A change is as good as a rest, they say, and relocating to the Algarve sunshine to be reunited with a fairly settled Irish squad for the first time since the World Cup is designed to have that affect.
Significantly, it’s a World Cup season, the Irish players are not noticeably fresher than their French counterparts, as is usually the case.
Tadhg Beirne is a case in point. The Munster lock has been Ireland’s one ever-present this season, starting all of Ireland’s five World Cup games, where he played the full 80 minutes in all but the win over Scotland.
Due partly to the injury woes at Munster, Beirne has also started eight games for his province since the World Cup, and has played 80 minutes in all of them, save for a yellow card against Glasgow.
The net result is that not only has Beirne started more games (15) and played more minutes (1,182) than any of his Irish team-mates, but only one French player, Gaël Fickou, has played more minutes (1,186) this season.
Beirne has also assumed the Munster captaincy on a match-by-match basis since Peter O’Mahony relinquished the role, so it’s hardly any wonder that he is one of several Irish players who has looked a little weary this season.
Speaking to the media at the squad’s training base in Quinta do Lago this week, Beirne admitted: “I think my form has gotten a little bit better as the weeks have gone on, but I think there’s a bit of a lull after the World Cup, too, to try and bounce back from. Going back into a new environment again from being with the Irish camp for so long, and there’s an adjustment there from a different way of playing in some ways.”
As with their French counterparts, the passing of time helped the post-World Cup healing process, but so too did playing rugby again.
“You have to move on as quickly as you can. We’re into a Six Nations now and that’s all our focus. You can’t keep dwelling on the past. I’m sure when I retire, I’ll be dwelling on it much, much more. But that’s the beauty of it for us, that we were straight back into games, and we were able to move our focus.
“I think the three weeks off we had was much needed but they were a long three weeks in terms of replaying a game over and over in your head.”
To begin with, the Irish squad reviewed the World Cup exit against New Zealand when they reassembled for the first time since that quarter-final at the start of last week.
“The review part wasn’t too enjoyable, but you get excited to review the rights and wrongs and get back into it. It ended a bit sooner than we would have liked at the World Cup so to be back here and back with the lads and having the opportunity to get stuck back into it, it’s a pretty good feeling.”
Like most of the Irish team, Beirne will also be experiencing the Stade Velodrome in Marseille for the first time.
“It makes it exciting, doesn’t it, the unknown. The atmosphere is supposed to be incredible, and it goes up a notch from Stade de France, so very much looking forward to being part of it if selected.”
Beirne begins this World Cup cycle in sharp contrast to this point four years ago, when five of his 11 caps had been off the bench, and he’d been more of an impact replacement in Japan. Since then, he has started in all but three of his last 32 Tests.
“On my journey I’ve had to work my way into the squad like a lot of lads and I think what Faz [ Andy Farrell] has done with the group has been incredible. Everyone loves being here and the way we play, he’s certainly made me a much better player.
“I’ve had to work hard to get into that position where I’ve been playing the last couple of years,” said Beirne, who turned 32 earlier this month. But he maintained that his desire to keep working and improving his game is as strong as ever.
Beirne admitted that Johnny Sexton is “a massive character to lose within the group, but we’ve incredible players excited to fill those shoes and step up and make their own mark, not just on the field but around the place as well”.
The most pertinent example is Jack Crowley, whom Beirne has seen mature appreciably in the last year.
“You could see him asking Johnny so many questions, trying to figure out how Johnny did things. He does his own things his way as well and works incredibly hard. You see him at the video all the time, see him staying behind in Munster till all hours, doing video work. He has a real hunger to become the best player he can possibly be.”
While one of those team leaders, Beirne is content to be back in the trenches as one of O’Mahony’s lieutenants, for if ever the phrase ‘natural born leader’ applied to a rugby player, it is the newly-installed Irish captain.
Like everyone else, Beirne had always assumed O’Mahony fitted this mould before he joined Munster in 2018.
“But it’s not until you’re in a room with him when he starts speaking that you listen to every word he says. You’re certainly ready to go out into battle, right behind him, when he goes out on to the field so natural born leader would certainly be a way I’d put it for sure.”
And besides, like Paul O’Connell, even if saying nothing, O’Mahony always has that stare.
“Yeah, he puts some fear into some people all right,” Beirne said, smiling broadly. “But when you know him a bit better you can laugh about that side of him too.”
