DAVE FOLEY AND Dominic Ryan will bring to 12 the number of new caps blooded during Joe Schmidt’s reign as Ireland head coach on Sunday, while Robin Copeland could make it a lucky 13 off the bench.
While some have bemoaned the fact that Ireland are not playing a third world-class team this November in between South Africa and Australia, this weekend’s meeting with Georgia does at least mean that Schmidt can grow the depth of his squad.
Alongside the new caps, players like Ian Madigan, Tommy O’Donnell, Craig Gilroy, Felix Jones and Dave Kilcoyne are provided with opportunities to confirm to Schmidt that they can be relied upon.
Foley’s impressive form for Munster over the last year or so has earned him a starting spot in the second row, while Ryan’s physical dynamism has seen him promoted into Ireland’s number six shirt.
While Copeland’s time at Munster has yet to truly kick into gear after his move home to Ireland from the Cardiff Blues during the summer, it is his athletic ability that Schmidt is backing.
“It’s brilliant,” said 26-year-old Foley of his starting chance. “I’ve said in the past that with Munster I just wanted to play as well as I could, and any opportunities that came after that are just a bonus. It’s obviously the pinnacle of every young fella’s career to play for Ireland.
“I suppose there was some disappointment last week from some players [at not being selected to face South Africa]. It’s a huge opportunity for those guys who weren’t selected. We’re just taking this as our own game.
We’re not looking behind us and probably not looking ahead either.”
Ryan echoed those sentiments of excitement at winning a first international cap, particularly as it comes in a game in which the forward battle will be where Georgia look to dominate.
Milton Haig’s side contains a wealth of international caps in Top 14 forwards like Davit Kubriashvili, Mikheil Nariashvili and Kote Mikautadze. Ryan is confident that Ireland’s less experienced pack can handle the challenge.
“As Dave said, you spend most of your life dreaming of putting on a green jersey one day and it’s great that all of the hard work over the last few years has paid off,” said Leinster man Ryan. “I’m looking forward to it.
“We’ve been prepping for a big physical battle up front. Maybe we’re a bit inexperienced in terms of caps, but I think we’ll be able to put it up to them and hopefully it will go well.”
As for Copeland, his inclusion on the bench is somewhat surprising after being left out of Schmidt’s 37-player squad for this month’s Guinness Series.
The Wexford man has not quite shown his best form in limited appearances for Munster so far in this campaign, but Schmidt called him into his group at Carton House this week nonetheless.
He’s getting there,” said Schmidt of Copeland, “and it’s a little bit like last week: you find out how ready there are when you put them in. For Robin, he’s come in this week and he’s had a bit of catching up to do.
“We’ve solely worked on him in his number eight role, so with Robin at least if and when he comes off the bench, he will slot into a position he knows pretty well. He’s an athletic man and I think that makes him someone we want to invest in.”
Watched the game. I have to say, I sometimes questioned some of the refereee’s decisions during the game (such as multiple high tackles before a yellow card was given).
But I beg to ask what is going on with Connacht. They lost just 2 players form the championship winning team last season, but they’ve lost control of their own basics and skills that made them so successful.
A complete lack of a pre season was a factor, the last 5 minutes sum this up.
Yeah, pre-season couldn’t have gone much worse for them
Maybe a bit of credit to Glasgow and the Ospreys
They both played extremely well
Always felt last seasons pro12 was seriously skewed by the world cup. Teams like ospreys & glasgow really werent at their best. Whereas connacht & scarlets made hay, both are 0-2 so far now. Hope its not a sign of things to come. Although to be fair its been a tough start to the season.
I would expect both to get top 4 with Leinster and Ulster the favourites to be there with them. Improved performance this week from the team but a bad pre-season, injuries and teams becoming more aware in how to play us has been the main factors in our poor start. The defence has been really poor in both games conceding tries from our own half which we weren’t doing for the majority of last season. The half back pairing in both games have been very poor, Marmion seems to have regressed from where he was about 2 seasons ago and Carty’s kicking is a liability at this stage nowhere near good enough for this level, Boshoff cant come soon enough and I would probably go with SO’L in the mean time. It’s still early and we played two excellent teams so I wouldn’t be pushing any panic buttons yet and with Zebre up next we should stop the rot with a win next week.
Makes you worry about Aki’s decision in the summer.
What decision was that?
To head home or speculate about his future or something I missed?
What decision? He was always under contract. No decision to make until next year.
I don’t think the losses of McGinty and Muldowney can be understated. Henshaw is obviously a big loss too (Griffin has been poor so far) but those two were central to launching our attacks last year and were massive defensively. The lack of a proper preseason and the injury list doesn’t help either. Most of the lads looked goosed after an hour tonight.
What gives with that bad pre season? I would have thought preparation wpuld have been meticulous under Pat?
Two of the teams they were supposed to play pulled out.
Not uncommon for surprise champions to have an indifferent start to the season now that they’re the ones to beat. It’s only round 2 of 22 though so it’s a bit early to hold crisis talks but Connacht need to pick it up for the next game.
Connacht need to up their game fast ahead of the ERC
When Connacht were winning last year we barely got a mention in the journal…. Leinster got off to bad start too last year,,,,,, it’ll be grand, they’ll regroup and turn it around…. To early to be in a panic
Poor support from fans again tonight though!
How was it poor support most fans stayed until the end and clapped the players off tonight and 5.7k is a decent crowd for the start of the season.
Fitness is the key issue here, those last 2 tries sum this up, taking the ball in there own half and essentially running over for a try. Zebre couldn’t have come at a better time.
At this stage the top 6 looks far superior to the bottom 6.
They’re really missing henshaw
Muldowney and mcginty not hensaw
@bmul, Dont be silly Henshaw was one of Connachts best players last season. Of course he will be missed!
Henshaw missed most of the Pro 12 games last season. Actually think Muldowney a much bigger loss.
Maybe you should check how many games hensaw played
Such a lengthy match report without mentioning the final score. Did your reporter leave early to file his copy?
Lack of decent preseason training games have hurt them badly but let’s not lose the run of ourselves here. They had a terrible game but showed glimpses of last seasons quality in the first match and made massive improvements to this match. Next week I’ll put money on them winning or at least it being a very tight scoreline and I don’t even know who they’re playing right now. It’s game 2. They didn’t go unbeaten last season either and won it. No need for alarm bells, and this from a leinster supporter. Cudn’t have been happier with a defeat last season, look forward to some great local derby games this year.
For conspiracy theorists 2 Welsh refs 2 games! For honesty missing MacGinty and Aly abilities to defend and force attack. Skills still there fitness improving. O’Leary should be given a chance now. Muls needs help can’t lead the team on his own so far personally I’ve not seen anyone step up to the plate to do so . If there’s leaders there they need to show themselves now before we actually do have a crisis.