STEPPING INTO THE considerable shoes of Hugo Keenan is no easy task, but Leinster assistant coach Andrew Goodman was impressed with the way Ciaran Frawley went about his business in Ireland’s victory against Wales at the Aviva Stadium last Saturday.
Thanks to a knee injury he picked up in their win over Italy at the same venue on 11 February, Keenan was ruled out of the Irish starting line-up at the weekend. Remarkably, this was just the second time that the Dubliner hasn’t featured in a Six Nations game for his country since making his bow in the tournament back in October 2020.
Whereas Ulster’s Michael Lowry deputised for a rested Keenan when Ireland took on the Italians in the third round of the 2022 Six Nations, his Leinster colleague Frawley was entrusted with full-back duties for the visit of the Welsh to Ballsbridge on Saturday. This was also his first start in a senior international test, but the Skerries native rounded off an assured display against Warren Gatland’s men with a 66th minute try in a bonus point success for Ireland.
“It was great to see someone like Frawls play so well in that 15 jersey. I thought he stepped up really well on his first Test start with Ireland. It was great for us as Leinster coaches and players to see him go out there and do his thing as a 15 at that level. It was awesome,” Goodman remarked at a Leinster media briefing yesterday.
“He is a composed lad, isn’t he? No matter what position he plays he is pretty calm. I’m always impressed by the way he just goes about his work.
“To control the backfield like he did, he stepped up into first receiver a number of times and played well as a pivot. The try at the end and the line he ran for that too. There were lots of positive bits and I’m sure he was really happy with his starting debut. It was great for us.”
While full-back is where the aforementioned Frawley has been used most frequently by Leinster this season, he has also seen game time at both inside centre and out-half. He started in the latter position for Champions Cup pool stage encounters against Sale Sharks and Stade Francais, while he also had extended runs off the bench as a number 10 in tense duels with Munster and La Rochelle.
The competition for this role in the Leinster team has remained ferocious in the wake of Johnny Sexton’s retirement, however, with the Byrne brothers – Ross and Harry – being joined by Sam Prendergast and Charlie Tector in the provincial ranks.
In addition to the Byrnes being senior internationals in their own right, Tector and Prendergast were first-choice out-halves for the Ireland U20s when they claimed Six Nations Grand Slams in 2022 and 2023 respectively.
Although it can be difficult to keep everyone happy all of the time, Goodman – who often lined out at out-half during his own playing career – is pleased with the way the quintet keep pushing each other behind the scenes in Leinster.
“They are a competitive bunch. They all want the time and are all competing hard against each other, but always working hard together to improve each other as well. They do a lot, especially our attack and driving the detail around what they want from everyone else in the team. I love working with them.
“They all have their little points of difference in the things they see in the game. They all have a great eye for the game. They push each other hard and compete to make each other better players by competing at training.”
Come this time next year, Goodman will be part of the Irish backroom team rather than the Leinster one as he is set to take over from Mike Catt as attack coach within the international set-up following the completion of this summer’s two-test tour of world champions South Africa.
He was in attendance for the game on Saturday – a day after Leinster had lost out to Saracens in a friendly encounter at StoneX Stadium in London – but he was slightly more relaxed than he will be 12 months from now.
“I was a supporter on the weekend, I had a couple of pints beforehand and my mother-in-law was over from New Zealand. I took her along and she really enjoyed the experience. It was great to be there. Afternoon rugby on a beautiful Dublin day like that, it was good to be there and experience the atmosphere from a supporters’ point of view,” Goodman added.