THERE HAD BEEN murmurings of France’s ongoing interest in Munster centre Antoine Frisch for a while but very few people would have predicted that les Bleus would call him up during this Six Nations campaign.
Munster are said to have known for well over a year that France boss Fabien Galthié was tracking 27-year-old Frisch, who was a key part of the southern province’s march to their URC title last season and has been in good form during the current campaign.
When Frisch decided to sign for Munster from Bristol in 2022, there was strong interest in him from the Top 14, as well as within England, for whom he also qualifies. He opted to join the Irish province on a three-year deal.
Frisch has plainly stated his ambitions to play for Ireland several times since arriving from and it seemed he was committed to chasing that goal.
He toured with Emerging Ireland in 2022 but that didn’t ‘capture’ the France native’s Test rugby eligibility, so Galthié continued to keep an eye on Frisch’s performances.
It’s understood that Munster were concerned about France calling Frisch up and communicated as much to the IRFU in the hope that such a situation could be avoided.
However, Ireland boss Andy Farrell has very strong options in midfield and has continued with his frontline quartet of Bundee Aki, Robbie Henshaw, Garry Ringrose, and Stuart McCloskey in recent campaigns, while the promising Jamie Osborne was involved in the wider squad for last year’s World Cup pre-season.
It almost goes without saying that Farrell’s job is to pick the players he feels are best placed to help him win Test matches, not to worry about the eligibility of players within the provinces.
Munster’s fears were realised in recent days as Galthié invited Frisch to join his France training squad ahead of this weekend’s final-round Six Nations showdown with England.
It would be a major leap for Frisch to get capped in this game against the English given that he has never been in the France set-up before. But given that France rarely call up players based outside the country, Galthié clearly likes what he sees in the creative Frisch, who has added more aggression in contact to his game this season.
France are leaving their frontliners at home for this summer’s tour to South America and Frisch is the kind of player who could be involved in that trip.
So this must be a time of uncertainty for Munster. Frisch is contracted until 2025 but if he did play for France, he would become non-Irish qualified [NIQ]. Munster already have one NIQ centre in New Zealand native Alex Nankivell, who is also contracted until 2025.
Given that the provinces are generally prevented from having more than one NIQ player in one positional group, it seems unlikely that Munster would be able to retain both Nankivell and Frisch beyond 2025 if the latter does become NIQ. There is also an outside possibility that a French club could attempt to buy out the last season of Frisch’s contract in Munster if he becomes a France international.
Frisch being capped by the French would be all the more frustrating for Munster given that ex-Ireland international Jean Kleyn converted his Test allegiance to his native South Africa last year, helping them to World Cup glory. Ireland boss Farrell had opted not to call Kleyn into his training squad, instead choosing Joe McCarthy, who has swiftly developed into a starter for Ireland in the second row.
That meant Munster could only keep one of Kleyn and fellow Springboks lock RG Snyman beyond the end of this season. They re-signed Kleyn and Snyman will leave for Leinster this summer.
Former Munster out-half Ben Healy left the province last year to pursue an international career with Scotland. The Tipperary native had spoken to Ireland boss Farrell but was not high up the national team pecking order at out-half and turned down a contract offer from Munster to move to Scotland, joining club side Edinburgh.
As they wait to see what happens with Frisch, it’s understood that Munster are also now concerned about fullback Mike Haley. The England native has been capped once by Ireland back in 2019 but has not featured in any squads under Farrell.
Haley is a key figure at Munster but he is out of contract at the end of next season and it’s believed that at least one English Premiership club has expressed interest in signing him. Given that Haley hasn’t played for Ireland for over three years, he is now eligible for England again.
While it’s thought that 29-year-old Haley is very happy with Munster, the province are said to be worried about the possibility of losing him if he attracts a good offer from the Premiership and believes he could force his way into Test reckoning with England.
As for Ireland, they appear to be relaxed about Frisch getting called up by France.
“I don’t know whether they will cap him or they’ve just got him in for training,” said Ireland assistant coach Simon Easterby today.
“I worked with Frischy with Emerging Ireland and he’s a great guy, good player. He’s unfortunately in a position of real strength for us and he might get into a few other teams given the opportunity.
“I’m obviously not fully aware of the situation around what’s happening this week around his selection, but he’s a good guy, good player and if he does get capped, then obviously that will change a few things, but it’s not one for me to worry about too much right now.”
Easerby was asked whether Frisch could come into the Ireland mix in the future if he isn’t capped by France this week.
“It depends really,” said Easterby. “I certainly haven’t been involved in any conversations with Antoine, so I think that’s the important thing first – there’s a conversation with Munster, with Faz [Farrell] around what his plans are.
“And then we will obviously find out a little bit more. It’s quite recent and we are probably waiting to see what happens this week, and then we can make a call on it.”
- This article was updated at 10.16pm to indicate that Mike Haley is out of contract next season rather than this season, as previously stated.
