Farrell decides nothing radical necessary for Six Nations defence

EVOLUTION: Head coach Andy Farrell. Pic: Dan Sheridan, Inpho

Onwards, ever onwards. Three months on from the devastation of a World Cup quarter-final exit to New Zealand and the loss of their world number one ranking, Andy Farrell will demand an instant rebound from his Ireland squad when they fly to Portugal next Wednesday to begin preparations for their Guinness Six Nations title defence.

Ireland look set to start the 2024 championship with the same group of players Farrell took to France 2023 with only the retired, captain Johnny Sexton and Keith Earls, or currently injured – Ross Byrne, Rob Herring, Dave Kilcoyne, Mack Hansen and Jimmy O’Brien – absent from the 33 selected for the tournament last autumn.

Harry Byrne and Ciaran Frawley are the replacements for Ross Byrne and Sexton; Tom Stewart for Herring, a fit-again Cian Healy for Kilcoyne, Jordan Larmour and Calvin Nash for Hansen and O’Brien; while there is an extra back-row option in Ulster’s Nick Timoney, whose inclusion ahead of last summer’s training squad discards Gavin Coombes and Cian Prendergast represents the biggest rise of any in Farrell’s selection.

Even then, Timoney, like all the other new/not new faces has earned his stripes already for Farrell, for the only uncapped players travelling to the Algarve are three designated “training panellists”. Munster forwards Tom Ahern, a lock/flanker, and November tighthead prop signing Oli Jager, as well as Leinster fly-half Sam Prendergast, a hero of Ireland’s Under-20 Grand Slam last season.

Otherwise, it is as you were and that is no bad thing considering the high standards Ireland have set in the previous two years right up to that fateful evening in Stade de France when the All Blacks gained revenge for their series loss to Farrell’s men the previous summer with a 28-24 quarter-final victory.

It is a transitional moment for Ireland even so, if only because Sexton is no longer a part of the furniture, a first for this team after 14 consecutive championship campaigns. The elevation of Peter O’Mahony to replace him as captain is a natural fit for the back-row warrior whose impact on a group of players could not have been underlined more emphatically than last weekend for Munster in Toulon. The Test centurion’s return from an eight-week shoulder injury lay-off sparked an instant return to form, his presence on the training ground and in the match itself lifting team-mates out of their slump and ending a miserable run of form in his absence.

There is a strong possibility too, that Sexton’s successor in the green number 10 jersey will also come from Munster with Jack Crowley, fresh from a man-of-the-match performance on his 24th birthday in that Champions Cup win at Toulon’s Stade Felix Mayol and in which he displayed his comfort under pressure in a hostile environment, the leading contender to return to the French Mediterranean coast in 15 days with the playmaking duties to take on France.

Crowley is the most experienced of three fly-halves selected having taken his Test appearances to nine as Sexton’s understudy, preferred to the now injured Ross Byrne and new call-ups Harry Byrne and Ciaran Frawley, both of Leinster, with three caps between them. Experience is not everything, of course, and Farrell has never been a head coach to conform to established selection norms yet if there was a need for a proven big-game temperament it is under the Velodrome lights on the opening night against an equally hurting French side looking to atone for their own quarter-final exit on home soil in Paris at the hands of South Africa.

Farrell, the 2023 World Rugby Coach of the Year and newly-minted head coach of the 2025 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia, will be acutely aware of the task in front of his impressively compiled squad and yesterday outlined the opportunities of such a challenge. He will be keen for his players to embrace it.

“The forthcoming Six Nations presents an opportunity for us to grow and develop,” the Ireland boss said. “I am pleased with the quality of performances by the extended group over the last number of weeks and believe that the squad is in good shape. I would like to congratulate all those who have been selected, especially those who are at the beginning of their international journeys. It doesn’t get much tougher than France away in the opening weekend, but it is a challenge that we will approach in a positive frame of mind.”

Ireland squad: 

Forwards (19): R Baird (Leinster), F Bealham (Connacht), T Beirne (Munster), J Conan (Leinster), C Doris (Leinster), T Furlong (Leinster), C Healy (Leinster), I Henderson (Ulster), R Kelleher (Leinster), J Loughman (Munster), J McCarthy (Leinster), P O’Mahony (Munster) – captain, T O’Toole (Ulster), A Porter (Leinster), J Ryan (Leinster), D Sheehan (Leinster), T Stewart (Ulster), N Timoney (Ulster), J van der Flier (Leinster).

Backs (15): B Aki (Connacht), H Byrne (Leinster), C Casey (Munster), J Crowley (Munster), C Frawley (Leinster), J Gibson-Park (Leinster), R Henshaw (Leinster), H Keenan (Leinster), J Larmour (Leinster), J Lowe (Leinster), S McCloskey (Ulster), C Murray (Munster), C Nash (Munster), G Ringrose (Leinster), J Stockdale (Ulster).

Training Panellists: O Jager (Munster)*, T Ahern (Munster)*, S Prendergast (Leinster)* 

*denotes uncapped player