argue with the results. Jamison Gibson-Park was second choice scrum-half with Leinster when Farrell made him first choice with Ireland. The team’s attack has been transformed since.
Then there’s Frawley. He is Ireland’s starting ten this evening, a shirt he wore just once for Leinster last season, the province preferring to use him as a centre. Most recently they tried him out, successfully, as full-back. There’s a trip to France next September if Frawley wants it.
The remaining backs involved this evening are playing catch-up. It’s hard to look at Jacob Stockdale involved in a fixture list this, facing an All Blacks B team, without thinking back to how he was the matchwinner when a full-strength New Zealand lost to Ireland in Dublin back in 2018.
First his form dipped and then a season-long injury arrived. This is stage one of his international comeback trail, Farrell speaking highly of him in this week’s press conference. And yet, deep down, Stockdale will know he’s behind Mack Hansen, Robert Baloucoune, Earls and Lowe in the race to be a starting wing.
For that to change in time for next year’s Six Nations and World Cup, he has to start impersonating the Jacob Stockdale of 2018 again. As for everyone else, they all have a chance; Mike Lowry benefiting from the fact Ireland’s full-back options are scarce. Four positions, loosehead, tighthead, outhalf and full back, is where Ireland need to find depth.
Beyond that, awarding Craig Casey the captaincy is an indicator of how highly Farrell rates him, but deep down Casey will know he has to look over his shoulder as much as he has to stare ahead, because Nathan Doak is moving forward at a quicker pace than Conor Murray is slowing down.
The pack has punch. That starting backrow – Cian Prendergast, Nick Timoney and Gavin Coombes – represents the best of Connacht, Ulster and Munster. Each player has the class to leap into the senior squad, each unfortunate to be playing in a position where Ireland are loaded with talent.
There isn’t as much depth in the second row or front row, a chance then for one of the youngest members of the squad, Joe McCarthy, to make his claim and also for two of the older heads, Dave Kilcoyne and Marty Moore, to remind Farrell, and everyone, they have an international future rather than just a past.
We all know Ireland has had scrum issues over the last while but Moore has a doctorate in the front row. Seven years on from his last Ireland cap, he has the chance he’s been waiting for.
If he can take it, if Frawley can convince as much here as he did in Wellington, if Lowry can cope under the high ball and the high pressure, then Ireland have won. Who cares about the scoreline? The only result that matters is if players come through.
Ireland A (v All Blacks XV):
- 15. Mike Lowry
- 14. Jimmy O’Brien
- 13. Jamie Osborne
- 12. James Hume
- 11. Jacob Stockdale
- 10. Ciarán Frawley
- 9. Craig Casey (captain)
- 1. Jeremy Loughman
- 2. Dave Heffernan
- 3. Tom O’Toole
- 4. Joe McCarthy
- 5. Gavin Thornbury
- 6. Cian Prendergast
- 7. Nick Timoney
- 8. Gavin Coombes
Replacements:
- 16. Diarmuid Barron
- 17. Dave Kilcoyne
- 18. Marty Moore
- 19. Ross Molony
- 20. Max Deegan
- 21. Caolin Blade
- 22. Jack Crowley
- 23. Calvin Nash
- All Blacks XV to take on Ireland A
- 1. Aidan Ross (26, Bay of Plenty / Chiefs)
- 2. Brodie McAlister (25, Canterbury / Crusaders)
- 3. Tevita Mafileo (24, Bay of Plenty / Hurricanes)
- 4. Josh Dickson (27, Otago / Highlanders)
- 5. Patrick Tuipulotu – Captain (29, Auckland / Blues)
- 6. Dominic Gardiner (21, Canterbury / Crusaders)
- 7. Luke Jacobson (25, Waikato / Chiefs)
- 8. Marino Mikaele-Tu’u (24, Hawke’s Bay / Highlanders)
- 9. TJ Perenara – Vice-Captain (30, Wellington / Hurricanes)
- 10. Damian McKenzie (27, Waikato / Chiefs)
- 11. AJ Lam (24, Auckland / Blues)
- 12. Roger Tuivasa-Sheck (29, Auckland / Blues)
- 13. Braydon Ennor (25, Canterbury / Crusaders)
- 14. Shaun Stevenson (25, North Harbour / Chiefs)
- 15. Ruben Love (21, Wellington / Hurricanes)
- 16. Tyrone Thompson (22, Hawke’s Bay / Chiefs)
- 17. Finlay Brewis (22, Canterbury / Crusaders)
- 18. Tamaiti Williams (22, Canterbury / Crusaders)
- 19. Zach Gallagher (21, Canterbury / Crusaders)
- 20. Christian Lio-Willie (24, Otago / Crusaders)
- 21. Cam Roigard (21, Counties Manukau / Hurricanes)
- 22. Josh Ioane (27, Otago / Chiefs)
- 23. Alex Nankivell (26, Tasman / Chiefs)
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