Darren Cave has certainly been honest with some comments about the Ireland squad, but we’re not sure how well they’ll go down, particularly with Jamie Heaslip.
The Ulster centre was brought into the Irish squad to add cover during the November Internationals but didn’t feature in any of the three tests as Robbie Henshaw and Luke Fitzgerald were bumped ahead of him in the pecking order for the number 13 jersey behind Brian O’Driscoll.
Despite performing consistently for Ulster in recent years, 26-year old Cave has only earned five caps for Ireland in five years and although injury and the remarkable longevity of the D’Arcy/O’Driscoll partnership has accounted partly for his lack of appearances, he’s beginning to question if there are other reasons why he’s not being given a shot.
“Unfortunately for me internationally the last few years haven’t gone that well and sometimes you wonder does the face not fit,” Cave is quoted as saying in the Irish Independent.
“Any time I’m unfortunate to read a paper that I’m mentioned in, quite often it says how I’m not established for Ulster or not first choice for Ulster, and inexperienced at international level, or for some reason not good enough to be an international rugby player. I don’t know how these people see that as I’ve never really had a good crack at doing it.
“I suppose it’s all motivation for me, but I still wonder sometimes does the face not fit. If you don’t know what I mean by that I suppose you should ask Roger Wilson how he has one cap for Ireland and Jamie Heaslip has 60 and two Lions tours behind him.”
You can read Cave’s quotes in full in the Irish Independent here, but Cave was eager to stress that he is an admirer of Joe Schmidt and will continue to do his all with his province in an effort to convince him that he has what it takes to perform in the international arena.
“He’s (Schmidt) an incredibly likeable person and he really knows his rugby, which means that my non-selection is a bit harder,” Cave added.
“I’m actually a big fan of Joe Schmidt even though I don’t know if he’s a big fan of me.”
Given that we often complain about the mundane responses offered up in interviews by sports stars it’s refreshing to hear Cave speak with such candour and honesty, but it will certainly be interesting to hear the reaction to his comments amongst the Irish squad, not least a certain Leinster number eight.
