AS ALWAYS, THERE will be disappointment in some quarters that a group of uncapped players and provincial favourites weren’t included, but Andy Farrell has picked the squad he feels is best suited to helping Ireland defend their Grand Slam.
That’s the job at hand for Farrell. The 2027 World Cup is eons away right now. The Six Nations is right in front of Ireland’s faces and its importance remains central to everything the IRFU does. When Ireland go well, it pays the bills.
Farrell is tasked with going after another title in the glaring absence of Johnny Sexton, who won’t be involved in Ireland’s Six Nations campaign for the first time since 2009. Maybe Ireland will just move on seamlessly without their longstanding talisman but his retirement does temper expectations for this championship.
After much debate, Peter O’Mahony makes sense as the new captain. He has vast experience of being a skipper with Munster, has been the starting captain 10 times for Ireland, as well as taking over in-game on plenty of occasions, and has the total respect of his team-mates.
O’Mahony recently started all five games in Ireland’s World Cup campaign and had a superb 2022/23 season at blindside flanker for Farrell’s side. His contractual situation does make this a somewhat unique appointment but he is still on an IRFU central deal until the end of this season at least and he would have been given that deal partly with the immediate post-Sexton transition in mind.
Whether O’Mahony captains Ireland for several years to come remains to be seen. That’s not hugely important to Farrell right now. He wanted to pick the most suitable captain for this Six Nations and O’Mahony is his man.
Questions will be raised about O’Mahony’s place in the starting XV, particularly given that Ryan Baird has been playing excellent rugby at number six for Leinster since the World Cup. However, Baird had a relatively limited impact on last year’s tournament for Ireland and we know that international form is hugely relevant to Test rugby coaches. O’Mahony has credit in the bank in that regard.
When considering the rest of the Ireland squad, it’s impossible not to think that a few players have been unlucky. This is always the case. It should be ferociously difficult to get into any national squad.
The sense of some players being unlucky is magnified by Farrell picking a 34-man squad, which is smaller than in recent years. Farrell had gone from 35 players for his first Six Nations campaign up to 36, then 37, and then 38 last year. Now he trims things down.
Cian Prendergast, John Hodnett, Rob Baloucoune, and Shane Daly are among the unfortunate ones to miss out, but you could continue listing a few more.
Ulster back row Nick Timoney has been in great form for his province and certainly earns his recall having last been capped in November 2022. He’d have been unlucky to miss out on making this squad if Prendergast or Hodnett had made the cut.
Munster’s Tom Ahern will be involved in Ireland’s training camp in Portugal ahead of the Six Nations but is unfortunate not to be in the main squad, even if this underlines that Farrell sees him as a potential Test player in the future.
As for the calls in the back three, Calvin Nash impressed during the World Cup pre-season last summer, made his debut in a warm-up game, and has continued his strong form for Munster, whose demands on their wings are similar to Ireland’s. Leinster’s Jordan Larmour has been in good form too, meaning they edge out Baloucoune and Daly. With Mack Hansen and Jimmy O’Brien injured, Nash seems a good bet for Ireland’s number 14 shirt against France.
While Larmour and Jacob Stockdale have played at fullback before, it seems that the versatile Ciarán Frawley might be next in line at number 15 if anything happens to key man Hugo Keenan.
Frawley is a good bet to make the bench for the French game given that he can also cover out-half, presuming that Jack Crowley takes over from Sexton as the starter there.
With Ross Byrne still injured, his brother Harry is the other out-half in the squad. Harry was previously well in favour with Farrell but an injury forced him home from the 2022 tour of New Zealand when he would likely have started both midweek games. Still only 24, twice-capped Byrne is a player Ireland believe can keep improving.
With Rob Herring out injured, it’s exciting for his Ulster team-mate Tom Stewart to make a Six Nations squad for the first time having just turned 23 last week. Dan Sheehan and Rónan Kelleher are well established as the matchday hookers but Stewart will hope to add to his single Ireland cap.
Along with Frawley, Stewart, Byrne, Nash, Timoney, and Jeremy Loughman, explosive 22-year-old lock Joe McCarthy is another hoping for a Six Nations debut and he is among the most exciting young forwards in any squad in the championship.
At scrum-half, Craig Casey’s mission is to push past Conor Murray in the pecking order behind Jamison Gibson-Park, while it will be fascinating to see how Crowley gets to grips as the expected main man at number 10.
Crowley is set for just his fourth Test start when Ireland play France in Marseille. Farrell and co. will have high hopes for his development while probably understanding that it might not all be smooth so early in his international career.
There’s excitement for 28-year-old tighthead Oli Jager to be linking up with Ireland for their camp in Portugal so soon after joining Munster, while 20-year-old Leinster out-half Sam Prendergast will also get a taste of what’s involved in training at the highest level.
Those are the fresher faces in the group, but this is still a squad featuring a huge amount of experience.
If Farrell wants to, he could start exactly the same 15 that featured in the World Cup quarter-final against New Zealand, barring the retired Sexton and injured Hansen.
Filling Sexton’s boots as a player, tactical leader, captain, attack coach, and sheer force is a big challenge for Ireland, but Farrell will back his familiar core of players to return to the winning ways that brought them such success up until that quarter-final loss.
