THERE WEREN’T TOO many surprises when Andy Farrell announced his Ireland squad for the opening rounds of the Six Nations last week, but Leinster centre Ciarán Frawley was one of the few notable absentees.
Frawley had been included in Farrell’s squad for the November internationals but didn’t make the cut this time around, perhaps paying the price for the disruption Leinster encountered over the Christmas period, with the 24-year-old playing no rugby between the 11 December win over Bath and the record-breaking defeat of Montpellier on 16 January.
But with the player not getting capped during those November games, Leinster senior coach Stuart Lancaster believes Frawley will benefit from staying with the province over the next number of weeks, adding that he’s satisfied with the player’s development this season.
“He’s very versatile, number one,” Lancaster says. “We’re obviously blessed at Leinster with three very good out-halves, so to be able to play him at 12 is a real bonus, because he’s got that physical and athletic presence that you need in a 12 as well. And as you saw at the weekend, the ability to bring him on at 15 as well.
So to have that armoury where he can play 10, 12 and 15 is excellent. But I think it has been good for him just to nail his colours to one mast, to put himself in the ball-playing 12, but also the ability to carry and do everything else.
“I think he’s come on in leaps and bounds recently. It will be great this week, because there’s a good chance he’s going to start at 12 (v Cardiff). Obviously he’s disappointed, as all the lads are who were just on the fringes of missing out on the Ireland squad, but we’ve got Cardiff on Saturday, potential with Ross still available, Harry is going to be available, you’ve got Frawls, you’ve got Jamie Osborne.
“So we’ve still got the ability to put out a really good backline and have a look at someone like Jamie, which will allow Frawls another chance to show more leadership in a team that has less experience, because we’ve got 16/17 Ireland boys having left.
“I think he’s in a really good place. I know the Ireland coaching team think a lot of him. It’s just for him to get more experience now in this window.
“Ironically the cancellations during Christmas have benefitted this pool of players, because we’ll now play more in the Six Nations window than we were originally set to do. We’ll play five, six games before the Six Nations finishes, so that’s going to be key. And as you know, all it takes is one injury, and suddenly he could be called up anyway.”
Frawley is far from the only Leinster player who will have been disappointed to miss out on Farrell’s squad, and Lancaster explains how the messaging around dealing with that disappointment is a key part of how the province will try manage their squad over the coming block of fixtures.
Leo Cullen’s side are away to Cardiff in the URC this weekend and will host Ospreys and the Lions next month, while their postponed St Stephen’s Day clash with Munster is also expected to be rearranged for some time during the Six Nations. For players who may not have made a matchday squad with Ireland, that’s a lot of minutes to showcase your talents.
“The players are pretty good to be fair,” Lancaster continues.
Andy Farrell will give them a ring obviously, and his message would be the same as mine really, in that you just need to play rugby and go and put your hand up.
“Will Connors is a good example, he’s going to be playing this weekend. He’s played what, 20 minutes of rugby (v Ulster in November) in I don’t know how many months. So he’s obviously disappointed not to be involved (with Ireland). I think his last game might have been Scotland (2021 Six Nations), bar that 20 minutes he played. So he wasn’t expecting to get picked.
“Harry’s (Byrne) not been playing, he’s had one or two little injuries, so they all know that the best place for them is to be playing rugby and be playing for Leinster.
“There’s nothing worse than sitting around thinking about ‘what if this’ or ‘what if that’ and having nowhere to put your frustration.
“Luke McGrath would be in that situation. Rhys Ruddock, Ross Molony, the list goes really of lads who are probably just on the fringes, and our message to them is let’s get into preparing for Cardiff, there’s a good chance one of our rearranged games is going to come the following week, if not the week after, so there is plenty to get into, that’s for sure.”
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When he does play 10 he will very similar to sexton in his ability to defend that chanel better than most, carry if he has to, play right up to the line, hes also go a fair bit of pace. I think he will be leinsters 10 next season (post world cup)
Good to see will Connors back but the irish no 7 landscape has changed a bit since hes been out.
Apart from the leinster boys at home hes got JOD, oliver, timoney all staking a cliam to be next after JVDF.
Harry needs to play for leinster and do his talking on the pitch. Carty is miles ahead and both the 2 young munster lads are both ahead as well.
We dont know about carburys ability to stay fit and while going forward he’s easily good enough hes marked down as a fraile 10 and he will get special treatment.
Luke mcgrath is a defensive 9.
@Chris Mc: Will Connors was arguably ahead of VDF until his injury. He has almost 10 caps for a Ireland. The others have none bar Timoney with 2. Connors is the best tackler in the country. He’ll definitely be back in that squad. Oliver & JOD will never be in the squad:
@Harry O’Callaghan: never is a long time. Why never? I heard JOD & Oliver were ripping it up recently
@SPQH: ….never because Harry tends to wear blue tinted specs.
@Harry O’Callaghan: connors is the best tackler fair enough but the rest of his game is not as good as jvdf. Im as blue tinted as any but if you cant see the work timoney, JOD and Oliver are doing week in week out well theres not much point in this discussion.
