IT HAS BEEN a mixed year for Irish rugby. The national team collected their second straight Six Nations title before a disappointing World Cup exit while none of the provinces managed to add silverware to their respective trophy cabinets.
Nevertheless, there are reasons to be hopeful for next year and we’ve picked out five in the form of a quintet of young players who developed over 2015 and are set to get even better in 2016.
Josh van der Flier
The first thing you notice about the 22-year-old flanker is his distinctive name but immediately after that it is his all-action style. The former Wesley College pupil is lightning quick for a number seven, is a strong ball carrier and is improving on the ground with every game.
Sean O’Brien hasn’t been at his best since the World Cup through a combination of injury and poor form, but van der Flier has deputised so well that he is pushing for a consistent starting role.
One of the most impressive aspects of van der Flier’s rise is how he stepped up during Leinster’s bleak November and fans province will be eagerly monitoring his improvement over the course of the season.
Jack O’Donoghue
The explosive Waterford flanker finished the 2014/15 season with some exceptional tries from distance and he has carried that form over into the current season. He might not be an out-and-out number seven, but O’Donoghue is so powerful that Anthony Foley has no choice but to pick him.
Peter O’Mahony and Tommy O’Donnell have been missing through injury but the tag team of O’Donoghue and CJ Stander has matched the sidelined duo in terms of power output.
O’Donoghue has already become one of Munster’s most impressive ball carriers.
Stuart McCloskey
The man who was nicknamed ‘The Bangor Bulldozer’ on this site this time last year has become an even bigger wrecking ball. The 23-year-old centre is over 6’3 and is pushing 17 stone, so he obviously doesn’t lack anything physically.
But what is most striking about watching the man from Bangor bulldoze is how fast and skillful he is too. He can exploit a gap and if he is tackled, he has the sleight of hand to find a team-mate with an offload.
Is it worth looking at McCloskey inside Robbie Henshaw in the Irish team in the near future?
Garry Ringrose
Ringrose hasn’t gotten the same amount of top level game time as the other three players here, but he has looked sharp, skillful and adventurous in every opportunity Leo Cullen has given him. He has been used mostly on the wing so far this season but there is no question that his long-term future is at outside centre, where Ringrose has the offloading ability and footwork to excel.
He also has that bit of magic in his repertoire of passing that makes the nickname ‘Baby BOD’ a formality in the years to come.
https://vine.co/v/O2dFIgF1xpq
Denis Buckley
The Connacht loosehead is a solid scrummager and very dangerous in the looose. His performance against Munster at Thomond Park last spring was ominous as Buckley snaffled up a ridiculous amount of turnover ball for a prop.
What young players do you think had breakout years in 2015?
Norman Whiteside wasn’t 17 in 1985, unless he played in the 82 world cup when he was 14!
Cheers Graham,
I obviously got Norman Whiteside and Freddy Adu mixed up!
That 1970 match description is class.. “neutralised”
Your a gas man, Will
Wouldn’t consider that tackle to be a straight red nowadays, probably borderline. Back then….not even close, yellow at worst
Miss timed is all it was.I remember watching that game and being shocked when he was sent off.Disagree that it was on any way cynical, there isn’t a cynical bone in Kevin Moran’s body.
Yeah, definitely mis-timed. I blame Reid for having legs!
How times have changed…. You did not see Everton players swarm the ref demanding a red, Man U players were in shock….. Rightly so too, you saw these tackles every week and you got on with it…. Its a sending off and a media circus today, but back then it was, ummm football….. Tackles are expected, and was rarely ever cynical…….
Spot on Graham, sure even Peter Reid protested to the ref on behalf on Moran…..very rare you will see that nowadays.
Peter Reid actually begged the referee not to send Moran off. Frank Stapleton reverted to emergency centre half and had a stormer. Peter Willis was the referee and it was his last ever match to officiate. He was looking to make a name for himself. Years later the F.A. Stopped referees officiating in their last ever match in the cup finals.
‘With United down to 10, Everton took them to extra-time’, shouldn’t that be United took Everton to extra-time as the Toffees were just crowned league champions you know.
Also had more league titles than United! And had just won the cup winners cup beforehand!
Moran’s wasn’t allowed receive a winners medal that day either .
Forget the tackle. He’d get 6 months now for pulling & dragging out of the ref in protesting his innocence! Although he didn’t quite get to Di Canio levels…
Unusually it was an intercept of Paul McGraths pass that led to Kevin having to make the lunge.
Suberb tackle won the ball cleanly. Football is being destroyed these days by cheating, diving and every second tackle being either a yellow or red. Games these days are often decided by which team has a player sent off its a complete joke
Lol, everyone had common sense comments today till that…. Thought we might have a good thread…..
Badly timed don’t think tackles back then were cynical or malicious as they are today .
A proper challenge that! :D
Big Ron would have referred to the tackle as a ‘reducer’
This may be an urban myth and I am well open to correction but is it true that the first person to be sent off in the FA Cup final (Kevin Moran) and the first player to be sent off in the Premier League (Niall Quinn) both went to the same school (Drimnagh castle)??
If memory serves me, I was seven at the time, kevin Moran didnt get a winners medal on the day after his red card. He only received it after a campaign on his behalf.
Bit misleading. Why would you be considered the most cynical player in FA Cup Final history just because you were the first to be sent off in one? Moran was a tough ‘no prisoners’ player, but he was never cynical in his playing days.
If it was today Reid would be gone for simulation…
Most cynical ever? The writer obviously doesn’t remember Willie Young in 1980! Only a yellow too. I think that was the tackle that prompted the introduction of the straight red for a professional foul.
Good article Will, still very few being sent off in big games- Lehmens in 06 CL final, Reyes in 05 FA cup final-can’t think of any others. A few in World cup finals- two Argentinians in 1990, Desailly, Heitinga