Jordan Larmour purring again as Leinster tackle Leicester Tigers
PURRING: Jordan Larmour and James Lowe during a Leinster Rugby squad training session at UCD in Dublin. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile.
Context really is everything. Go through every Irish squad that has been put together for the last seven runnings of the Six Nations and Jordan Larmour’s name will appear in all of them. On the surface of it, that’s surprising.
The Leinster back earned 30 caps in the three-and-a-half years between his debut against Italy early in 2018 and a half-hour earned against Japan in the summer of 2021. He’s been stuck on that since, like a commuter waiting for a bus that never shows.
If that boom to bust cycle tells the tale of a career that has stalled after a spectacular start then a deeper dive reveals a more gradual but still steady loss of velocity before the collection of caps stalled at its current point.
His last start against one of the big guns was actually from full-back, against England, this time four years ago. The No.15 jersey has long passed from his grasp, of course, so it's opportune to point out that his last start on the wing was before the 2019 World Cup in Japan.
The reasons have been varied.
Injuries have been a scourge far too often but there was a sense that his form had found a plateau as well, his inability to find a way further forward evident in a glorious sidestep that veered too far too often from the vertical and into the horizontal.
Look at Wednesday’s Six Nations squad reveal then and there isn’t much that is new in it for Larmour who, after all, found himself in the same boat this last two years without ever being told to pick up an oar on the days that counted most.
This feels different, though. It’s obvious in his body language, in the minutes he has been piling up for Leinster, and in the tries he has been scoring this season with the province. It’s not as if his strike rate was shabby beforehand but five scores in nine games is a plentiful return.
Today’s Heineken Champions Cup tie in Welford Road is another opportunity for him to frank this talk of resurgence and, with Mack Hansen out for Ireland, it’s a timely audition for that vacant right-wing slot with Ireland come the Six Nations opener in France.
“He's a really confident guy, Jordan, and in the best sense, I guess. You've heard lots of coaches on players, the way they would talk about just the enthusiasm that he brings for the game and he is just a great character to have in the group.
“Hopefully he goes well again and showcases what he can do,” said Cullen.
“Everyone has seen him plenty of times over the years, so yeah, another great opportunity for Jordo and hopefully it goes well.” Today’s duties in England’s East Midlands will surely be tougher than the shift Larmour and Leinster put in seven days ago in the Aviva Stadium when a supine Stade Francais hardly mustered a complaint as the hosts ran in the tries.
Cullen has been keen to point out that no team in the Heineken Champions Cup kicks more and passes less than the Tigers and that approach will pose issues for the visitors’ back three at a venue where the home crowd can be its own factor.
Cullen has opted to go with 13 of the starters from last week and seven of the same eight on the bench. The only changes see Harry Byrne replace Ciaran Frawley at ten and James Ryan come in for Jason Jenkins, with Ross Molony preferred to the latter on the bench.
The good news as far as Frawley is concerned is that the rib injury suffered against the Parisians and sidelining him here won’t be enough to prevent him linking up with Andy Farrell’s Ireland collective in time for their Six Nations prep.
As for Leinster, the head coach has spoken more than once in recent months about the difficulties in finding cohesion within the team, and if that is a reference to the personnel being used then it is a factor in other departments besides.
The Jacques Nienaber rush defence is still bedding in – Stade almost exposed it a couple of times in round three – and the team’s inability to profit enough from their attacking thrusts is a habit that will need eradicating sooner or later.
A fourth Pool D win will be needed here to extend their credentials for home advantage deeper into the knockout stages. Leicester are without George Martin, Anthony Watson and Jack van Poortvliet but welcome back some big names.
World Cup winners Handré Pollard and Jasper Wiese are drafted back in while Ollie Hassell-Collins and Hanro Liebenberg have returned from injury. A tricky assignment but still one Leinster should be winning.
F Steward; H Simmons, M Scott, D Kelly, O Hassell-Collins; H Pollard, T Whiteley; J Cronin, J Montoya, J Heyes; H Wells, O Chessum; H Liebenberg, T Reffell, J Wiese.
H Keenan; J Larmour, G Ringrose, R Henshaw, J Lowe; H Byrne, J Gibson-Park; A Porter, D Sheehan, T Furlong; J McCarthy, J Ryan; R Baird, J van der Flier, C Doris.
A Piardi (Italy).
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