Corbisiero the one that got away
Saturday’s Six Nations finale with Grand Slam-chasing England will see the New York-born, Surrey-bred and London Irish-reared loosehead prop win just his fourth cap for his country at the Aviva Stadium but he could have been playing instead for Ireland.
The great-grandson of Italian emigrants to the United States, 22-year-old Corbisiero has an Irish grandparent but it was his English mother that provided his preferred route to international rugby, being called into Martin Johnson’s squad to make his debut against Italy after injury ruled out Andrew Sheridan.
Forming a unit with hooker Dylan Hartley, 24, and Dan Cole, 23, the young English front row have conquered all before them and when Ireland forwards coach Gert Smal addressed their rise to prominence, he revealed that Corbisiero had once been approached to wear the green.
“If you look at Corbisero, before he was qualified for England he was also Irish qualified,” Smal said. “So we were also looking at it at some stage.
“He maybe lacks a bit of experience but he’s got a huge amount of talented and experienced players around him. Same with Cole. I think Cole has done extremely well right through the competition so we will have our work cut out.”
Ireland team manager Paul McNaughton was quick to dispel the notion that Corbisiero had been passed over by Declan Kidney. Just the opposite.
“No, he’s not a reject. We did talk to him about whether he would be interested. This was when he was coming through at London Irish and attracting attention for England’s A squad.
“It was a preliminary enquiry by us. We knew the guy was Irish qualified so we had a brief conversation with him. He played in London with London Irish, Bob Casey told us about him as well. When you hear of any prop playing in the Premiership who is Irish qualified you enquire.”
Smal acknowledged that Corbisiero’s instant success in the England front row, on the brink of helping to deliver a first Grand Slam since 2003, had not come as a shock.
“I’m not surprised. They have good systems for players in England.
“I think through the past three years they’ve shown glimpses. What happened the past year is that they’ve got everything together with how they want to play.”
Healy, a year older than Corbisiero and with more than four times the number of caps, has become part of a relatively inexperienced front row himself, settling into the jersey once occupied for so long by Marcus Horan while Mike Ross is growing into the tighthead’s berth that was until very recently identified with John Hayes.
There have been missed results for Ireland but Healy insisted yesterday that after four games each decided by six points or less, the situation could easily have been very different.
“I think we’re capable of beating any team in the world. England are doing well in the Championship and credit to them they’ve played some great ball. We’ve been unfortunate in some games not to be in the same position now.”
Some of that misfortune most definitely came at the weekend with that try scored illegally by Wales but erroneously allowed by referee Jonathan Kaplan. Both McNaughton and Healy, though, said the matter had been put to bed in the Ireland camp.
“Once it was awarded, it was out of the thoughts, there’s nothing you can do about it,” Healy said. “He’s not going back on his decision. We’re kind of just focusing on ourselves now and what we can do right going forward.”
McNaughton added: “We don’t really want to talk about it. It’s gone, it’s over. I think Brian (O’Driscoll) and Declan (Kidney) expressed their views on it and their anger after the game and we just really need to look forward to England now and leave it alone.”
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