THE DUST IS only settling on the club rugby season but already, World Cup fever is beginning to creep in.
There were some notable omissions in the 42-strong Ireland training squad named by Andy Farrell earlier today but in truth, there were no major shocks. The likes of Jordan Larmour and Robert Baloucoune will be bitterly disappointed to miss out but across the squad, the competition for places is strong and the 42 players who will gather in Abbotstown later this month will all feel they have a realistic shot of making the final 33-man selection, which will be confirmed by Farrell in late August.
Nobody is there to simply make up the numbers – even the four uncapped players included by the Ireland head coach.
Calvin Nash, Jamie Osborne, Ciarán Frawley and Tom Stewart will all hope to impress in camp and across Ireland’s three warm-up fixtures – Farrell’s side play Italy (5 August) and England (19 August) in Dublin before taking on Samoa (26 August) in Bayonne – and book themselves a seat on the plane to France.
Of the four, Frawley’s debut feels like it has been the longest time coming. The 25-year-old is highly-rated by the Ireland coaches, having been first called into camp back in 2021, but injuries have struck at the wrong time.
Frawley impressed against the Maori All Blacks on Ireland’s summer tour to New Zealand last year – where he was due to play centre but moved to 10 when Harry Byrne was ruled out with injury. The Emerging Ireland tour looked a perfect opportunity for Frawley to further his case but the Leinster played ended up missing the tour with a shoulder issue.
He was then named as one of Ireland’s three out-halves for the November Tests but picked up another injury in the Ireland A team’s bruising defeat to the All Blacks XV – a setback which opened the door for Jack Crowley to step up and subsequently feature against Fiji and Australia. With Frawley ruled out of the Six Nations, Crowley kept his place in the squad and his form with Munster on their run to URC glory has been outstanding.
After such an injury-disrupted campaign, Frawley certainly won’t be lacking motivation when he joins up with the squad later this month. The Ireland coaches like him as an option at out-half but has can cover a number of positions across the backline – he’s lined out at 10, 12, 13 and 15 for Leinster across the season. That versatility makes him a valuable option when it comes to whittling down this squad, and of the four, he looks best placed to make the final 33.
Jamie Osborne is in a similar category, having featured at 11, 12, 13 and 15 during his breakthrough season with Leinster. The Naas native gained experience with Emerging Ireland and Ireland A and was in red-hot form for Leinster ahead of the Six Nations. His reward was a place in Farrell’s Six Nations squad as the sole uncapped player, but he didn’t make a matchday squad.
Like Frawley, Osborne’s first call into camp probably came earlier than expected – joining the senior squad as a development player in November 2021, when he only had a handful of Leinster appearances to his name.
Centre looks his most likely long-term home and the 21-year-old brings a varied skillset to the hotly-contested competition in Ireland camp. At 6’4″, Osborne has a big frame but is an explosive athlete with excellent handling skills.
He’s been sidelined with a knee injury since March and with Bundee Aki, Robbie Henshaw, Stuart McCloskey and Garry Ringrose all ahead of him in the Ireland pecking order, Osborne will need a big summer to push himself up the queue – but a couple of injuries could leave Farrell with an interesting call.
Nash also faces an uphill battle to make the final cut but he heads into the summer in the form of his career.
The 25-year-old winger has been one of Munster’s top performers this season, starting 17 games and scoring seven tries – having started just 15 games across the 2021/22 and 2020/21 seasons.
Clearly enjoying his rugby under Munster’s new coaching team this year, Nash will back himself to kick on and make a strong impression in Ireland camp. The Limerick native toured with Emerging Ireland and was part of the senior Ireland squad in November, so knows what to expect when he joins the group next month.
At hooker, Tom Stewart is behind Dan Sheehan, Ronan Kelleher and Ulster teammate Rob Herring, but he’s fully deserving of his call up on the back of a strong campaign with Ulster.
The 22-year-old is a hugely exciting young prospect, finishing the season as the top try-scorer in the URC with a remarkable 16 tries – five more than any other player in the league – and picking up the Next-Gen Player of the Season award. The Belfast man also finished in the URC’s top 15 for points, carrier, lineout steals and tackles.
Another player to have toured with Emerging Ireland, Stewart was called into the Six Nations squad as injury cover and has the type of dynamic profile Farrell wants in his forwards.
Again, the competition is strong in his position but this is exactly the sort of situation Farrell has been keen to create – exciting young talent learning from, and pushing, the more established senior players.
Show the right stuff over the summer, and who knows what could happen.
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