Winners and losers: Nash and Moore get their chance, Lowe's injury woe
INCLUDED: Calvin Nash. ©INPHO/Steve Haag
A sparkling tour with Emerging Ireland combined with injuries to senior provincial team-mates Andrew Conway and Keith Earls have opened the door to a surprise elevation for the uncapped but in-form Munster wing. Jacob Stockdale is another beneficiary of a back-three injury crisis that has also cost Jordan Larmour and James Lowe their places in Farrell’s squad.
Ulster’s robust yet skilful inside centre would surely have earned more than eight caps by now were it not for the presence of Robbie Henshaw and Bundee Aki but he finally gets another shot at selection with his provincial partner James Hume returning from the groin injury he sustained against the Maori this summer for the Ireland A game against an All Blacks XV on November 4.
Very much on the outside since his decision to leave Leinster for Wasps in 2016, the tighthead’s 10th and most recent Ireland cap had come in the previous year’s Six Nations. An Ulster player since 2018, Moore finally earns a representative selection with a call-up to the Ireland A group, with fellow Ulster tighthead Tom O’Toole maintaining his place in the Test squad.
Ulster’s goal-kicking scrum-half can consider himself unlucky not to even make the Ireland A panel having impressed in South Africa with Emerging Ireland earlier this month, establishing an exciting half-back partnership with Munster’s Jack Crowley, who does make the panel preparing to face the All Blacks XV.
Having just returned from a neck injury he sustained in the final round of last season’s Six Nations, Munster’s most experienced loosehead has lost his place in the Test squad to summer tourist and provincial rival Jeremy Loughman.
It looks like the November Tests have come just a bit too soon for the Leinster winger who has yet to play since the summer Test series win over the All Blacks due to a calf injury.
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