It has almost been a meteoric rise by Ian Madigan this season. And may yet be. Consistently ignored by the previous Ireland coach, despite a string of outstanding performances, albeit many from fullback, he added a near flawless place-kicking return to an already vast array of rugby weapons.
Still, when Jonathan Sexton returned from injury he was dropped. Again. Then Gordon D'Arcy limped off the field and Madigan instantly morphed into a second-five-eighth.
The 24-year-old seemed like the ideal Lions bolter but, for the moment, Scotland's Stuart Hogg is Warren Gatland's outhalf-fullback cover.
“There was a letter sent to me before the squad was announced but there were 50 or 60 sent out,” Madigan explained. “I was in that initial group, but there hasn’t been any contact since the squad was announced.”
Surely he's a stand-by option.
Carried away
"For me, I'm just trying to break into the Leinster team at the moment, I haven't even started for Ireland yet. Obviously there's a lot of hype around the Lions and it's hard not to get carried away by it. My focus has to be on trying to improve. I think the Lions should come for you when you are at the pinnacle of your career. And I don't feel I'm there yet."
Next season would be a good time to start scaling the highest peaks as Leinster will need him to maintain current form when Sexton departs to play Beckett to Ronan O’Gara’s Joyce in Paris.
“Obviously a lot of people have been saying how good it is for me that Jonny’s leaving, but I’ve worked with Jonny for the last three or four years, he’s the ultimate professional, he’s been extremely good to me passing on advice,” said Madigan.
“To be honest I’m disappointed he’s leaving, when it was announced I texted him to say I was disappointed and I thought we could have worked together at Leinster. Himself, Joe and Isa are a massive loss to the squad but there are good players coming through and we’ve proved we can survive with big players leaving in the past so there’s no reason why we can’t keep evolving.”
With you at the centre of it all? “Responsibility is never something I’ve shirked from.”
The Sexton-Madigan combination remains an Irish option. It may even be visible against the US Eagles or Canada next month with Paddy Jackson at 10.
“It is an option, I offer something slightly different to a normal 12. I’ll have to talk to Joe about it and over the summer I’ll have to put on a few kilos for the go forward part of playing 12. It’s no secret the passing game is key to the way I play and I’d like to bring that to any team I play on.”
Les Kiss indicated yesterday that he has plenty of cover at 12 with Stuart Olding, Darren Cave and Fergus McFadden so he wants to give his young outhalves a run in the pivot role.
Madigan is succinct when asked whether if he considers himself an outhalf, fullback or centre: “I’m a rugby player.”
Anyway, it’s up to Kiss and Schmidt to find a place for him in their plans.
“I think they will work really well together.
“Yes, I would say they are similar, Les is willing to attack from deep, he doesn’t over emphasise on kicking the ball. He believes if you take teams through the phases you’ll break them down that way and with the way international game is gone at the moment it is very territory based.
“I don’t think there’s any reason why we can’t change that at Ireland with Joe and Les.”
Now, imagine that.
