Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Out with the old and in with a Blue
STU PREDICTS FRESH FACES LIKE GIBSON-PARK WILL HAVE BIG PART TO PLAY IN FARRELL NEW YEAR PLANS
STUART LANCASTER has warned Ireland’s senior stars that Andy Farrell could shake things up for the Six Nations.
And there was evidence of that just after 3pm yesterday when the new Ireland boss omitted World Cup participants Rob Kearney, Jack Carty, Sean Cronin, Jordi Murphy and John Ryan from his mid-season ‘stocktake’ next Sunday and Monday.
Johnny Sexton will be present but not training, due to his knee injury, while
Peter O’mahony now has a groin problem.
With Rory Best retired, that means Ireland are without their three main World Cup leadership figures on the training paddock in Abbotstown just over a month before the Six Nations opener against Scotland.
But clearly Farrell is looking to pick on form, with Kearney and Carty the big casualties. Even Conor Murray’s position as Ireland’s first-choice scrumhalf may be coming under threat now. The scintillating form of John Cooney, who could be facing Leinster at the RDS on Friday night, is making a strong case for change.
Murray has struggled with his own form levels and while Lancaster (left), who worked with Farrell when they coached England, described the Munster man as a “worldclass” performer, he does recognise the talent that is coming through. Lancaster said: “If you brought it back to how Andy will be thinking, I would’ve thought if I was in his position he has got to build a team that wins in the here and now in the Six Nations.
“That gets him off to a good start but he has also got to build towards 2023. “If I was one of those senior players in the group, I wouldn’t be resting on my laurels for sure.
“There will be a lot of competition in every position and some of the young players coming through, not just at
Leinster but in all the provinces, mean that the senior players are going to need to be at their very best.”
One player included for the first time is Jamison Gibson-park, another scrum-half. The Kiwi became Irelandeligible in August and is in a healthy group of No.9s alongside Murray, Cooney, Connacht’s Caolan Blade and his Leinster colleague Luke Mcgrath though Kieran Marmion hasn’t made the cut.
“It’s an interesting one for Andy,” said Lancaster. “There’s a lot of pressure in that position and now Jamison is eligible. I certainly think he’ll come into the equation because he has got a point of difference.
“He has really grown his personality. He has always had x-factor as a player, his ability to see a gap, he’s very, very quick.
“He’s very competitive, he has got a good core skill base. His boxkicking, his pass, speed of ball is always good.
“But what has really grown is the confidence within himself. It was a big move for him to come from New Zealand where he’d lived all of his life to bring up his family in Ireland.
“The first year or so is quite quiet naturally. It took him a while to really understand that a top class scrum-half needs to have a personality and be the captain of the team really, in terms of driving everything.
“He has really grown that. It’s fine doing that in a Leinster environment where he knows everyone but internationally, it’s different, because it’s a new environment. “If he was given the opportunity, that’s what I’d like to see from him – that same personality that has grown here. It will be competitive.”