Ronan O'Gara: Where rivals have options, we have age-old old-age questions

DEPTH: France's and La Rochelle scrum half Nolann Le Garrec at French training in Marcoussis, ahead of the Autumn internationals. Pic: Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP via Getty Images

WHEN the French rugby federation named their 23 joueurs protégés for the next two weekends of internationals, at least one name of significance was missing – La Rochelle’s Greg Alldritt.

I’m not complaining. From a purely selfish point of view, it makes him available to line up for us Sunday night against my old club, Racing 92. Given that Top 14 tie won’t finish until after 11pm, the turnaround for France’s – and rugby’s – biggest game of the autumn the following Saturday at home to world champions South Africa, is too tight. 

Greg should have the hump but he can’t afford to be hanging the lip for too long. Fabien Galthie has a ridiculous flow of nascent talent coming through every season and anyone standing still gets skittled.

At 6 ft 6 and over 19 stone, Lyon’s Mickaël Guillard showed in the summer tour to New Zealand that he’s got game, and plenty of it. Others like Esteban Capilla (Bayonne, a freak of a back row) and Kalvin Gourgues (Toulouse, centre) are only gagging for a chance to show Galthie what they can do. The thing is, I don’t remember Alldritt ever having a bad game in the blue shirt. But the clock is running on the 2027 World Cup and Galthie is exploring the full depth and breadth of what’s coming downstream.

In Ireland, the thinking person’s rugby brain has been au fait with the importance of squad depth for some time. Now it appears the penny’s dropped with Johnny in the local pub – not just the importance of a depth chart, but Ireland’s capacity to even have one.

Rest assured on one thing. Andy Farrell and Irish rugby are all over this. They, less than anyone, need reminding of the uncontrollable. There are 30 professional teams in France, while there are four professional units in Ireland. When we look enviously at the thrilling options emerging in France, South Africa and England, check the population of these countries. Where we have four pipes feeding into the reservoir, they have many multiples of that.

But when you’ve been the No 1 ranked side in the world, those truisms are a tough sell on the street.

Leinster and Munster faced off at Croke Park a fortnight ago, with a collection of our best talent on show. Munster took the day, but was there anyone on the field that night who is hard done by in terms of being in Chicago this weekend? Exclude Edwin Edogbo because he’s been injured.

I don’t think there is a better example of depth in world rugby than in the French scrum half area where you have world no 1 Antoine Dupont coming back from injury, Nolann Le Garrec at La Rochelle, Maxime Lucu in Bordeaux, and the three Baptistes - Serin in Toulon, Couilloud in Lyon and Janueau in Clermont. Each of whom would be forcing Jamison Gibson Park to be on his game every week to retain the Ireland No 9 jersey. That’s not a criticism of Craig Casey; it’s the options beneath him.

This isn’t new, it’s been there since my time, but Ireland more than any of the major rugby playing nations struggles when three or four key operators are unavailable. When Bundee Aki gets injured, it’s Henshaw or Ringrose, and now Stuart McCloskey, who’s 34 next birthday. Maybe we get a glimpse of the next generation against Japan next week? Whether the criticisms around not producing enough talent fast enough hold water, there’s little or nought pushing the thirty somethings out of the road.

Irish rugby needs new dreams and inspiration. It needs a new version of itself. We’ve done the No 1 ranked thing. We’ve failed dismally and consistently when it matters. Staleness is an unavoidable consequence of sameness. Victories this autumn are not as important to Andy Farrell as fostering real depth and developing sharp competition for places. To be making a new case in Chicago this weekend a player should be above the curve for province and if he was doing that, we’d have seen him already. Where are the players? I’m guilty to the charge of being a little out of touch with Irish rugby but I know for sure that Andy Farrell would thrill in someone beating down his door for every row in the team – from front row to back three. That’s a lot of up and comers.

POWER: Ireland prop Andrew Porter is challenged by France's Mickael Guillard last March in Dublin. Pic: David Rogers/Getty Images

LAST Saturday lunchtime, La Rochelle banked our first away win of the campaign in Lyon. As important as the four points (it should have been five) were, the sense that we were witnessing the dawning of a new era for the club was more visceral. The team that won two European Cups? Over. We got statement performances from young kids who have decided they were no longer there to fill in when the internationals are away, they wanted their shot at holding onto the jersey – remember the names, Kante Samba, Kuntelia, Sutidze, and Kaddouri. Those lads weren’t even heard of for the Champions Cup finals in Dublin and Marseille.

What Ireland would do for someone like Nolann Le Garrec now. In him, I have found a kindred spirit, and this lad is just 22. He gets what we are doing, he’s a natural competitor, he understands game management, and receives messages with total positivity. At his age, he is anything but the finished article, but with his fundamentals, he can write his own future. And he’s only starts for France because Dupont is unavailable. It helps for sure that his father, Goulven, is a coach in Vannes, so it’s an around-the-dinner-table rugby environment, discussing scenarios day in, day out around the kitchen. That’s a unique setting.

He doesn’t so much get up off the ground as hop up. If I allow myself state something baldly obvious, you can’t get the required profile for a team with veterans no more than you can with neophytes. After 30, a lad needs minding and management. After 35 you are fighting Father Time every hour. This autumn, France, South Africa, and England are focused on constructing serious depth to their group. Ireland has a team that might even defeat the All Blacks again, but there’s not a squad for 2027, nor the beginning of one.

The situation with Scott Robertson and New Zealand is slightly different. He knows the All Blacks have Richie Mo’unga in their back pocket, and we will see a different gear from New Zealand when he returns this time next year from Japan ahead of 2027. Razor and Mo’unga have more than a coach-player relationship. Think Andy and Owen Farrell and you’d be closer. Razor has won 7 of his 9 test matches this season but being spanked by the Boks and losing in the manner they did to Argentina, has him a little under the pump.

The only job more important than his in New Zealand is the prime minister and as a Crusader, he will always have the Blues and Chiefs cohort ready to pounce.

The French got big plusses from their summer tour of New Zealand, where they had the Blacks stressed with young tyros. They are bursting with depth in most positions, with the exceptions of tight-head. The production lines are plentiful for Galthie and the fourth-ranked team in world rugby.

For the third-ranked, challenging times lie ahead after Chicago and there are no easy fixes - both in the short term with ties at home to Australia and South Africa and the longer term (and greater) demands of lowering the age profile while lifting standards.