Finlay Bealham looking to make the minutes count for Ireland

MAKING THE MINUTES COUNT: Finlay Bealham during an Ireland rugby media conference at Complexe de la Chambrerie in Tours, France. Pic: Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

However long he gets on the pitch during this World Cup, Finlay Bealham is intent on making his minutes count.

The prop’s ambition to start for Ireland will never diminish, certainly not in the early stages of preparations for this Saturday’s must-win Pool B finale against Scotland, but nor will Bealham take his bench role in Test rugby lightly. Given the impact of the Irish replacements in the victory over South Africa in Paris 10 days ago, it is clear the men Andy Farrell chooses to allocate the numbers 16 to 23 will have a big part to play.

Tadhg Furlong’s residency at tighthead for the last seven years and Andrew Porter’s switch to loosehead at the start of 2021-22 has seen Bealham become the former’s consistent back-up for the past three seasons.

Of the Connacht prop’s 34 Test caps, 22 have been as a replacement, the 30-year-old’s first start against a Tier One nation coming only last season, against Wales in the opening game of the Grand Slam-winning Six Nations campaign.

Furlong’s calf injury afforded Bealham three consecutive matches in the number three jersey, continuing against France and Italy, only for a twisted knee against the Azzurri to end his championship.

Yet his positive influence on games from off the bench was never better exemplified than in the final quarter of that titanic 13-8 win against the Springboks. The Irish replacements outshone their much-discussed counterparts, the so-called “Bomb Squad” of whom there were seven forwards and only one back.

There were vital contributions from the likes of Iain Henderson and Ryan Baird, not to mention the backline trio of Conor Murray, Jack Crowley, and Robbie Henshaw. And Bealham was part of a fresh front row alongside Dave Kilcoyne and hooker Dan Sheehan who eked a couple of valuable scrum penalties at the death to keep the defending champions at bay in those closely fought final minutes.

“When you come on, you obviously want to make an impact,” Bealham said, “but there’s smarts in there in that you’re trying to make an impact through our shape and structure that allows you to bring those moments and understand how to do it.

“From a mindset point of view, when I’m on the bench I don’t care how many minutes I play, I ‘make the minutes count.’ I try my best to do that.

“It was good to come on and it was extremely physical even though I was on for 17 minutes or whatever it was. It was still incredibly physical and incredibly tough. It was good to see some impact from the bench, especially Hendy, Mur, and all the other boys who came on were unbelievable.” 

Bealham, who turns 31 next week, had come up against a familiar foe in South African loosehead Ox Nche, a contest that required the Irishman to be at the top of his set-piece powers.

“I was scrummaging against Ox Nche and I’ve scrummaged against him for years now. He was playing with the Cheetahs and now with the Sharks and obviously at Test level, so we’ve scrummaged against each other for a long time.

“He’s crazy strong. If you get it any way wrong, you’re getting lifted out the top of the scrum so you have to be properly on it in terms of your height and all the technicalities within that. To come on and get a couple of penalties at the end, it was pretty good.” 

Bealham had been making up for lost time, sitting out the opening pool game against Romania and then sustaining a head injury on his World Cup debut against Tonga a week later just 10 minutes after replacing Furlong. The former Ireland Under-20 front-row flew through his subsequent return to play protocols to make the bench at Stade de France last time out.

“Personally, it was a frustrating start to the campaign but some of that stuff was out of my control and all I could control was the moment in front of my face. When I got my chance on the weekend, I just tried to come on and make a positive impact. It was incredible to get that experience. The Irish fans were unbelievable, they came out in spades, so to be out there in all that was class.” 

Now comes Scotland and after a “very chilled” few days off at the start of last week, Bealham said he was “feeling very refreshed and ready to go for next week”.

“It’s massively important, it’s been a pretty busy few weeks and some really physical games as well, so to get that mental and physical reset. It’s been massively valuable to us and lads have come in buzzing for the last few days of training. Everyone’s in a really good spot.

“I’m looking forward to the Scotland game. Obviously, there’s no team been named yet and it’s just about focusing on what I can control, fixing up things from the South Africa game, and then bringing my game on top of that. I’m really looking forward to next week.”