A SPECIAL WEEK ended in difficult fashion for Craig Casey, and minutes after the final whistle sounded at the RDS last night, the scrum-half was understandably disappointed with the way things had played out.

Casey is an ambitious, confident scrum-half who would have entered this Ireland camp with his sights set on today’s clash against the Springboks at Aviva Stadium.

Instead, he was signed up for Friday night lights duty at the RDS, the sweetener being that Andy Farrell also entrusted Casey to captain the Ireland A squad for their clash with a star-studded All Black XV.

It was a sign of how highly Farrell rates Casey. The Ireland head coach handed the Munster man his Ireland Test debut during the 2021 Six Nations and has capped him a further four times since. 

He’s now one of those Ireland players on the cusp of the first team. Many feel he’s ready to step up and become a regular feature of the matchday 23, while he continues to close the gap on Conor Murray for the starting jersey at Munster.

Last night was supposed to be an opportunity for Casey and his Ireland A teammates to show they are moving in the right direction when it comes to pushing for inclusion in Farrell’s senior squad.

Instead, it was a difficult night for all involved as an All Blacks XV packed with full internationals simply obliterated their hosts at the RDS. While the visitors were cohesive and slick, Farrell’s players looked short on gametime together and were physically bested, issues which fed into Casey and his halfback partner Ciarán Frawley struggling to assert themselves on the contest in the way they would have wanted.

“Yeah, it was definitely a step up,” said Casey, sitting beside Farrell in the RDS media room last night.

“I mean, I don’t think the pace of the game was any different to what we experienced down there (during the summer).

“We shot ourselves in the foot a bit in the first half and it gave them points, we need to manage the game better and our discipline wasn’t good enough either, so it just gave then ins and they grew from there.

Casey leads Ireland A off the pitch. Dan Sheridan / INPHO Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO

“It’s a hard way back when the All Blacks are playing like that… But yeah, disappointing.”

On a night when nothing really clicked for Ireland, the home side’s breakdown work was a notable issue.

“They were ferocious breakdown-wise,” Casey continued.

“I think Faz alluded to it, they taught us a lesson there. We kind of had to adapt a bit to that and we didn’t. It took it as bit of time, so yeah, they taught us a lesson there.”

In the chair to Casey’s right, Farrell pointed to the positives the players can take from the experience. It’s hard to imagine many of them seeing things that way when they wake up this morning. For most, this felt like an opportunity lost, but one Ireland A game won’t end any international careers before they’ve properly started.

Casey knows a big season with Munster will keep him in the scrum-half conversation and as much as he might want to forget what happened on the pitch, he will have benefited from the experience of captaining the A squad through the week.

“Yeah it was unreal. Something I’ve dreamed about the whole way up,” he added.

“But like you said, a disappointing night, not the way I wanted it to go. I did have family and friends there so that was great. But it was some opportunity all week to lead a team and control a week with a leadership group.

“I loved it, but look, the night didn’t go well.” 

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