Fresh faces inject fresh impetus for Ireland

Ireland take on the Barbarians this week, and JOE columnist Jerry Flannery believes an injection of fresh blood has had the desired effect on Declan Kidney’s squad.

 

We’re in national camp in Limerick preparing for this weekend’s game against the Barbarians. It’s good to be back in with Ireland. I missed the end of the Six Nations because of suspension so it’s been a while since I was among all the Ireland lads, and it’s been good to get together.

There’s a few new lads in here so that adds to the freshness of the whole thing. There’s a bit of change – a few lads coming in who might not be always there and a few other completely new faces. There’s Dan Tuohy, who would have trained with us before but is now looking to push on and get a long-term place in the squad. Two other Ulster lads, Ed O’Donoghue and Chris Henry, have also come in and they’ve freshened things up too.

Fergus McFadden hasn’t won a cap yet, Gavin Duffy has been around for a while but he’s starting to push for a place now.

Rory Best worked his ass off to get back fit in time for the Six Nations and play as well as he did, so it’s very disappointing for him to miss out

Kevin McLaughlin was very unfortunate to get injured last weekend and miss out on the whole tour but I’m good mates with Niall Ronan and it’s good to see him come into the squad too. He’s worked very hard this year and played some great rugby for Munster so I’m delighted that he’s getting a look-in.

There are also a couple of newer guys competing with me for hooker in Sean Cronin and John Fogarty. John has come in to replace Rory Best, who’s very unfortunate to miss out.

I know how frustrating injuries can be so it’s disappointing for Rory because I know how hard he’s worked. A lot of people were ruling him out for a whole 12 months when he got injured last year but he worked his ass off with Brian Green and the Irish medical team. It was a huge achievement to get back fit in time for the Six Nations and play as well as he did.

Having worked that hard, it’s disappointing for him that he can’t make the tour but Sean and John have been playing great stuff as well for Connacht and Leinster so I’m sure they’ll be relishing the chance of getting out there.

It’s good, and with this weekend’s game against the Baa-Baas and then a tour to New Zealand and Australia to come, it’s always an exciting time.

Ireland came off a defeat in the last game of the Six Nations, and that can sometimes hang around the squad a bit, but having so many new guys in there has knocked it away. Everyone’s buzzing and looking forward to the game at the weekend.

Hopefully Alan Quinlan will get a run for the Baa-Baas. It’d be great to have a crack at him on the field

And it’s not as if it will take any length of time for the new lads to familiarise themselves to everything. Deccie Kidney has been clever with the way he’s done things over the last few years. A lot of the new guys who’ve come into the squad were part of the Churchill Cup last year, when Deccie, Gert Smal, Les Kiss, Alan Gaffney and Paul McNaughton were all involved, so the systems are pretty much the same from the senior team through the Churchill Cup.

Players aren’t coming in and having to learn a whole load of new patterns. Things are just tweaked a bit here and there so a lot of the groundwork has been done over the last 18 months, two years.

The primary thing going into this weekend’s game against the Baa-Baas is to get a win. We’ll be looking to implement the things we’ve been working on in training and do them well. You’d also hope that we’d play with a bit of discipline. The Baa-Baas will want to throw it around but we don’t want to get drawn into their kind of game.

It’s been a few years since Ireland played the Baa-Baas here so I’ve never played against them but if I’m involved at the weekend I’ll be really looking forward to it – especially if Alan Quinlan gets a run for them. It’d be great to have a crack at Quinny on the field. I haven’t spoken to him recently and I saw he didn’t tog against England last weekend but I’ve no doubt they’re saving him for Friday night in Limerick.