@SPQH: Jack O’Donoghue is 28. He’s hardly ripping it up hahaha he’s put in a few good performances but nothing major. Likewise with Oliver. If they were good enough then they’d have 10-20 caps already but they don’t. The Leinster backrow are miles ahead. Timoney has made the most tackles of any other player in the EPCR this season. That doesn’t go unnoticed. Apparently he benched something like 200kg this season. He’s some unit.
@Michael Murray: I sure do. Best team in the country!
@Chris Mc: …well said sir!! Candidate for Post of the Year already.
@Chris Mc: He’s as good a ball carrier as any of them. There’s not much between them. Connors already has 9 caps and was brilliant when he played for Ireland. Really had that 7 position nailed down. I think he has more potential than any of the others. He also happens to play in a much better Leinster team so he knows what it takes to beat the best teams.
@Chris Mc: agreed. He also plays very flat to the line a la Sexton and can ship a bit of punishment in that regard.
@Chris Mc: It’ll be hard for Connors to get back in the Ireland squad if he doesn’t get game time in Europe with Leinster. Timoney, JOD and Oliver are all looking superb at that level and I’m sure that’s what Farrell wants to reward. JVDF and Timoney look like the best two open sides unless AF wants to put O’Mahony there and play Beirne at 6. But with Doris and Conan playing out of their skins it’s an area of great strength for Ireland.
@Harry O’Callaghan: nailled down with 9 caps. Best take a nap and give your head a rest
@Sustainable Hedgehog: yeah agreed. Connors is the best at stopping a team with a one man wreaking ball, skeleton or a player like that, allround theres slightly better 7′s, saying that nothing stopping him stepping up in this window and if he gets a chance taking it. Massive area of strenght but with that the competition is fierce .
@Chris Mc: Ok then Conor Oliver with his nocaps & JOD with 2 haha.
@SPQH: “never in the squad” is a silly comment. Players develop at different times. Look at Sexton. He hasn’t even reached his peak.
He’s only one injury in the Irish team away from being called up I’d say
Just needs to bide his time, if Hume can be in the Irish squad he’s certainly as good a centre to be there, but then it might be down to what Farrell wants. Also Leinster need a centre to hold the Fort while the other 2 are away. I would fear he may miss this world Cup though, this upcoming summer series will be a more serious affair than usual so it would be nice to see him get a cap there but I don’t know if it will be a done thing.
@SPQH: of course, he could of course be moved back to 10 where he was unreal to be fair. He’s a great decision maker.
@SPQH: he is the perfect World Cup squad player. A play making inside centre who is just at home at outhalf, wing or fullback.
@SPQH: the squad needs 4 centres. Currrently both robbie and bundie are 12′s and Ringrose 13 so hume as a 13 (and his current form) makes total sense.
Where frawley really comes into the world cup debate is because he can play 10, 12, 15. And if your looking as a 6/2 split having a player who can cover 3 positions is very important. Also for the squad a versitile player can allow farrell to bring an extra 9 or hooker etc.
Frawley will benefit from the games during the 6 nations and having more of lancasters attention can’t do any harm.
@SPQH: Hume Frawley could be our future centre partnership depending on longevity and fitness of Henshaw, Ringrose, Aki
@SPQH: His future could be in the centre with Hume or at outhalf partnering Doak! Either exciting
@BMJF: yeah I was thinking similar myself on the long term of Frawley Hume, would be good to see them together at some stage down the road. Maybe even ahead of the RWC.
@Chris Mc: yourself and Molloy are making sense re the RWC. He has the versatility and the talent, so I really hope he gets in alright.
@Chris Mc: Fair enough, but Frawley would need an injury to Henshaw or Aki to get into the squad in the first place. (In fact he could really do with quite a long term injury to Henshaw to demonstrate he’s a serious enough player for Leinster in the big European games. I am a bit more short-termist and would prefer Henshaw stays fit and plays in all the big games!)
@Kevin Ryan: hes been part for the leinster European set up for a few seasons now. Always around the squad. Any injury to a centre would put him in the frame. As henshaw may push to 13 to cover ringrose. Both farrell and Lancaster want a ball player at 12. As for henshaw and aki both pick up injuries frequently enough so again hes well in the mix
@Chris Mc: Absent injuries he’s competing against Hume for the 4th centre spot as C Farrell now seems out of the picture, (accepting that Henshaw can play 13 as well as 12). Hume has been a stand out player for Ulster in games against tough opposition which they may not have won without him. Frawley has indeed been around the Leinster squad for a while now but I don’t think it is unfair to say a) that we have yet to see him give similar statement performances at centre against strong opposition.
I wish I could say otherwise as I certainly like him as a player; and am always hoping he excels when he gets a chance. But to me what I actually see is more like showing potential by looking decent in a dominant team.
Of course if A Farrell wants a ball playing 12, Frawley is the man!