Foley certain Copeland can cope at international level

He did not get off to the best of starts in a green jersey but Wolfhounds head coach Anthony Foley believes Robin Copeland has the right stuff to make his mark in Irish rugby.

The 26-year-old from Wexford has been on the outside looking in since leaving his homeland to eke out a pro rugby career in Britain, first with Plymouth, then Rotherham and now the Cardiff Blues.

Having shown enough mettle for his Welsh region in the last two seasons, the No. 8 earned his ticket home, signing on the dotted line with Munster for 2014/15 and his commitment to the Irish cause earned him the opportunity to come in from the cold and make an impact in Joe Schmidt’s set-up.

After a week’s training as part of the extended Ireland squad at Carton House last week, Copeland started for the Wolfhounds on Saturday night and, after a testing introduction to the Irish jersey, did enough to show his future Munster forwards coach Foley there is a bright future ahead.

“He had a rough start to the game, turnover and a knock-on,” Foley said of Copeland. “That’s something you kind of go ‘oh, I hope he bounces back from this’ and I think he did.

“He was very hard in the tackle area, he was very hard around the corner, he carried the ball very well and, for me working with him for the first time, I’ve nothing but good things to say about the lad.

“It’s easy to play well on the back of good stuff, it’s how you react when things go against you and that fight he had to do at the start of the game, you know he’s going to be a top player.”

Foley, who worked with the Wolfhounds squad alongside backs coach Neil Doak, said he was satisfied plenty of players in his selection had put their hands up at Kingsholm to give the watching Schmidt a selection headache ahead of next Sunday’s Six Nations opener against Scotland.

“I think a lot of fellas have answered his call about squad depth and saying that they’re capable of playing at this level against a very good Saxons side,” Foley said. “Playing them and beating them away from home, you don’t take that for granted and that’s credit to the players. You know, they’d reasons to give up, with some of those [refereeing] calls. They’d reasons to think it wasn’t their day and they just stuck at it and they get what they deserve.

“It’s a great level and the boys, particularly after coming off two ERC weeks with a lot of pressure, with a lot of onus on bonus points, who’s winning where, all the permutations. To dust that down and be as physical as they were again today, all the credit goes to the players. They’re a magnificent bunch to work with and myself and Doaky and Joe [Miles, the team manager] are delighted to have the opportunity of working them.”