Penney lays down Irish selection gauntlet to ‘Killer’
On a day of mixed emotions in provincial team rooms, as Schmidt announced a 34-man squad for next month’s Guinness Series of home Tests against Samoa, Australia and New Zealand, there were celebrations for uncapped trio James Coughlan, Jack McGrath and Dave Kearney as they learned they had made the grade for the autumn internationals.
Ahead of his final season in green, 125-times capped Brian O’Driscoll was also on the list, one of 17 Leinster players, despite having missed the province’s opening Heineken Cup wins over Ospreys and Castres with a calf injury, and he will have a chance to close in on Ronan O’Gara’s Ireland record of 131 Test appearances next month.
Yet there were equally commiserations for a number of players who had featured in Schmidt’s extended 42-man training camp last month but were deemed surplus to requirements.
Leicester Tigers wing Niall Morris failed to join fellow exiled former Leinster man Johnny Sexton in Schmidt’s squad as did current Leinster players Shane Jennings and Luke Fitzgerald, while also cut from September’s initial gathering were Munster duo Donncha O’Callaghan and Kilcoyne.
Nor was there room for Stuart Olding, Andrew Trimble or Felix Jones, name-checked last time around but unavailable due to injury.
Explaining his selections, Schmidt said: “The squad combines players who have shown form in the domestic season mixed with those who have a proven record at international level.
“As always there were some very difficult decisions. Some players have had limited opportunities to impress due to injury and others have performed very well and it was difficult to leave them out.
“The Guinness Series will demand plenty from the squad and I know they’ll be motivated by the challenge.”
Munster head coach Penney believes Kilcoyne, in particular, will be equally motivated to prove Schmidt was mistaken for leaving him out.
The loosehead prop was one of the finds of last season as he earned the first of nine caps as a substitute against South Africa last November and can feel particularly aggrieved to have lost out to rivals Tom Court and the uncapped McGrath in the race to cover for first-choice Cian Healy.
Penney understood Schmidt’s thinking but he backed Kilcoyne to make a point in a red jersey in the coming weeks as Munster take on Glasgow and Ospreys in RaboDirect Pro12 action.
“Selections aren’t always easy and there’s a lot of discussions that go on behind the scenes,” Penney said yesterday. “I’ve got a lot of time for Killer. I think he is a tremendous player and he adds a lot of value. He is one of those guys that bring a real spark of intensity and passion to the game and you can’t replace that.
“But Joe knows McGrath really well and Tom Court has obviously had some good performances for Ulster over the last few weeks. So that loosehead spot is a challenging one. But just knowing Killer, and the way he’s handled the conversation this morning about his non-selection is a great credit to the guy.
“He’s young and like any player with real genuine commitment to the game, his focus now is on proving people wrong. He is just going to say ‘you’ve left the wrong guy out’ and he can only prove that by his performances on the field.”
Penney said he was hoping the Irish management would reach out to Kilcoyne.
“They are looking for something. Hopefully what will happen, and I’m sure it will, they’ll speak with Dave around the areas we are looking for improvement from him in and Dave is a competent footballer with a lot of qualities and he’ll work really hard to fix anything that they deem to be not quite right at the minute.”
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