Ciarán Frawley is set to leave Leinster after nine seasons with his native province and join Connacht next summer ahead of the 2026-27 campaign. The impending move will see the 28-year-old from Skerries link up again with Stuart Lancaster, who coached him for six seasons at Leinster.
Frawley’s decision suggests the utility back sees himself as having a better opportunity with Connacht to stake his claims as an outhalf in the Irish set-up than has been the case at Leinster. Although his versatility is greatly valued at Leinster, despite the departure of Ross Byrne to Gloucester Frawley has been third-choice outhalf behind Sam Prendergast and Harry Byrne.
Although he started six games at outhalf for Leinster last season, he has started just four this season at inside centre and played at fullback in last Saturday’s 24-20 URC win over Ulster at the Aviva.
Frawley had put himself firmly in the Irish outhalf frame in the post-Johnny Sexton era when scoring a brace of match-winning drop goals in the second Test win over South Africa in Durban in July of last year.
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However, a less distinguished outing off the bench against the All Blacks the following November led to him being overtaken by Prendergast. Frawley’s only caps since then have been as a replacement against Fiji that same month and last July against Portugal in Lisbon.
Frawley made his international debut as a replacement in the 2023 World Cup warm-up win over Italy before missing the cut in Andy Farrell’s squad for the tournament in France. He has yet to start one international at outhalf and in all, of his nine caps for Ireland, eight have been off the bench, while his sole start was at fullback in the 2024 Six Nations win over Wales when he scored a try.
A product of Skerries RFC and Skerries Community College, Frawley made his Leinster debut in February 2018 off the bench against the Scarlets and a week later at the RDS Arena he scored 19 points in a man-of-the-match display against the Southern Kings. He made his European debut against Northampton Saints in December 2019 and has featured regularly in Leinster’s matchday squads ever since without ever nailing down a starting place in one position.
A smooth distributor with a strong kicking game and very good under the high ball, it’s a measure of his versatility that Frawley has played 111 times for Leinster over the last nine seasons, starting 64 times and featuring in 47 games off the bench. Of those 64 starts, 18 have been at outhalf, 29 at inside centre, once at outside centre and 16 at fullback.
Such versatility has made him a valuable member of the Leinster squad and few coaches know his game better than Lancaster after working with the player for six seasons. No doubt, that was part of the appeal for Frawley in seeking pastures new while remaining in the Irish fold. As a highly adaptable, goal-kicking player who can cover outhalf, midfield and fullback, he will be a valuable addition to Connacht’s roster.
When Lancaster first pitched up at Connacht ahead of this season there was always a fear within Leinster that some of their players might be tempted to renew acquaintances with their highly regarded former coach. That said, Frawley is the first such example to date, and rumours of Jordan Larmour making a similar move seem less likely to come to pass at this juncture.
On top of losing Ross Byrne at the end of last season, Leo Cullen will be disappointed to lose such a valuable squad player as Frawley. Their options at outhalf look even more stretched given Harry Byrne is also out of contract at the end of this season and enjoyed his loan spell at Bristol Bears last year. On foot of Frawley’s impending departure, Leinster will be all the more determined to keep the younger Byrne sibling.
