MORE THAN FOUR years on from his last appearance for Ireland in a clash with Japan in Shizuoka, Simon Zebo is back in the national squad to compete for a start against the same opposition in Dublin.
The 31-year-old Cork man was left out of Andy Farrell’s 50-man squad when Ireland assembled for a one-day training camp back in September but has done enough since to convince the head coach to include him in a 38-player group for the November Tests.
Zebo has played for Munster twice so far this season, scoring two tries against the Sharks on his return to Thomond Park, and now he has his sights set firmly on a comeback in green at the Aviva Stadium.
Hugo Keenan is the incumbent at fullback, while there is plenty of competition on the left wing, but Zebo’s 35 caps of Test experience and his creative streak certainly add something different to Farrell’s squad.
Alongside the returning face of Zebo, there are complete newcomers in the shape of hooker Dan Sheehan and centre Ciarán Frawley, both of whom are 23 and play for Leinster.
Sheehan is explosive and has real size with his 6ft 3ins and 110kgs frame, the kind of athlete who looks ready-made for Test rugby. He obviously still has much to learn – he has yet to play in the Champions Cup – but also possesses variety in his throwing and strong handling skills. Some in Leinster believe he could even push past Rónan Kelleher, who is the same age but was an earlier developer.
Rob Herring will be battling hard with Kelleher to retain the starting hooker slot, but Sheehan has rich potential.
Frawley’s promise has been well-flagged for some years now, right since he emerged with Skerries RFC and broke into the Leinster set-up, initially playing at out-half and fullback.
He has settled at inside centre for his province over the last year, offering classy distribution alongside punchy carrying and defence. Frawley can certainly take care of himself around contact and Farrell is keen to have a closer look this autumn.
While they’re not formally part of the Ireland squad, Farrell will also bring Munster lock Thomas Ahern and Leinster’s versatile back Jamie Osborne into camp as development players, allowing them to get a taste for the step up to international training.
21-year-old Waterford man Ahern and 19-year-old Naas product Osborne are both uniquely athletic but also appear to have the composure required to play at the very highest level. It’s exciting for Irish rugby to have them in the mix.
While some supporters would have loved to read about more uncapped players being included for the autumn, it’s worth highlighting how few caps some of this Ireland squad still have.
Robert Baloucoune, Harry Byrne, Gavin Coombes, James Hume, Tom O’Toole, and Nick Timoney were only capped for the first time in July, while Craig Casey [3], Ryan Baird [5], and James Lowe [6] are still relative novices when it comes to Test rugby.
Add in the fact that 25-year-old Andrew Porter is in the squad primarily as a loosehead prop for the first time and there is plenty of freshness here. The Porter-Kelleher-Tadhg Furlong combination showed its promise for Leinster last weekend.
Farrell has shown some willingness to adjust quickly when it comes to selection – Frawley and Sheehan weren’t in the September camp either – but he has kept the faith in other regards.
His back row selections will be intriguing for the Tests against Japan, the All Blacks, and Argentina, with the emergence of Coombes and the excellent form of Timoney having added to the competition there.
Jack Conan returns as a three-Test starting Lion but Farrell is a big fan of Caelan Doris at number eight, which is also Coombes’ best position. Peter O’Mahony has started this season strongly and Josh van der Flier has been in sharp form for a long time.
The scrum-half trio of Conor Murray, Jamison Gibson-Park, and Craig Casey is unchanged but it does seem like a missed opportunity not to include Ulster’s Nathan Doak as a development player, even if he wouldn’t get too many training reps. The 19-year-old has potential and might have benefited from being brought in.
Connacht’s Jack Carty is probably one of the most unlucky players to miss out, with Farrell naming 36-year-old captain Johnny Sexton, Joey Carbery, and Harry Byrne as his out-half options.
Byrne has had a number of injury frustrations in recent seasons but Farrell is a big believer in the Leinster man’s potential, while there is real faith in 25-year-old Carbery’s ability to keep improving and offer a creative skillset at 10.
