THE FACE THAT didn’t seem to fit towards the end of 2013 is now part of Ireland’s final 31-man squad.
Darren Cave has had frustrating spells during his international career, but his performances with Ulster have been consistently strong in recent years and his most recent chance in green saw the 28-year-old muscularly push his Ireland claim.
The nine-times capped midfielder was excellent at the Millennium Stadium early last month to set his World Cup marker, having also performed on last summer’s tour of Argentina.
Still, Cave is something of a surprise inclusion in Ireland’s final World Cup squad even if it all makes sense now. The Ulsterman is partly the beneficiary of Joe Schmidt’s decision to travel to the World Cup with only two recognised scrum-halves, Ian Madigan the third choice in that role.
Cave’s status as a pure centre, in comparison with starters Robbie Henshaw and Jared Payne, also played on Schmidt’s mind.
With the midfield situation that we have, we feel we’ve got enough cover, but it’s a little bit of a manufactured midfield,” said the Kiwi at Carton House this afternoon.
“Robbie hadn’t played 12 until he came into this environment, and Jared had played more fullback than 13. Robbie had played more fullback than 13 in recent years too. That’s a little bit manufactured for us.
“We wanted to get one specialist midfielder in there who could play 12 or 13. His flexibility and positivity in the environment are real plusses for us.
“We’ve had the opportunity to get Keith Earls at 13 and Luke Fitzgerald some game time at 13, so we feel that amongst those five, plus Ian Madigan, who can move in there (we’re covered).”
Having mentioned Madigan as an option in the 12 shirt, where he has played extensively for Leinster, Schmidt almost immediately pointed out that stretching Madigan’s training time across scrum-half, out-half and inside centre would have been a huge ask.
I know this might sound complicated because it did seem complicated on Sunday, but having Ian cover nine and 10 as the the third-choice nine, then to expect him to cover 12 as well is a little bit more of an expectation.
“Therefore we wanted to go with a specialist 12/13 and Darren’s performances, both at training and in the match at the Millennium Stadium, meant he was a pretty deserving player to be involved.”
It’s a roundabout route but as Schmidt underlined, Cave has earned his World Cup shot.
We are in month 4 of the year. Salah has been incredible thus far but Keane is right in the sense that it’s very hard to make a case for any player unless they have major honours behind them. Look back on all the winners and the vast majority have won the big trophies. Of course if they win the CL which is very possible, he becomes a red hot favourite.
@Robert O Farrell: Agreed. The international competitions also usually take precedence over club football in Ballon D’or voting so how Messi, Ronaldo and Salah perform during the World Cup will have a big impact.
@Robert O Farrell: complete b0110cks.
You could theoretically be the best player in the world playing for a team winning bugger all but outperforming your peers except in trophies. And not to be considered?
Guess that means Brian O’Driscoll never should have been mentioned as a world player of the year contender as he (Ireland) bottled world cups and grand slams?
@Mikarlachenko: Shut it fool
@Mikarlachenko: Even after winning a grand slam and a Heineken cup in 2009 BOD still didn’t get player of the year (yup, still bitter about that one and the bould Richie McCaw). Its actually a good reflection of the situation with the balloon d’or, there’s no way Messi and Ronaldo have been the outstanding candidates every one of the last 10 years but yang hasn’t stopped the accolades heading their way
Normally agree with Keane and he usually says it as it is. However, the award is player of the year. Its isn’t an award for the best player in a team that won trophies this year.
It’s an individual, not team award – if salah consistently plays this well through the year and is the best player in the world, then he deserves to win it. This is regardless of whether Liverpool or Egypt win anything.
@Seán C: THANK YOU! Spot on
@Seán C: It’s about the trophies though. Messi outscored Ronaldo last year, but Ronaldo won the trophies. It probably shouldn’t be that way but it’s a team game!
@Shy Tall Knight: It’s an individual award
Rubbish as usual from Keane.. the best player in the world is just that..you don’t need a body of work behind you ..its a seasonal award…if Liverpool win the champions league he has to be on the short list…and that’s from a spurs fan!
@Barry Evans: Is that not basically what Keane said? Win the trophy and then he’s in the conversation!
@Barry Evans: that’s exactly what he said. If he doesn’t win something then he isn’t at that level.
@Barry Evans: betraying your anti Keane bias there.
And since when does he regularly talk rubbish, if anything hes always straight to the point. Especially compared to half the spoofers on football panels
@Jim Demps: He’s already won pfa player of the season. You’re looking for Liverpool as a team to win something as a measure of him deserving an individual reward. It’s beyond stupid. It’s like when Portugal won the euro’s and people said Ronaldo deserved player of the year for it, even though he did sweet feck all the whole tournament. Absolute idiocy
@Barry Evans: obviously didn’t read the article ooopps
@Barry Evans: eh ‘rubbish as usual from Keane’ and then you repeat EXACTLY what he was saying ??? Idiot.
@Barry Evans: it’s a yearly award
@Barry Evans: To be considered a great player you have to be performing consistently well over a period of years. No doubt Sala having great year and is probably player of the year but can he do it next year and the year after, Messi and Ronaldo have so did Keane in his pomp, (probably best ever midfielder in PL, even maybe europe as well). Keane spot on in what he is saying.
I think if the voting was tomorrow he’d win it but still a long way from the voting. If he doesn’t win the champions league or have a good start to next season i feel it will go to someone else. Especially if Ronaldo or Messi have a good world cup.
Ronaldo form this year has been a major reason why Madrid are where they are in la liga. His form was really poor for the first half of the season. Yes he has been unreal in the champions league but no better than salah . He has 15 goals , 3 of which are penalties . For me to that he has to win the champions league to win the balón is crap . He could score a hat trick if he gets to the final and Madrid could score four, with Ronaldo having a nightmare like last night and it scoring . Would Ronaldo still deserve it then ? For me. It’s salah number 1 , messi number 2 and Ronaldo number three at present . Salah is about to have the greatest season in English football history surely it deserves to be recognized ,
Andy cole is a strange example considering the striking talent Keane played with, one goal internationally and I can’t remember him ever scoring in a cup final. Yorke, sheringham, RVN, solskaer, Rooney and ronaldo would all spring to mind ahead of him
@Sean Lawlor: He’s talking about amounts scored , not most important and boy did Andy Cole score some amount of goals.
@Sean Lawlor: Internationally he had Shearer, Sheringham, Owen and Fowler to contend with too.
@Hardly Normal: And Keane never played with him internationally. in fairness to Keane he was only talking about strikers he played with at club level so not unreasonable to include Cole.
Where the hell is all this coming from. He has had a very good season and they want to erect a shrine to him. Give him a few more seasons and if he still doing what he has done this season then consider it. Gods aren’t made in one season.