Gilroy dreaming of Lions debut

IT is not just the senior players who had Australia on their minds when British & Irish Lions head coach Warren Gatland visited the Ireland training camp this week.

As Declan Kidney’s men focused in on their final RBS 6 Nations game of the 2013 campaign, this Saturday in Rome against Italy, Rob Kearney admitted there might have been an extra spring in every player’s step as Gatland watched them train at Carton House on Tuesday and flying Ulster wing Craig Gilroy was no exception.

Gilroy’s rapid rise to Test rugby at the age of 21 since his try-scoring debut against Argentina last November has only been halted by a groin strain that kept him out of Saturday’s draw with France but he looks set to regain his green jersey when Kidney names his starting XV today ahead of the Stadio Olimpico clash.

After what would be just five caps for his country, selection for the Lions touring party this summer would make Gilroy a genuine bolter if he were to form a part of Gatland’s squad to face the Wallabies.

Yet the wing was not immune to catching a little dose of Lions fever this week.

“Who wouldn’t want to go on it?” Gilroy said. “It would be amazing, it’s every rugby player’s dream, British and Irish. So yeah, who knows? I suppose you just play as well as you can and see what happens.”

With the likes of Welshmen George North and Alex Cuthbert, and Scotland’s Tim Visser and Sean Maitland all impressing in this year’s Six Nations, as well as his team-mate Simon Zebo’s impact on the championship against Wales in the opening game, Gilroy will have his work cut out to make his mark, just as Kearney is feeling the pressure to retain a full-back berth he first won on the 2009 tour to South Africa.

“Of course you’re conscious of the other guys and you’re looking out for them, too,” Kearney said of his competitors. “And it’s always there at the back of your mind and to be honest it’s a difficult thing not to be thinking about, and guys who tell you they’re not thinking about it are probably telling you fibs too.

“But it’s just a matter of trying to think about it as less as possible and make sure you’re only focusing on the now.”

Gilroy is following the same line of thinking but he admitted sitting on the sidelines last weekend as wings Keith Earls, Fergus McFadden and substitute Luke Fitzgerald all battled France in his absence, it was hard not to look at his team-mates also as rivals.

“Someone’s in your place but obviously you want Ireland to win,” Gilroy said. “It’s a funny one because they contradict each other. Obviously you want to be in there, you want to play in that position, you want to do better than that person in that position but at the same time you want your team to win.”

That is where the collective kicks in and Gilroy endorsed the view that despite pressure on the coaches brought on by disappointing defeats to England and Scotland and the draw with France, as well as an escalating injury list, spirits were still high in this eighth and final week together as a squad.

Gilroy has been impressed by the leadership shown by the senior players in the squad, naming Kearney, Brian O’Driscoll and captain Jamie Heaslip as the ones who have rallied the troops to keep spirits up, although as he pointed out: “This is my first Six Nations, I don’t really know any different.”

There has also been advice from fellow Ulsterman Tommy Bowe, ruled out of the Six Nations following knee surgery but readily available whenever his young team-mate is in need of advice, though there will be no need of any extra advice this week as Ireland go to Rome in search of some redemption.

“We just want to finish on a high, go over to Rome, and get a win and just enjoy the last game. We’re still pretty confident, yeah, confident to go over there and do a job. I think little things have gone wrong, non-controllables like the weather and maybe a couple of bounces. Hopefully we’ll get good conditions and hopefully use the backs and use our pace and just play how we perhaps couldn’t have in those conditions against England and France.”