Andy Farrell expected to play strong hand with squad for summer tour

Ireland's Jack Crowley. Pic: Ryan Byrne/Inpho

Andy Farrell will declare his hand for Ireland’s summer tour on Wednesday afternoon and it is anticipated that the head coach will hold little back for a three-game schedule in the inaugural Nations Championship.

Ireland start with a game against Australia in Sydney on July 4th, continue with a date against Japan up the road in Newcastle, and finish up with a crack at an Eden Park venue that is a veritable fortress for the All Blacks.

It’s already 53 weeks since Tadhg Beirne, Bundee Aki and Finlay Bealham started their journeys with the Lions, under Farrell’s guidance, at a Quinta do Lago training camp. Twelve Leinster players joined them a week later.

Leinster’s presence in this Friday’s URC Grand Final at Croke Park could yet prove to be a complicating factor for Farrell’s best-laid plans, but players from the other three provinces are already in Ireland camp in the IRFU’s high-performance centre in Dublin.

Injuries are already a factor.

Ryan Baird, Paddy McCarthy and Jack Boyle continue to sit out Leinster duties. 

Andrew Porter isn’t available for the IRC decider with the Bulls while Caelan Doris and Dan Sheehan have yet to be passed fit for an appearance at the GAA’s HQ.

The extent of Porter’s injury is not yet clear but with Paddy McCarthy and Boyle sidelined there could be a yawning gap to fill at loosehead. 

Tom O’Toole’s wellbeing is of paramount importance and it might be that Connacht’s Billy Bohan in for a promotion.

Bohan was, briefly, a member of the extended squad during the Six Nations.

Questions exist over others too. 

Stuart McCloskey, Beirne, Edwin Edogbo and Michael Milne were some to carry fitness issues into the back end of their domestic seasons but it’s a month now since they all played. 

Maybe time has been a healer.

Farrell’s modus operandi when it comes to these announcements is to publish the squad and let the names speak for themselves, which means it will be some time before the full picture becomes clear, but the first name to look out for here will be Jack Crowley’s.

The No.10 hasn’t played since suffering something of a mystery leg problem in mid-April. 

Munster head coach Clayton McMillan has since revealed it to be a blood vessel issue in the back of the leg, but a return date still isn’t clear.

“It's not like a concussion or a broken arm or leg, it's something that could literally solve itself overnight, or it might take a month or two,” he told the Irish Examiner. “And that's not being cryptic, that's just the nature of what he's going through.” 

It could be that Crowley will sit out at least one of the three legs on tour, and that would stir up again the thorny question of an out-half position that the Cork playmaker seemed to solve, at least for now, during the Six Nations.

Harry Byrne and Sam Prendergast have both had seesawing seasons while Ciaran Frawley, so impressive off the bench in a losing cause in the Champions Cup final, hasn’t played since and is over a year without a start at ten.

That apart, the main curiosity value will rest with whether any ‘new’ faces get a look in. 

Sean Jansen has been superb at No.8 for Connacht, as have Bohan and Sam Illo. Maybe Ulster’s Jude Postlethwaite and Munster’s Brian Gleeson get invites.

James Lowe’s imminent departure for Japan, on top of Mack Hansen’s continued absence, leaves space out wide. 

Shayne Bolton, another Connacht player blossoming under Stuart Lancaster, might get to add to the debut cap he won against Portugal last year.