Farrell the Roy of the Rovers story Ireland need right now

The 32-year-old Munster centre believed his chance of Test recognition had eluded him

Tom Farrell during an Ireland Rugby training session at the IRFU High Performance Centre in Dublin. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

Just when Irish Rugby needed a lift after the disappointment of that Solider Field defeat to New Zealand, along comes the feelgood story of the season so far, a Test debut for Tom Farrell in this Saturday’s Quilter Nations Series Test against Japan.

Head coach Andy Farrell delighted in his selection in a much-changed team tasked with rebounding from the 26-13 reverse to the All Blacks in Chicago last Saturday, and rightly so, given the form his namesake has shown since his career resurrection at Munster having been released by Connacht two summers ago.

It is something of a Cinderella tale for the 32-year-old who believed his chance of Test recognition had eluded him as recently as last May, or as his head coach referenced, a “Roy of the Rovers story” to celebrate.

The 32-year-old’s family were in camp on Thursday night at the pre-game cap ceremony, the boss hopeful it would help lift the mood after the sobering defeat of last weekend, though also recognising there should be other incentives for his team against the Japanese this Saturday.

“Well, I hope we got over our disappointment a little bit earlier than this weekend,” Andy Farrell said on Thursday. “We’re going to celebrate with Tom and his family this evening so there has to be a reaction from the team to support that but there isn’t just that in the back of our minds. There’s how we learn, our failings at the weekend are pretty important as well.” 

Tom Farrell’s selection at outside centre, in for Ringrose, completes a remarkable journey from Leinster academy outcast to a stint with Bedford in the English second tier and then Connacht before redemption at Munster and now a deserved Test cap.

The midfielder joined Munster ahead of a 2024-25 campaign that saw him voted the province’s player of the year by both team-mates and supporters and Farrell said: “I mentioned it to the squad yesterday and it was fantastic for me to do so, to stand him up in front of his peers and tell them the story.

“Six years ago now, Tom, I was obviously an assistant coach under Joe (Schmidt) and we brought him in for training camp and he never got selected. And six years later, here we are.

“He's at the ripe old age of 32 but playing his best rugby and 100 per cent deserves a shot. Not just for the form that he's shown over the last couple of seasons, but also how he's applied himself when he's come into camp. So, that's been very impressive.

“But the word resilience doesn't probably do it justice. He's kept on fighting and fighting and fighting and he gets to make his dream come true, which is play for Ireland in his debut on Saturday.” 

With Nick Timoney selected to start at openside flanker, Jacob Stockdale recalled to the left wing, and Tommy O’Brien handed another opportunity on the right edge there are incentives aplenty this Saturday against a team hammered 61-7 by South Africa at Wembley seven days earlier. Yet these November fixtures against Tier-Two opposition have not always gone to plan in recent years for players with claims to stake.

When Andy Farrell was reminded how unhappy he had been with Ireland’s performance in a scrappy victory over Fiji, a repeated thorn in his team’s side, the head coach replied: "Which one against Fiji? I suppose it's what I want to see more than anything and that's us standing for something, us taking our game to them and learning some lessons from last week.” 

Wishing to see an Ireland team stand for something harkens back to the early days of Farrell’s reign as head coach, when it took 18 months for performances to start to click ahead of a rise back to the top of the world rankings. He suggested his players may be at a similar point after highlighting his disappointment at a lack of fight late on against the All Blacks last weekend when asked what attributes he wanted to see in his Ireland team.

“We’ve discussed all sorts of detailed bits where we can get better and I won’t bore you with that but I suppose the detail becomes a little bit clearer once there’s a determination to put your stamp on the game; attitude, physically and mentally toughness as far as that’s concerned.

“The start of the game (last week) giving three penalties away straight from the start is not of an attacking nature that we want.

“So, there’s that and also I think we’re pretty disappointed as well. Yes, I know there’s a few different ramifications in what happened before the try on the 20-something minute mark in the second half there but our reaction wasn’t one of fight.

“There’s a lot that needs to be better as far as accuracy is concerned and detail-wise, but our intent in how we play the game, we need a reaction to that.” 

IRELAND (v Japan): J Osborne (Naas/Leinster); T O’Brien (UCD/Leinster), T Farrell (Lansdowne/Munster), R Henshaw (Buccaneers/Leinster), J Stockdale (Lurgan/Ulster); J Crowley (Cork Constitution/Munster), C Casey (Shannon/Munster); A Porter (UCD/Leinster), R Kelleher (Lansdowne/Leinster), T Clarkson (Dublin University/Leinster); J Ryan (UCD/Leinster), T Beirne (Lansdowne/Munster); R Baird (Dublin University/Leinster), N Timoney (Banbridge/Ulster), C Doris (St Mary’s College/Leinster) – captain.

Replacements: G McCarthy (UCD/Leinster), P McCarthy (Dublin University/Leinster), F Bealham (Corinthians/Connacht), C Prendergast (UCD/Connacht), J Conan (Old Belvedere/Leinster), C Blade (Galwegians/Connacht), S Prendergast (Lansdowne/Leinster), J O’Brien (Naas/Leinster).