Toner ‘should question’ his snub for Kleyn
Ireland lock replaced in squad by South African World Rugby official Pichot voices sympathy ‘I feel sorry for him, nothing against player properly picked’
The vice-president of World Rugby, Agustin Pichot, admitted yesterday that if he was Devin Toner he would be seeking “answers” from the governing body after the 6ft 10in lock was left out of Ireland’s 31-man World Cup squad in favour of a South African who qualified to play for the country only last month.
Toner, who has 67 caps, was the surprise omission yesterday as coach Joe Schmidt brought his squad announcement forward by six days after it leaked.
Jean Kleyn, who qualified on residency and has won two caps, was given the nod instead.
“If I was Devin Toner… I will be asking WR for answers,” Pichot tweeted. “I feel sorry for him; nothing against [the player] who was properly selected for the RWC19 by the way. But feel that way.”
World Rugby last year voted to increase the required residency period to be eligible for international rugby from three to five years.
Pichot described the change – which will kick in from 2021 – as a “historic moment” for the sport as it tries to end the practice of “project players”.
There were few other surprises in the Ireland squad. Schmidt went with back-row forward Rhys Ruddock, scrum-half Luke Mcgrath and centre Chris Farrell instead of Jordi Murphy, Kieran Marmion and Will Addison, respectively.
Changes can still be made before the squad depart for Japan in cases of injury.
The fact that he felt he had to announce his squad at all yesterday would have been a source of annoyance to Schmidt.
The New Zealander was obliged to submit his squad to World Rugby yesterday. But he intended to make it public on Sunday after Ireland’s final warm-up match at home to Wales in Dublin on Saturday. It was always going to be a tall order keeping it under wraps until then.
Sure enough, it leaked straight away, with the Irish Independent getting the selection almost spot on yesterday morning.
Toner will feel extremely hard done by. The Leinster lock, 33, has been a mainstay of the Irish pack during Schmidt’s tenure, playing in 60 of the coach’s 70 matches in charge.
He was left on the bench at Twickenham two weekends ago when Ireland’s line-out malfunctioned spectacularly and was thought to be a guaranteed pick.
Schmidt said it came down to “balance” across the squad. He also suggested the fact that the South African had forged a good partnership with Tadhg Beirne at Munster this year was a factor.
“I’ve coached Dev for 10 years and he’s not just a line-out champion for us, he’s such a good player but he’s also an absolutely quality person. That was an incredibly tough conversation yesterday,” Schmidt admitted in an interview on the Irish Rugby Football Union website when explaining his second-row picks.
“We probably don’t have a specialist tighthead second row, as such, and again at the start I said about the balance that we’re looking for across that squad of 31. So Jean Kleyn fitted that.”
In the front row, Dave Kilcoyne, who was brilliant as Ireland beat Wales in Cardiff last weekend, was chosen over Jack Mcgrath as back-up to Cian Healy.
In the backs, other than Luke Mcgrath being preferred to Marmion as reserve scrum-half, there were few surprises. The versatile Addison might consider himself unfortunate, having turned in a very tidy performance at the Principality Stadium. But Farrell’s strength in the centres is clearly prized by Schmidt.
Joey Carbery and Keith Earls, both struggling with injury, make the plane.
Jack Carty will be third-choice fly-half behind Jonathan Sexton and Carbery.