Munster's Fineen Wycherley relishing chance to lock lineout horns with Ulster

LOCK HORNS: Fineen Wycherley during Munster rugby squad training at University of Limerick. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Fineen Wycherley is relishing the opportunity to lock lineout horns with Ulster at Ravenhill on Friday night and hoping he can pit his wits against Iain Henderson and fellow former Roscrea forward Cormac Izuchukwu.

The IRFU’s player welfare guidelines on Irish internationals may well intervene with the provinces asked to rest their Test stars in one of the two URC derby games either side of Christmas Day but Wycherley is an admirer of Henderson’s lineout leadership.

“I’ve always thought he’s one of the best in the country at it, the way he manages the lineout and his calling in particular, very, very good. You see space and take space and he's probably one of the best in the business at it.

“Then the way they defend, they've got a lot of athletic jumpers but they change the picture a lot. What's happens sometimes is with different teams, they hold their zone, they hold back and it's easier to call, but they shift up and down and move around and mess around and worse again, they probably know a lot of our calls from us playing them so many times through the years.

“So we’ve looked at what they might do but we've really focused on getting the max out of our stuff, and we feel like that if we get the max of our stuff that'd be good enough to beat their defence.

“You have to go into these games with confidence too, like if you don't have confidence you're already lost the battle so we're looking forward to getting up there and we've had a good week.

"It's a difficult place to play, it's a difficult place to go and win but as a group we relish that opportunity like to go and try to get the win.”

Oli Jager with Fineen Wycherley. Pic: ©INPHO/Ben Brady

Wycherley, 27 last week, was a Leinster Senior Schools Cup winner with Cistercian College Roscrea in 2015 and the Bantry native was two years ahead of Offaly-born Izuchukwu, who made his Ireland debut against Fiji last month.

“He would be a bit younger than me, but he was in school when I was at school in Roscrea.

“I was in sixth year when he was in fourth year. So he didn't really play with the Senior Cup team, trained with us but as I understand it when he went into fifth year he kicked on a good bit into the first team and obviously know where he's going now, it's incredible. He’s flying it and he’s done really well up there.”

Whomever, Munster face in the set-piece in Belfast, Wycherley is confident the southern province’s lineout is on an upward trajectory since the arrival last month of forward coach consultant Alex Codling and is enjoying his opportunities to call when captain Tadhg Beirne is not in action.

“I really enjoy that aspect of the game, I like the responsibility of it. When Tadhg came back last week, he was calling, which would be natural enough coming down from the Irish set-up but for this weekend, I’ll be calling again.

“I enjoy the mental side of it and having to always think and being on it, being nice and calm and being able to control that area. Over the years you pick up so many different things from different people that you've built up a decent amount of confidence that you know what you're doing.

“And if something goes wrong I can kind of lean back on people like Codders for asking questions or radioing up during the game, like what does he think, what's he seeing?

“I think it's his energy. He's got a great old buzz about him, very energetic, he's very passionate about the lineout. He gives good confidence. He feels like the small things are the big things and he's watching real intricate detail that probably I haven't seen before from a coach.

"He's watching every single thing, which is great you know and that adds a bit of competition, adds a bit of edge, because everyone wants to be the best. You can't get away with anything, because he's on it, he watches small details that you might fall off with other coaches but he's watching everything, so you up your game naturally.

“I think it's been going well, I’m really happy with it. It’s an aspect I've worked hard on. I do a lot of analysis on Sundays to make sure we've had a good week and probably look at it with a bit more of a fine toothcomb just because it's kind of my area and I want it to go well for the team.

“I’d like to keep kicking on with it and be that main lineout caller and push on with it.”