Ireland Host One-Day Camp at High Performance Centre.

Andy Farrell and co have hosted a one day camp at Irish Rugby’s High Performance Centre including quite a range of Ulster players. The expected are present:

Jacob Stockdale, Iain Henderson and Rob Herring.

There is also a great representation of Ulster’s less internationally capped players as follows:

Will Addison, Robert Balacoune, Billy Burns, James Hume, Stuart McCloskey, Eric O’Sullivan, Tom O’Toole and Nick Timoney.

It’s fantastic to see some of the top performers on the Ulster squad starting to be more regularly included in International duty with the aim of racking up caps in future. A couple of notable omissions from Farrell, in my eyes, are John Cooney and Mike Lowry. John Cooney has repeatedly been left out of the Ireland setup despite consistent, high level performance. It seems he can’t do enough to be included, he’s noted to have said “When I first started playing with Leinster I did find it quite difficult with the way he (Johnny Sexton) kind of spoke to me”. Cooney has mentioned before how his relationship with Sexton struggled over the time he played with him and it’s not too much of a secret how much influence Sexton has on the Irish setup. One begins to think when Cooney constantly performs spectacularly for Ulster that it may not just be Farrell’s decision to leave him out.

The other notable omission is Mike Lowry, although this one is somewhat more understandable. Lowry is young, although an absolute dynamite player, so it’s understandable that Farrell and his staff may want to see a few more high pressure games out of him before the call ups and inclusion become more regular.

As an Ulster fan, of course I want to see as many Ulster men included in the squad as possible, but if Farrell can give me one gift this season it’s a few games with Hume and McCloskey at 12 and 13. Although they’re not an internationally tested pairing, the potential is enormous for absolutely brutal, exciting rugby.