Bath offer another chance to shine for Ross Molony and for Leinster

Sat, 22 Jan, 2022 - 06:00

Brendan O'Brien

Typical. You wait ages for a Heineken Champions Cup start, and then three come along almost at once.

Not that Ross Molony will be complaining today when Leinster face Bath at The Rec. His first appearance at this level came from the off against the same opposition six years ago. The next time he took the first whistle was against Castres a year later.

And after that? A dozen successive calls from off the bench until Bath returned to Dublin last month and he was handed the No.4 jersey: the same one he wore last week against Montpellier, and the same one he will slip over his shoulders at lunchtime today.

It’s a run that’s been a long time coming for the 27-year-old who was part of Andy Farrell’s Ireland squad last summer but whose impressive form this season didn’t earn a summons for the Autumn Series or for the upcoming Six Nations.

Still, this residency with Leinster feels like the start of something.

“Ross is a very, very smart player to begin with,” said his head coach Leo Cullen. “He’s been an important player in the group for a long, long time now, but I understand where you’re coming from, and he’s had to be patient to get past certain players.

“He’s a very important on-field communicator for us on game day, but also during the training week as well. He’s very, very smart, and understands the game incredibly well, and he has a real glue sense in the group, if you understand what I mean. He’s that glue-type of player.

“So he will help all the players around him in terms of his organisation and leadership ability. He’s been going great, Ross. He’s unlucky, obviously, to miss out on the national squad, but he’s going well, and is definitely on the radar there.”

Molony spoke last June about how he needed to grab his Test opportunity, but his dream of emulating his grandfather Jack, who won an Ireland cap in 1950, went unfulfilled as Farrell looked elsewhere for second-row options against Japan and the USA.

In Cullen he has a boss who was all too accustomed to the feeling that came with being overlooked for national honours, and one who understands that there is always something more a player can do to make themselves an even more attractive option.

“Oh, all the time,” he said. “Ross is well aware. If you think of second rows, it’s trying to deliver power to the team, both sides of the ball, so in attack and defence in around the contact area. It’s the same for him, it’s no different.

“A setpiece battle away from home against an English team is always going to be big, so how he stands up there and delivers there will serve him hopefully in good stead, moving forward. It’s another positive step in his development every time he gets to play.”

Bath have been good for Molony, who will face them for a fifth time here.

Garry Ringrose, Luke McGrath, James Tracy, and Peter Dooley were others to make their full continental debuts that day in January of 2016, but it was Molony who delivered the man-of-the -match performance, and he will be the senior man in the second row this time.

The versatile Josh Murphy partners him once again due to the absence of James Ryan, who also missed the Montpellier win last week with a ‘minor’ hamstring issue.

Tadhg Furlong’s calf injury, suffered early on in that 89-7 win, sees him sit it out also.

Neither is expected to miss out when the Ireland squad travels to Portugal for a pre-Six Nations camp next week, and there is more good news on that front with the return to the lineup here of Johnny Sexton and Robbie Henshaw.

Sexton saw action for the first time since November when he came off the bench for half an hour last weekend, while Henshaw missed that 13-try massacre entirely.

As for the game itself? It may seem odd to address that last, given its importance and the scramble for places highest up the two pool ladders, but it’s impossible to envisage anything other than a comfortable away win against a poor side that is already eliminated from contention.

If Gloucester could put 40 points on Bath in Bath late last month, then there is nothing to suggest that Leinster can’t do likewise. Qualification isn’t in doubt. A top-four spot and the home advantage that comes with it should hardly be either.