Prop crisis shows how shallow the Irish depth chart really is

When Jack Boyle went down 20 minutes into the game in Galway, throats ran dry, all the more so when he had to be stretchered off the field.

PROP CRISIS: Leinster's Jack Boyle leaves the field on a motorised stretcher due to an injury. Pic: ©INPHO/James Crombie

Ireland’s provincial coaches love to wax lyrical about players who blossom earlier than expected, make the grade when it looked like the boat had been missed, or just make it to their base of operations via a route that is anything but the norm.

Conor Bartley’s promotion from long-standing AIL tighthead to Munster debut at the age of 30 this season has been heralded by Munster boss Clayton McMillan, not least after he chalked up a first Champions Cup appearance last month.

Zac Ward and Joshua Kenny’s progression to the Ulster, Leinster and Ireland XVs ranks have drawn similar plaudits while Connacht have made a habit of finding uncut gems from all corners of the island and the globe at large.

Leo Cullen was at it again on Saturday night, after Leinster’s URC win away to Connacht, when looking ahead to a Six Nations where he will be without 18 front-liners, and in glancing back to the season’s start when he had to make do with almost as many Lions.

“The group that came together for Zebre [in October] was like an AIL collaboration. If you think with Jerry [Cahir] coming in, Bobby Sheehan, etc. So we'll see how everyone is after the weekend and see who's out there in the AIL after the weekend as well.” The Leinster head man was smiling as he said that last bit but no-one is laughing when it comes to the strain on resources at loosehead given the seriousness of the situation for both the province and for Ireland after Jack Boyle’s injury.

With Andrew Porter and Paddy McCarthy both crocked for the foreseeable, Boyle had been the next man up to wear the No.1 shirt for Ireland in Thursday week’s Six Nations opener against France in Saint-Denis.

That promised to be a serious examination of a player who has only featured 38 times for Leinster, four for his country, and a player who had been unused in November when leapfrogged in the pecking order by McCarthy.

Now? When Boyle went down 20 minutes into the game in Galway, throats ran dry. All the more so when he had to be stretchered off the field. He is due for a scan on Monday to determine the extent of the lower leg injury, but no-one is holding their breath.

“It looks like it'll be out for a while though, unfortunately,” said Cullen.

Maybe Boyle experiences a Lazarus-style resurrection, much in the way Craig Casey did in shrugging off a shoulder injury between the games against Toulon and Castres this month, but Cullen and Farrell will be preparing for the worst.

Cullen is now down to Cahir, the 25-year old loosehead who started the season as an AIL player with Lansdowne and working with Vodafone, as well as Alex Usanov who is four years younger and only just graduated from the club’s academy.

“We'll be doing a trawl," Cullen joked two days ago, and he didn’t rule out the prospect of the province seeking a special dispensation to bring in some short-term specialist cover given the rate at which looseheads are being lost.

As for Farrell, whose scrum was demolished by the Springboks the last time Ireland played - when Porter and McCarthy were both fit - he is now turning towards the Munster pair of Jeremy Loughman and Michael Milne as next men up.

And to Connacht’s 20-year old Billy Bohan who got the call to Test duties on Sunday.

Tom O’Toole, Ulster’s tighthead and another named in the latest Ireland squad, has repped on the loosehead side, and he did earn a cap as a loosehead replacement against Fiji 15 months ago. But these are not paths anyone would willingly choose to start down.

Beyond that in the loosehead depth chart, it was down to Ulster’s former Saracen Sam Crean and Bohan, the highly-rated but green Connacht prop, both of whom had been originally named in the Ireland XVs squad last week.

Adding to the concerns in Ireland’s front row are the injuries leading tightheads Tadhg Furlong and Finlay Bealham have been trying to shake off as the squad gets its tournament preparations underway in Portugal from this week.

The word ‘crisis’ is overused in the sporting arena but you couldn’t quibble with its use here given the prospect of players making massive steps up and being asked to face tightheads like Uini Atonio and Tevita Tatafu on French soil.

That’s not to mention the games to follow at home to an improving Italy and away to a buoyant and physical England (with prop issues of their own, admittedly) before the Championships pauses to draw its one and only breath.

Is it any wonder these coaches gush when a surprise packet pushes through?