Blade still waiting to make cut

SCRUM-HALF Caolin Blade is playing the best rugby of his career but there hasn’t been an inkling of interest from Joe Schmidt.

The 24-year old said he doesn’t know where he ranks in the pecking order of Irish scrum-halves after featuring in every for Connacht so far this season.

He is probably fifth in line to the Irish No.9 shirt behind Conor Murray, his Connacht teammate Kieran Marmion, Luke Mcgrath and former Sportsground colleague John Cooney.

However, he said there has not been any contact from the Irish management.

“I actually don’t know. I don’t think too much about that. I haven’t really spoken to anyone about that, more so trying to play well here and try get No.1 here first of all, that’s my aim,” he said.

“But I’m delighted how I’m playing and I think the team are playing well and that allows me to do what I want.”

It’s possible that he could come up against three of the top scrum-halves in the world in the next 15 days, starting with Munster’s Murray tomorrow, then Sale’s Springbok Faf de Klerk and French nine Baptiste Serin in Bordeaux in two weeks.

“Everyone gets up for these games more so than we do for some others and that might be a bit of a fault of us this year but as a local you have those rivalries.

“It would be huge to win this one.”

FORM No.9 Caolin Blade is having great season in west

TRY Blade has played in every game for Connacht