THERE’S STILL PLENTY of questions surrounding Andy Farrell’s Ireland squad heading into this November window.
Are the team making real progress? Is there a clear game-plan in place? Can anybody challenge Johnny Sexton at 10? Who starts on the wings? What is the strongest back row combination?
However one of the few things that seems absolutely certainly is that the Ireland front row is in a good place.
At tighthead, Tadhg Furlong represents one of the genuine world class talents available to Farrell. There is real hope that Andrew Porter will grow into the same status, with his move across the front row to loosehead representing an exciting opportunity to add more power and dynamism to the pack.
If all goes to plan, Ronan Kelleher will also add to that ball-playing ability in a front row that could prove a real point of difference for this Ireland team.
Others in the squad will look to have their say, of course. Ulster’s Rob Herring has been a model of consistency, Dave Kilcoyne has often caught the eye in green and Cian Healy isn’t going anywhere just yet, but there is certainly much excitement about the damage a Porter-Kelleher-Furlong front row could do.
And Furlong, the elder statesman of that group, says he’s been impressed with how Porter has settled into a notoriously difficult move to the other side of the scrum.
“I think he’s got a grasp of it very quickly, to be fair to him,” Furlong says.
“It’s not easy, it’s not easy at this level to switch over the way he does. Obviously there’s a good breeding ground at Leinster to practise and in training and stuff like that. He’s done really well, all things considered because it’s not an easy thing to do. Granted he has a history with the position et cetera but I think he’s done really so far.”
It looks like a win-win situation for Furlong, who now gets to play in a more dynamic front row while also no longer having Porter breathing down his neck for that tighthead spot.
“Look, across the game now, I suppose the opportunity to have an impact as a front row has never been as much.
There’s never been as much expected of you in terms of open-field, the opportunity to get hand on ball, run good lines, carry hard, ruck, defence, maul. There’s so much asked of a prop now so obviously to have someone of his (Porter) calibre there is great. He was selected as a British and Irish Lion. He’s a hell of a player.”
And what of Healy, who at 34 has made the equally impressive switch to tighthead?
“When I heard he was going to tighthead I was like, ‘Here what’s going on?’ I think I was still on the Lions Tour, or maybe holidays after I came back, and I was just checking on the Hudl account where you can watch all the training footage remotely.
“It just looked weird at the start, to be honest with you. He’s been a loosehead all his life but he got up to speed to be fair to him.
“He was winning scrum penalties when he came on to beat the band. I’m not sure, you’d have to ask him what he really felt about it. He’s been picking my brain a small bit but he’s kind of one of those people who, if they put their mind to it, they go gung-ho at it and I thought he did well. I thought he did really well. He’s so strong he can get into those dynamic positions.”
There are still a few moving parts in this Ireland team, but at 28, Furlong is now well established as a key pillar of the first 15.
It’s been another strong year for the Leinster man, overcoming a long-term injury absence to head out on tour with the British and Irish Lions in South Africa.
He’s been easing his way back into the swing of things in recent weeks with Leinster, clocking up 56 minutes against the Scarlets and 53 minutes against Glasgow.
It’s not ideal prep for a game against a high-tempo Japan side, with New Zealand lying in wait next week.
“That first game against Scarlets, it’s always that first game,” Furlong continues.
“I felt like I wasn’t any sort of rugby I was ever used to playing before – lungs are going, a lot of scrums, you’re gassed out.
“And then that second game against Glasgow, it felt way, way better. Way, way, way better. So, obviously it’s a step up again this weekend. I suppose you have to just rely on the work you’ve done, it’s in the bank, the rugby you have played before.
I remember coming back off a year of not playing the game, played 40 minutes against the Scarlets last year and I was on the bench for the Six Nations. I suppose you just rely on stuff you have done before, a bit of muscle memory there. For sure, we haven’t played as many games as the Japanese have played.”
It feels like a key November for this group of players, who are looking to build on five successive wins under Farrell across a run of three fixtures which should provide some very different challenges.
“What do they say in GAA? Take your points and the goals will come,” Furlong adds.
“It’s all about performance and all about getting what we have worked on here onto the training paddock and trusting in the process.
“Trusting that if we do some of the stuff we said we would do, then it will come right for us.”
