Lancaster concerned by lack of minutes of key Irish players

He also believes Ciarán Frawley will be firmly in contention at out-half for Ireland this month

Connacht head coach Stuart Lancaster believes out-half Ciarán Frawley has 'really matured'. 

Stuart Lancaster believes Andy Farrell would have liked many of his frontline players to have had more minutes on the pitch ahead of this month’s Nations Championship games.

Due to their involvement in Ireland’s summer Tests, players like Tadhg Beirne, Dan Sheehan, Tadhg Furlong, Joe McCarthy, and James Ryan had delayed starts to the season.

Ireland play Argentina on Friday with matches against Fiji and South Africa to follow. They will play a fourth Test against an opponent yet to be determined at Twickenham for the competition’s finals weekend at the end of the month.

“If you were Andy Farrell, you’d probably want some of your key players to have had a bit more rugby,” Lancaster told the Irish Rugby Pod.

“Obviously, the season started later for the Ireland players. Tricky, I think, for Ireland. If you were picking the order of games, you’d definitely want Fiji second, which gives you another week or so to build your cohesion and your confidence and your systems and your structures, and reinforce what’s gone on in July.” 

Podcast co-host Ian Madigan added that he believes Ireland’s centrally-contracted players are nearly “overly managed, where the provinces don't have enough control of the players and maybe some of the Irish players are coming into this international window undercooked.

“The other side of that is you look at the Top 14 where 25% of all the players are injured at the moment. Ireland just simply can't afford that heading into an international window like this or leading into a World Cup.” 

Lancaster also believes Ciarán Frawley will be firmly in contention at out-half for Ireland this month following an impressive start to his Connacht career. The 28-year-old move from Leinster during the summer.

“It’s very easy to pick up with Ciarán where I left off,” said Lancaster.

“I know it’s been a few years since I left Leinster, but I coached him for seven years, so we were very much on the same wavelength in terms of game plan.

“Even though we couldn’t play him in the first few games, it allowed him to bed in post-tour and really start to put his imprint on the team.

“What’s impressed me most about Ciarán has been his evolution as a leader and his ability to talk well in team meetings and to lead the team on the field.

“Obviously the first game, getting the tries against Treviso, but in particular the Saracens game was a real coming of age game for him. And he just needs a run of games.

“I think we sat in the press conference and someone said it’s the first time he’d played three or four games straight as a 10.

“As a 10, you need time in the saddle. And we want to give him that. Obviously with injuries in Ireland, he’ll be there, thereabouts, for sure.

“He’s got a great athletic ability to be able to break the gain line in terms of his athleticism and his speed and power, but he’s got repeat speed as well.

“He can work and get set and he can execute a high-tempo game plan and not fall off.

“The best 10s I’ve coached have that ability to set and reset and organise and keep going. And Ciarán can do that, as well as obviously a good kicking game, and he’s good defensively.” 

Lancaster added: “He’s just really matured, hasn’t he? He’s late 20s now, and I think I started coaching Johnny Sexton when he was 31 and he was 38 when he finished.

“As a 10, you’re still learning the game, you’re learning about yourself, you’re learning about different ways to break down defences, and the game’s always evolving.

“He’s definitely got that maturity now to be in the heat of the battle but still see space in the backfield.

“As a 10, you’ve got that front line that’s coming at you. But the ability to see space between defenders, to see space on the edges, to see space in the backfield, I think it’s a skill that players learn. He’s definitely learning that.”