Rob Baloucoune a ready remedy for missing Ireland x-factor

Five years on from his Ireland debut, Baloucoune has won just nine caps due to injury troubles but he's now in a good place

Rob Baloucoune: 'I've got a bit more confidence from performances, a bit more just confidence in myself to perform as well.' Pic: Peter Langan/Sportsfile

Rob Baloucoune looked destined for a long and sustained Test career after he took hold of the ball 17 minutes into his debut against the USA, burned three defenders and touched down for the first of Ireland’s ten tries.

That was over five years ago. So long ago that only a few thousand spectators were allowed in to watch the game unfold as the world struggled to shake off the remains of the pandemic. And Baloucoune’s Test career since? Nine caps, total.

He has played just 15% of Ireland’s 60 games since that debut. It’s way too few for a man of his abilities but whose timeline has been punctured by far too many injuries.

A second cap came four months after the first, against this Friday’s opponents, but the accumulation from there has been a drip feed.

Just two more the following season. None at all for a couple of years. He played five times for Ireland, four of them in his first Six Nations, last term but even that uptick in opportunity was held back by fitness issues.

He injured his elbow at the end of the Scotland game last March, came off with 14 minutes to go and didn’t play again for three months. A planned start away to Australia in the summer was sundered by a hamstring that sidelined him until the All Blacks game.

On and on it’s gone.

He has learned to cope with those testy hamstrings. Emma Gallivan, the IRFU’s rehabilitation specialist, and Ulster’s physio Chris McNicholl have worked assiduously on prevention methods that the player has integrated into his pre and post-training routine.

Add that to some impressive displays last season and he’s in a good place now.

“I've got a bit more confidence from performances, a bit more just confidence in myself to perform as well. It's probably the standard I expect from myself when I'm coming into camp. It's definitely a different feeling than what I've been used to, but still in the same spot of having to come in and perform and set the pressures of trying to do the best that I can.” 

There were tries against Italy, England and Scotland in that last Six Nations but other moments of magic, raw speed and some excellent defensive work besides. His run when taking on Harry Arundell before Ireland’s first try in Twickenham was stunning.

There were less happy memories with all that: the missed tackle that allowed Rhys Carre, a prop, trundle in for a try for Wales, and a more challenging experience in Eden Park when he saw little ball and had to roll up his sleeves in defence.

The wider wing picture makes for interesting viewing.

James Lowe’s departure for Japan leaves a significant hole in the options down the left side. Of the pawns available to Andy Farrell in the back three, Jacob Stockdale is the one who fills that brief most regularly with the provinces.

Tommy O’Brien is almost a specialist No.14 who can fill in at outside-centre. Jimmy O’Brien is a Swiss Army knife who can cut it on either wing, at 13 and at full-back, while Mack Hansen can do a job anywhere in the back three.

Jamie Osborne is more of a centre and full-back but could do a job if needed.

Baloucoune is very much at home on the right wing. He makes self-deprecating jokes about how bad he was passing off his left hand as a sevens player, but a combination of him on his favoured side and Hansen on the other would give Ireland plenty of that elusive X-factor.

And the team has never been overstocked in that department.

If Baloucoune and the fit-again Hansen look like remedies to that then there are other sources. Sam Prendergast, if fit, brings a creativity to the No.10 shirt and Jamison Gibson-Park has a magician’s touch to his game too.

Witness his two long, looping passes for Leinster scores against Munster recently.

Another man on that wavelength is Stuart McCloskey, the Ulster centre who is finally enjoying an elongated run in the national side and, with Garry Ringrose injured, is pretty much first the first name written down in the Ireland midfield.

McCloskey is 34 now and appears to be maturing like a fine Italian wine but, if there is a perception of player better now than ever, then that does some disservice to a guy who combines size, physicality, power and no little finesse.

“Yeah, I don't really like telling him that,” Baloucoune laughed, “but, no, he's a phenomenal athlete. He was kind of seen as just a big lump that didn't really have much to his game and [just] a ball carrier and stuff, but he's got so many different parts of his game.

“You've seen now he's also got speed, which keeps coming up everywhere. You see it in training as well, the skillset of the guy is unbelievable, and it makes it a lot easier to play with when you know what he can do because it makes more space for me whenever boys are trying to jump in on him.

“It’s great to see him going well. And it was kind of nice being able to have him as well while I was in for the Six Nations campaign and seeing a few of the Ulster boys, Nick Timoney as well, going down. So yeah, definitely made my life a lot easier.”