Hiding in plain sight
After three years, Farrell still hasn’t sorted his biggest issue at 10... now it is time to wake up to the solution that has been there the whole time
THEY are still not convinced. After the drabbest of November finales was sealed by a moment of nerveless brilliance last weekend, it felt like a seminal moment, a career-defining turning point for Ross Byrne. Thrust into the match-day squad minutes before kick-off and expected to be immediately up to speed; brought on with the dour but viciously intense contest in the balance; and immediately charged with securing an against-the-tide victory over Australia — knowing that failure to do so would puncture all the World Cup positivity carefully assembled around the Ireland squad over the entire year.
And then, just as he was getting his head around all of that while preparing to take the decisive, difficult kick, the referee says: ‘You have 20 seconds.’
No biggie, Ross….
And it wasn’t – as cucumber-cool a kick as you are ever likely to see — in just the type of unscripted, pressure situation Ireland will encounter in France next year.
Byrne stepped up, seized it and owned it.
Now, surely, Irish rugby would realise what has been obvious for more than five years – Byrne is by far the best option to step up in the event of Johnny Sexton being unavailable?
Now, surely, the 27-year-old would finally be properly championed as the 10 most likely?
Not so much.
In a national newspaper yesterday, seven rugby writers were asked to pick their squads for the World Cup — not one of the seven selected Byrne among their three travelling out-halves.
His match-winning exploits last weekend attracted praise, certainly, but of the guarded variety and it was not long into the week before the usual caveats kicked in.
‘He stands too deep’; ‘He is a safe option but not one that suits Ireland’s style’; ‘A good, solid pro but Byrne is not the answer’.
So, who is the answer, then? Well, that’s where the conviction starts to wobble and things go quiet again.
BLIND FAITH
ANDY FARRELL has done exceptionally well as Ireland head coach. The first year and a half was ropey and doubts about his direct link to a failed World Cup past — and about a rugby league man breaking the trend of crossover coaches failing in the lead role in union — seemed well founded.
But the turnaround since the summer of 2021 has been remarkable, and massively encouraging, headlined by a series win in New Zealand that will have its true significance cemented by history.
He has got so much right, from focusing on morale and mental surety, to expanding the attacking scope, to a determined policy of widening the squad through A games and the controversial Emerging Ireland tour (when Farrell faced down noisy opposition at the outset before the clear benefits for the likes of Jack Crowley and Jimmy O’Brien saw the criticism steadily simmer down to the point of hindsight approval).
However, while boxes have been steadily ticked on the road to world number one status, there is one overbearing, potentially catastrophic issue that will not go away — one that has dogged Farrell since he took over after the 2019 flop — his starter for 10.
The fact that the Sexton question is still being asked 10 months out from the World Cup is damning in the extreme.
It is not as though Irish rugby was not forewarned.
There were out-half issues in 2011, 2015 and 2019, each with a profound contribution to Irish failure, and we had four years to get it sorted before France 2023, with more than three years now elapsed and the problem still not resolved.
We knew post-Japan that the gap between Sexton and the chasing out-halves was dangerously large, we knew he would be 38 in France and we knew the importance of having someone capable of stepping in and getting the job done to an acceptable level if/when Sexton was unavailable. And yet here we are, none the wiser.
To find true resolution, likely candidates needed to be properly assessed by design rather than accident yet, right up to last weekend, the most useful auditions have come about by circumstance instead of a pre-meditated selection policy.
Sexton’s remarkable endurance and excellence has undeniably queered the pitch. He has been so good and influential that Ireland found it nigh on impossible to wilfully leave him out.
Understandable, even admirable, but utterly impractical because for this policy to work requires blind faith in a player pushing 40 to make it through the incredibly intense rigours of a World Cup campaign unscathed.
Rather than stack the odds in his favour for the competition that really matters, Farrell has rolled the dice and if they do not fall his way next year, Ireland will find themselevs cleaned out, yet again.
However, by the unplanned event of Sexton’s removal last weekend, the solution may have finally presented itself – and it is one that was there all along.
Now it needs to grabbed.
THE MODERN ROG
FOR the last five years, the suspicion has always been that, to quote Darren Cave under a previous regime, Ross Byrne’s ‘face did not fit’ for Ireland.
However, while time was spent on other candidates like Billy Burns and Jack Carty, and younger brother Harry was hyped beyond all evidence of readiness, the elder Byrne never got a proper international shot to stake his claim.
His two false starts came at Twickenham (a 2019 World Cup match and a hastily arranged Covid international the following year) when the English forwards made chopped liver out of their Irish counterparts. Byrne never had a chance. Those were not true assessments, yet he was widely written off as a result.
In truth, he has never been viewed as viable, with little support in the media, and those of us who have made cases for him over the years have seen them brushed aside without the oxygen of international exposure to back them up.
But, we’ll make the case again, because the arguments in Byrne’s favour are compellingly simple and, after last weekend, may now be properly addressed.
1– Byrne has been fulfilling the Sexton understudy role for all of his senior career – with a high degree of success – at Leinster, and knows exactly what is required. Given the time wasted and ticking clock imperatives that now exist, that means less time than others to get up to speed, as we have just seen.
2 – Leo Cullen and Stuart Lancaster have a body of work behind them to confirm their status as two of the most astute minds in the game. They have always believed in Byrne as the next man up after Sexton, to the point where Joey Carbery (Ireland’s designated but as yet unestablished back-up 10) relocated to Munster. Farrell’s fortunes as Ireland boss turned around when he place his faith in the ‘Leinster way’ and if Byrne is good enough for Cullen and Lancaster, he should be good enough for Ireland.
3 – Byrne may not be the all-singing, all-dancing out-half in style but he is imbued with exactly the type of ‘Cup rugby’ clutch-play qualities essential for World Cup success. His excellent passing skills are often overlooked, as is his capacity to break the line, but his kicking ability, off the tee and out of hand, is
world-class – and history shows this is what decides the biggest knockout games
4 – Since breaking onto the international scene in 2009, the only time Sexton has been seriously challenged as Ireland’s number one was by an ageing Ronan O’Gara. Sexton is untouchable now so it will not bother him but there are discernible O’Gara-esque qualities to Byrne. As well as similar physical dimensions and approach, there is a definite ROG-like swagger there – a confidence bordering on arrogance that demands the spotlight and embraces pressure. It was noted in the aftermath of the win over Australia that, rather than shrink from the endgame responsibility, Byrne demanded it. ROG style.
THE BYRNE ULTIMATUM
FARRELL deserves credit for how he has brought the richly talented Jack Crowley through in the face of Munster inertia under Johann van Graan and the Bandon man’s natural footballing instincts and versatility would be valuable in the World Cup squad next year if he keeps progressing.
Carbery is still on the scene, and still full of ability, but the fact it has been six years since his first cap and he is yet to cement his role is concerning while it feels like the clock is against Ciarán Frawley, who does carry long-term potential.
Ireland’s Plan A revolves firmly around Sexton, and with good reason, but the Plan B at out-half has not been properly addressed and Farrell needs a ready-made solution. He has one in Ross Byrne, who has been hiding in plain sight this whole time, and no more time can be wasted.
Get Byrne in and get him meaningfully involved in the Six Nations and, suddenly, the World Cup seems more manageable.
Better late than never.
‘RATHER THAN SHRINK FROM RESPONSIBILITY, BYRNE DEMANDS IT, ROG STYLE’