Finlay Bealham's Lazarus act crucial to Ireland in Tadhg Furlong's absence

The Connacht tighthead was brilliant in Murrayfield last Sunday. He was part of a watertight Ireland scrum and put in an astonishing amount of work elsewhere. His 14 tackles in 60 minutes was off the charts for a man in his position

Finlay Bealham’s importance to Ireland has been underappreciated.

If there were concerns over Ireland as a collective after an up-and-down November series then they filtered down into the individuals with some key players falling short of their very best across the four games.

Jamison Gibson-Park, who has been exceptional in the opening two rounds of this Six Nations, was fairly typical of that cohort. Finlay Bealham was another who ho-hummed through the last Test window but has since returned to better form.

The Connacht tighthead was brilliant in Murrayfield last Sunday. He was part of a watertight Ireland scrum and put in an astonishing amount of work elsewhere. His 14 tackles inside 60 minutes of game time was off the charts for a man in his position.

It was light years removed from his effort against his native Australia just over two months earlier when he coughed up some straightforward balls and gave away a couple of penalties. He admits himself that he hadn’t put his best foot forward.

“Yeah, such is life,” said the 33-year old. “I definitely didn’t have my best day at the office. I got in my own way and made some mistakes. I obviously don’t want to make mistakes but I made a lot of mistakes.

“Coming into this campaign, I knew Tadhg [Furlong] was out, but it was another big opportunity for me and I tried to take the pressure off myself and really trust what I’d done, and all the work we’d done as a team.

“And coming into the games now I feel really good, I feel really fresh. I’m just going to stay out of my own way.” Bealham’s importance to Ireland has been underappreciated for too long.

Furlong has been a world-class tighthead for years but his injury profile has been trending in the wrong direction and Bealham has long been a crucial cog off the bench, going back to his debut against Italy nine years ago.

Tadhg Furlong has been vital for Irleland but he has become more injury prone recently.

The vast majority of his 48 caps have come as a replacement, his only previous experience of starting against tier one opposition other than Italy coming two seasons ago when he lined out against Wales and France in the Wexford man’s absence.

As now, the world did not end.

Now he has started Ireland’s last six games, his contribution all the more timely for the added fact that Ulster’s Tom O’Toole has been unavailable in recent weeks due to suspension with Leinster’s Thomas Clarkson being bumped up into the 23.

Clarkson has done excellently, belying his youth and his lack of experience in his few runs to date, but there was still a sigh of relief when Bealham was able to continue against Scotland after taking a blow to his ankle and letting out an unmerciful scream.

“It was actually grand. The lads are calling me Lazarus,” he laughed. “I was getting a bit of a slagging but I’d happily enough to take the slagging so I’d be here and able to play.

“I broke my ankle five years ago and I think all the hardware in there saved me from any significant damage so, like I said, I took the slagging. More attention for me, which is brilliant and, yeah, I cracked on.” No-one is getting carried away despite the positive vibes.

Talk of a third straight Championship title, and a second Grand Slam in three years, is being avoided with that old 'week-by-week' focus. Thoughts of Wales and Cardiff on Saturday week were being treated with solemn respect long before Warren Gatland departed the scene on Tuesday.

There are still areas ripe for improvement. The lineout had another difficult examination in Edinburgh and the concession of another two soft tries was more than a mere annoyance for a team looking to re-assert its dominance in this tournament.

Still, the foundations are rock solid. Nowhere more so than the scrum.

“In November we built a really good platform in terms of our scrum, working with the likes of Ró and Ports, and having Sheano back now and the back five have been unbelievable. We sat down during the week and were analysing our scrums and looking forward.

“You have big cheese James Ryan coming in and asking what more he can do and what I thought of him. We’re all trying to evolve that part of our game as much as we can. Look, it’s an area which is a strength for us at the minute and we’ll look to keep it that way.”