Three Connacht players named in Ireland squad

Date Published: 17-Jan-2013

Dara Bradley

Ireland coach Declan Kidney has selected three Connacht players in his extended squad for the upcoming Six Nations tournament and next weekend’s Ireland Wolfhounds clash with the England Saxons in Galway.

Teenager Robbie Henshaw continues his meteoric rise and is included in the 39-man Ireland squad announced yesterday.

Henshaw (19) was still playing Schools Cup rugby last season but has now been included in a squad among legends of Irish rugby, including Brian O’Driscoll and Ronan O’Gara.

The Athlone-born Connacht Academy full-back burst onto the scene at the beginning of the season when he filled the number 15 position for injured captain Gavin Duffy.

The Marist College and former Ireland U-19 representative was so assured under the high ball, so impressive on the counter-attack and astute with the boot, that he retained the full-back position when Duffy returned from injury.

Connacht coach Eric Elwood should be commended for giving the young Buccaneers clubman a chance to shine and Henshaw has grasped that opportunity with both hands, lighting up the RaboDirect PRO 12 and Heineken Cup campaigns for the Westerners this season.

Elwood tipped Henshaw as a future Ireland full-back, and while nobody disagreed with him, there is mild surprise that he has been elevated into the senior set-up so soon. That said, Henshaw is deserving of the chance and the likelihood is he is in line to start in the Wolfhounds game against the England Saxons (formerly known as the A internationals).

Given that that game is in the Sportsground on Friday, January 25, the only surprise in Kidney’s announcement is that there aren’t more Connacht players.

Dave McSharry, who has enjoyed a very successful season with the province, is included in the extended squad; as is Leinster-bound lock Mike McCarthy, Connacht’s best player this season. The latter will be pushing for a place in the Six Nations squad against Wales, while Galwegians and Connacht centre McSharry, like Henshaw, will for now, probably have to settle for the second senior squad.

In fairness to the 22-year-old McSharry, he was desperately unlucky to miss out on Kidney’s squad for the autumn internationals and the Dubliner will relish the opportunity to show-off his speed, turn of foot, deft hands and finishing prowess that has been a mark of this season, in particular, with Connacht.

McCarthy, barring injury, will be pushing for a place in the starting XV when Ireland takes on Wales in the first game of the Six Nations. Kidney said Portumna’s John Muldoon was not considered due to injury.

Others from Connacht who were perhaps unfortunate not to make it were the injured Gavin Duffy, Clifden winger Tiernan O’Halloran, scrum-half Kieran Marmion, and props Bret Wilkinson and city native Ronan Loughney, who were both included in the Summer tour to New Zealand.