Georgia trip the perfect challenge for young Ireland, says Leamy

Paul O'Connell will bring an inexperienced touring group to Tblisi this week. 

DUE EAST: Assistant coach Denis Leamy during an Ireland rugby media conference at the IRFU High Performance Centre at the Sport Ireland Campus in Dublin. Pic: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

Denis Leamy believes Georgia will be the ideal challenge for a young and inexperienced Ireland side looking to play the “Irish way” under interim head coach Paul O’Connell in Tbilisi this Saturday.

With a record 16 Irishmen absent on tour in Australia with the British & Irish Lions under the charge of Ireland’s head coach Andy Farrell, O’Connell departs from Dublin to the Georgian capital on Wednesday with a 33-man national squad captained by Craig Casey featuring 13 uncapped players, including newest call-up Scott Wilson, the Ulster prop.

They will face a host nation coached by Richard Cockerill with plenty of French top-flight experience and a fierce reputation for scrummaging prowess and defence coach Leamy, on secondment from Munster with regular Ireland assistant Simon Easterby away with the Lions, is excited to see how an understrength touring party will cope.

“They’re a very experienced Georgian team, a lot of them have played in World Cups,” Leamy said on Tuesday. “A huge amount of them play in the Top 14 so they’re well accustomed to big games, being in tough environments.

“So it’s a really good challenge for a young team and to go to Tbilisi, into a bit of a bearpit, it’s going to physical, it’s going to be hot, it’s everything we want to expose our young players to.” 

Leamy delivered a positive update on injury concern Tom Ahern, the uncapped Munster lock/flanker who sat out training over the weekend due to a tight hamstring. Six Nations-winning wing Calvin Nash was also declared fit for selection and with O’Connell set to name his team on Thursday, the defence coach said: “Tom is good to go. He’s fit and he’s ready to go.

“Tom has progressed hugely over the last couple of years and he’s put in some excellent performances for Munster. So he’s a guy we have high hopes for and absolutely, hopefully, he’ll get game time and do really well.

“He’s such a promising player, I’ve no doubt he can do that.” 

The Georgia fixture is the first of two Tests on the road for Ireland this summer with the squad transferring to Lisbon following Saturday’s match to prepare for a meeting with Portugal seven days later.

Leamy outlined the expectations placed on the inexperienced tourists, with Jacob Stockdale the most experienced player in the party on 38 caps and only six other players with more than 10 international caps.

“I think it’s about implementing old and new into the Irish gameplan and playing the Irish way and seeing how players do in this environment and how they can produce big efforts and big performances.

“So it’s about building, I suppose, that catalogue of experience with those players and giving them a feel of what Test rugby looks like.” 

Despite the turnover in players and the secondment of four of Ireland’s full-time assistants to the Lions, with just O’Connell remaining in-post backed by Leamy, attack coach Mike Prendergast, and scrum coach Cullie Tucker, the defence coach said there would be little variation in Ireland’s play from that produced by a Farrell team.

“Exactly. It will be very, very similar if not the same. So that’s the plan, to play the really Irish way and to try and do it as well as we can.

“Obviously we’re missing a big chunk of the players who have gone to Australia with the Lions but it’s a great opportunity for the boys coming in to show what they can do and just build on some of the things that have (been) done to date.” 

Also on Tuesday, Virgin Media Television announced they would be providing exclusive live coverage of Ireland’s two Test matches this month.