Thinner Toner is staking his claim
DEVIN TONER knows his attitude with Ireland needs to be spot on to remain in Joe Schmidt’s plans. Players on the lucrative central contracts are seen as the backbone of the national team, but Toner hasn’t always delivered. He was dropped at the start of the 2015 World Cup, with Schmidt finding a different partner for Paul O’Connell after Toner bombed in the final warm-up match at Twickenham. He paid the price again for misfiring in the away defeat to Wales last March, losing his place as Ireland looked to save their Six Nations season by halting England’s gallop to backto-back Grand Slams. Iain Henderson benefited on both occasions, the Ulster second row promoted at Toner’s expense. With Racing’s Donnacha Ryan now out of the selection frame, the pressure is on Henderson and Toner to form a reliable partnership with their start in the win over South Africa earlier this month just the sixth occasion they filled the No4 and No5 jerseys during Schmidt’s 49-game reign. It’s clear that Toner has been scarred by his axing eight months ago. His response this summer was to shift a load of weight. He’d been carrying around with 131kgs last term but stints on the Wattbike helped him trim back to 123kgs, a better weight for the lifters to get him up in the air and for the lock to be lighter on his feet getting around the pitch. ‘I feel better in my body than I did last year,’ he said. ‘I’d like to think I’m playing better. I have lost a fair bit of weight and I’m getting around the pitch a bit more.’ Toner’s restored confidence isn’t bulletproof, though. He’s conscious he is 32 next summer, the elder statesman in the Ireland engine room, and while all pretenders lack his Test-level experience, he knows the ground can easily shift beneath him if he isn’t careful. ‘One bad game and you think you’re done, one good game
and you’re top of the world,’ he said. ‘I’m always thinking about it (his age). I’m 31 now and seeing these young lads coming up... James Ryan is 21-years-old and he is hugely strong, hugely fast.’ A stick to beat Toner with over the years has been his gentle giant demeanour in contrast to the grizzled grunt of O’Connell. Even the now-exiled Ryan had a frightening bark about him, but Toner insists the enforcer style isn’t for him, even if he isn’t the saint he often appears to be. However, he does his best to keep his emotions in check, even if incidents do rile him during a game. ‘I’d like to think from my demeanour I keep quite calm on the pitch,’ he explained. ‘I need to be when calling lineouts, trying to think about the game plan and moves, what we are going to do. ‘I just get on with it. I’ve never been red-carded, I’ve been yellow-carded for maybe pulling down a maul, but never for Ireland. Why do you want that (getting stuck in illegally)? We don’t want to be yellowcarded, we’d have 14 on the pitch.’ That said, he’s looking forward to a physical contest against Argentina on Saturday. ‘There’s usually a bit of needle in it, but I wouldn’t call it bad blood,’ he said of fixtures with the Pumas. ‘There’s a lot of mutual respect there for two very good teams.’