There are some injury absentees in the likes of Will Addison, Jacob Stockdale, and Robbie Henshaw – albeit the centre will be in camp to continue his rehab of a foot injury – but all in all, Farrell will be excited to see this selection taking on the November Tests.
Jack O’Donohue may as well go to France, along with Carty. What is Lowe doing in there still?
@Richard James: whatever about the other 2 O’Donoghue needs to oust O’Mahony at 6 for Munster if he wants to get back into the Irish fold. Unlucky man out for me would be Paul Boyle in that backrow.
@Cian O’Toole: he is now a better player than POM in my eyes, but POM brings a X-factor like few can. POM is also lucky to be there but he keeps doing the extraordinary bits.
@Richard James: What is X factor!? He’s either a better player for the team or he isn’t. I actually think he is better than O’Mahony, or certainly would be if he wasn’t being shoehorned into playing 7 all the time which he simply isn’t. Pity as I think he could be a very good 6.
@Richard James: i believe the primary reason Carty turned down Clermont was for a shot at Ireland. (Same with Marmion and Saracens). Sure that’s probably that.
@Richard James: Lowe is a shocking call… rees-zammit tearing down the wing at Lowe is a try 10 times outta 10
@Cathal Carr: do you honestly believe either of those 2 would be first choice at either of those clubs? Get more money to sit on the bench or stay and play at home?
@Chris Mc: I do. Because Mark McCall confirmed as such in Marmion’s case, when Aled Davies was announced a few months after.
Give me Kevin Maggs and 14 Dricos
@Sam Murray: the lineouts might be a potential weakness
Dan Sheehan is a serious underdog. The lads a beast and seriously quick.
I’m surprised the42 hasn’t mentioned that the urc refs review has come down in favour of cloete’s try the other day and reckon that beirne was onside after all. Like a lot of Irish media outlets they were very quick to back Andy friends outburst and join in the kicking of Busby and the tmo when even at the time it looked an incredibly tight call. The hypocrisy around slating rassie for anti-ref opinions and lauding friend sticks out to me
@Tim Magner: they are referring it to World Rugby as they aren’t certain. So maybe hold fire there. The statement read as an attempt to find some way to justify the decision. But to me the laws are clear. A player who is in front of the kicker must retreat to either behind the kicker or behind a player who was onside when the ball was kicked. Beirne very clearly did neither of those things. This “the only part of his body that was touching the ground when the ball was kicked” guff is simply that. If a player tried that on try line defence do you think it would be allowed? Of course not.
@John Molloy: it’s funny cos the whole gist of it after the game was that he was a mile offside
@Tim Magner: it wasn’t reviewed that is the point but Connachts disallowed try was for 2 minutes. It’s called consistency and fairness that’s all anybody wants.
@bullfrogblues: precisely, it’s the inconsistencies that are peeing off Friend and what he actually complained about. And Connacht historically have borne the brunt, and especially so in Interpro’s…
@Tim Magner: Outburst you say?, Hahaha, good one. Friendy is probably the quietest spoken bloke in Rugby, totally un-Australian. The reason the officials were rigthly criticised was they didn’t even review what you admit was at least an obviously very tight call..
@Sea__Point: friend said nothing about anyone reviewing anything. He’s quoted on this site as saying ‘to me, that try and the missed offside, that’s inexcusable’
@Tim Magner: tim the urc backing its officials is one thing but do you in all honestly believe he was onside?
@Chris Mc: I really have no idea, it’s incredibly tight & could have gone either way. The fact the ref gave onfield try negates a lot of the controversy for me. There’s definitely not enough there for a tmo to get him to reverse his decision
@Tim Magner: Yup, he was in-line, doesn’t matter no one wants to hear it. Connacht missed a golden opportunity with Munster offering it to them on a plate. They should be mad at themselves.
The thing we keep seeing is we are not looking at the next world Cup, we are looking at the here and now. As soon as the world Cup is over New Zealand looks at the squad and age profile and starts building, we keep picking players who are hanging on because of what they did in the past instead of bringing through the next players for this and the next world cup
NO.
BOX.
KICKING.