RONAN O’GARA SAYS Ireland need to strike the right balance on their summer tour to New Zealand, using the opportunity to develop squad depth while also aiming to become the first Ireland team to win a Test game in the All Blacks’ back yard.
Andy Farrell is expected to bring an extended squad of around 40 players to New Zealand this summer, where Ireland are hoping to take in three July Test games against the All Blacks along with two midweek games, expected to be against the Maori All Blacks.
Ireland have never won a Test match in New Zealand, but will make the long journey south full of confidence having won a gripping contest when the sides met in Dublin last November, and backing that up with an encouraging Six Nations campaign.
Ireland will be determined to put their best foot forward as they chase history in New Zealand, but La Rochelle director of rugby O’Gara says building squad depth must also be a central focus on the tour.
“For me, they both work hand in hand,” O’Gara says.
“This is top, top level sport. It’s ruthless. You want to set up your players to succeed. It’ll be a hard environment in the middle of winter on winter surfaces in New Zealand. It will be different rugby to what we’re seeing now and what we’ll see for the next two-three months on firm pitches with dry balls. You’re going down to the middle of winter.
“They’ll be good pitches, but they’ll be hostile environments, passionate fans. It’s a fantastic test as a rugby player.
What will happen with Ireland is, of course they’ll be going to create history and do what no other Irish team has done, and there’s so many carrots and incentives to do something that no other Irish team has done. So for me, it smacks of a massive opportunity.
“At the same time, you look throughout the Six Nations campaign and a lot of different players were used, but none of them are rookies or unproven. It’s deadly competitive to get into the Irish team now, never mind Irish squads.
“You’ll have a Test group, and then I presume an extended training group with the talk of playing another two games, and it’s in the training moments that you get to see the real character of the individual and that’s hugely informative to a head coach.”
While Ireland have the feel and look of a team on the up, New Zealand have perhaps fallen down the global pecking order as Grand Slam champions France and World Cup holders South Africa have emerged as dominant forces again.
“I think in the last three years the gap has most definitely closed (between New Zealand and the rest),” O’Gara contines.
“Super Rugby is probably a different game. It’s a lot more expansive, but it’s not really like that in Test rugby, where you have very limited time and space on the ball and there’s a big set-piece focus.
“I think you have to be impressed with the skill levels of New Zealand forwards, that is a competitive advantage to them, but there are other areas in other Test teams where probably France, Ireland, South Africa may have other advantages over New Zealand.
I think New Zealand will have had… Not a reality check, but confirmation of the appreciation of the strength of the game in Europe after the northern hemisphere tour.
“To give it a little bit of context, they came to Europe at the end of a difficult, long Covid season (last year). That’s a very minor point but I think it’s worth stressing also. They’ll be fresh, they’ll be eager and they’ll be hungry. They will be three unbelievable Test matches.”
As ever, one of the big talking points around Ireland’s Six Nations campaign was the succession planning at out-half. Captain Johnny Sexton was arguably the form 10 in the tournament, while Joey Carbery was handed two starts and three appearance off the bench – the last of which saw him play six minutes at fullback against Scotland.
“I think you bring Johnny Sexton (to New Zealand) and I think you bring three other out-halves potentially, to see who’s going to take up that mantle,” O’Gara continues.
“I think a lot of people are missing the point. Irrespective of the form of Johnny Sexton with his age profile, if he plays 50 minutes Saturday, Saturday, Saturday, for me it’s a phenomenal achievement.
“You need another guy. It’s a 23 man game nowadays. The game is changing, you’ve got to finish games at Test level strong. You can’t just come in and take the guy’s place but in Johnny’s case, if you can come in and take his place and do that job to his ability, it’s a fantastic bonus for the team. But usually with your impact subs you want them to add something to the team and make a difference.
For me, Joey Carbery is a classy player and has all the attributes, but he just needs minutes. He needs minutes for Munster, he needs minutes for Ireland and no better place than in New Zealand to try to grow him as a player that can start test matches for Ireland. I suppose the style of player or the system of play doesn’t change. I think his performance against France was under-appreciated. He missed kicks against Italy that he’d be disappointed with but that can be fixed.”
O’Gara also had some words of warning for Connacht out-half Jack Carty, who returned to an Ireland matchday squad for the first time since the 2019 World Cup but featured for just two minutes off the bench against France. While Carty had little time to impress in the green jersey, O’Gara feels his performance for Connacht in their 4 March defeat to Edinburgh could count against him going forward.
“He came on and had an opportunity (against France), remember Ireland had a chance to win the game? It was Jack Carty’s pass from right to left that went forward and Dan Sheehan knocked it on, but it was a difficult pass to handle. But these are the moments that we’re talking about. But also, my abiding memory of the Six Nations (for Carty) is that Jack Carty was out-half for Connacht that went to Edinburgh and the score was 56-8.
So I think we have to be consistent in our analysis in the fact that you can’t knock on the door, knock on the door, knock on the door and then come up with a performance like that and go, ‘Well that didn’t happen.’ Because the staff and coaches look at that and that rocks everything about your environment, about your culture, about what you stand for.
“Then you go, ‘Test level is another level up and I’m the out-half on that team that has gone to an away game and we’ve copped 50 points.’ So I think it’s a very, very harsh message but every game counts. Especially when you’re not the incumbent, every game counts.
“The out-half is the driver in the team and this isn’t harsh against Jack, I’m just trying to give you guys a picture of what’s involved in selecting a potential test out-half. It’s an all-encompassing position with so many layers and strands associated with the job and the task at hand.
“You can’t just pretend that Connacht-Edinburgh game didn’t happen. That comes into selection criteria because the two Byrnes (Ross and Harry) haven’t had that on their CV this year. Joey hasn’t had that. So little things become big things when you want a really important piece of your jigsaw.”
Ronan O’Gara was speaking at the launch of this year’s Aviva Mini Rugby Festivals in Aviva Stadium. Six camps, with over 2,000 participants, are set to take place across the country. Four provincial festivals will take place in April, before the National Festival takes places at Aviva Stadium, the Home of Irish Rugby, in May. To learn more about Aviva Mini Rugby Festivals, please visit www.aviva.ie/minirugby.
A new episode of The Front Row, in partnership with Guinness, is out now. After Ireland’s Triple Crown win, Murray Kinsella gives us the rundown on his team of the tournament. Ireland international Sene Naoupu also joins the panel to chat about her career and look ahead to the start of the Women’s Six Nations. Click here to subscribe or listen below:
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