The decision to start Ryan Baird is the most eye-catching of Simon Easterby’s first Ireland selection for next Saturday’s Guinness Six Nations opener against England at the Aviva Stadium (kick-off 4.45pm) and it has the interim head coach’s imprint all over it.
Number six was, after all, predominantly Easterby’s position. In 67 internationals, he made all but one of his 58 starts at blindside flanker, including two Tests for the Lions.
Baird’s selection is clearly influenced by his exceptional lineout skills, both to counter England’s vaunted defensive lineout and provide more of a threat to the visitors’ throw, given their choice of three loose forwards in the backrow.
Aside from Baird’s height (6’ 6”) and athleticism, he is a skilled operator in the air who has plenty of experience of calling lineouts from his underage career.
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Although the 25-year-old has 25 caps, only six of them have been from the start, and of these just three have been in the Six Nations. Baird was outstanding in the secondrow in the Grand Slam coronation against England two seasons ago, when it looked like his time had come, yet his only other two Six Nations starts were against Italy, in 2002, and last year.
Baird suffered a head knock soon after coming on against Argentina which restricted him to just two minutes’ action in the entirety of the Autumn Nations Series, before he began his recovery in an appearance for Trinity in Division 1B of the All-Ireland League, at which point he prospect of him starting the Six Nations opener would have been a long shot.
“Ryan has played in some big games for us, but he’s had a few injuries along the way and I think this one represents a real opportunity for him as a player to come in and leave his mark in that six jersey,” said Easterby.
“There are a lot of competitive positions in the team, but [with] six and backrow obviously being one of those we’ve left a couple of very good players out of the squad to pick Ryan and he’s aware of that.
“I think he’s got the bit between his teeth and he had a period of time where he wasn’t playing after November. But I thought he did well in La Rochelle in a big game over in France a couple of weeks ago for Leinster.
“He comes into camp with good form but also he’s got his confidence back and he’s looking strong and quick and athletic. And he’ll add very much to not only the lineout, but also just his athletic ability is pretty special as well.”
The only other change to the starting XV in the autumn finale against Australia sees Garry Ringrose moved from 23 to outside centre, with Robbie Henshaw shifting in the opposite direction, while Baird’s inclusion means Tadhg Beirne, who will again call the lineouts, moves from blindside back to secondrow.
It had been expected that Joe McCarthy would be among the replacements, but in an unfortunate development it transpires that the lock suffered a head knock in training on Wednesday.
Word is that McCarthy was hurt in a non-contact drill, and Easterby said: “It was a rugby kind of collision. It was really innocuous in terms of it was just an unfortunate set of circumstances, someone’s head landed on his head and it was a nasty blow.
“He’s come around well and he should be good to go,” added Easterby in reference to the round two game in Murrayfield on Sunday week.
Hence, from a position of apparent rude health, without the injured Tadhg Furlong as well as McCarthy, it means that the tighthead side of the Irish scrum has lost a fair bit of heft – a combined 15kg or thereabouts.
The back three, halfbacks and frontrow all remain unchanged, while Dan Sheehan is among the replacements and so back in an Irish matchday squad for the first time since injuring his ACL in the opening Test against South Africa in Pretoria last July.
Thomas Clarkson, who won his first two caps off the bench against Argentina and Fiji last November, is back on the bench again, as is Jack Conan, who missed both the summer tour and Autumn Series due to injuries. Conor Murray is also restored on the bench alongside Jack Crowley in a conventional 5-3 split.
Crowley had started all nine Irish Tests in the post-Johnny Sexton era and played every minute of last season’s Six Nations, before Prendergast started the November wins over Fiji and Australia.
Easterby said: “They are going to play a lot of rugby and compete for a long time, I think. This decision has gone Sam’s way. We felt like he did really well in November. He got a taste for international rugby. He went away and played really well for Leinster in a good period for them, but he was a big part of the successes across the December window and into the new year.
“We feel like he’s the right man this weekend to lead the team. He’s a lot of experience around him and even though the way Jack has trained and played coming into the Six Nations means that Sam knows he’s got to keep raising his game and keep getting better.
“Jack played really well in Northampton in the week prior to camp and he also comes in with a lot of credit in the bank, in terms of what he’s done in the last 18 months, two years. Also, in the back end of that Australia game, he came on and finished the game really strongly and saw out the game.
“So yeah, one of the tough calls but there was probably six or seven of those decisions throughout the team selection that we would have been happy to go either way with players.”
IRELAND: Hugo Keenan (Leinster); Mack Hansen (Connacht), Garry Ringrose (Leinster), Bundee Aki (Connacht), James Lowe (Leinster); Sam Prendergast (Leinster), Jamison Gibson-Park (Leinster); Andrew Porter (Leinster), Rónan Kelleher (Leinster), Finlay Bealham (Connacht); James Ryan (Leinster), Tadhg Beirne (Munster); Ryan Baird (Leinster), Josh van der Flier (Leinster), Caelan Doris (Leinster, capt).
Replacements: Dan Sheehan (Leinster), Cian Healy (Leinster), Thomas Clarkson (Leinster), Iain Henderson (Ulster), Jack Conan (Leinster), Conor Murray (Munster), Jack Crowley (Munster), Robbie Henshaw (Leinster).
