The PRO14 season is just around the corner as Leinster look to try and become only the second team in PRO12/14 history to successfully defend their title.
The reigning champions were the first team in league history to defend their crown when a Leinster team captained by Leo Cullen retained the title in 2014, but with the province looking to challenge on both domestic and European fronts again this season, it’s going to be a massive challenge for Cullen and his side to repeat the double winning heroics of last season.
The odds of a repeat success are slim, given that Leinster were the first Celtic team to complete a European and domestic double last season, but their squad is big and produced a number of breakout stars last season.
James Ryan, Dan Leavy, Andrew Porter and Jordan Larmour went from relative outsiders last summer to consistent fixtures in the Ireland squad by the end of the season while the use of a total of 55 players allowed the club to rotate players and manage gametime in what was a long and grueling season.
The trio of Ryan, Porter and Larmour had just one start between them prior to last season and as we look ahead to the upcoming campaign we look at the players that could be set for a breakout year, what players will contend for a spot in Ireland’s Six Nations opener and who are the players that can realistically contend for player of year honours.
Breakouts
Irish Rugby is in such a strong position at present and with a whole new generation of players now coming to the fore, opportunities for prospective players on the fringes may be increasingly hard to come by.
Having said that, with the departures of Simon Zebo to France, Jordi Murphy to Ulster and the retirement of Jamie Heaslip from the sport there should be increased chances for several players this season.
Here’s the four players we’re tipping for breakout campaigns:
Max Deegan – Deegan was the 2016 World Rugby Under 20 Championship player of the tournament in a team that included James Ryan, Andrew Porter and Jacob Stockdale.
Ryan, Stockdale and Porter enjoyed tremendous seasons in what was essentially their first full campaigns as professional rugby players and Deegan should stand to see increased opportunities for Leinster this season with the retirement of Jamie Heaslip and the defection of Jordi Murphy.
Jack Conan should still see most of the minutes at the back of the scrum but Deegan should slot into their backrow rotation after making 18 appearances last season, eight of which were off the bench.
Expect him to see an increased workload this season and potentially challenge for a bench spot in Europe.
Stephen Fitzgerald – The loss of Simon Zebo to Racing will be tough to swallow for Munster this season and almost impossible to replace as Irish Rugby just hasn’t produced many players like him.
Mike Haley has been brought in from Sale to compete for the starting full-back job in Zebo’s absence but Fitzgerald could challenge him for the position.
The Limerick utility only played five games last season but he averaged more metres per carry (12.6mpc) than Andrew Conway (6.68mpc), Alex Wootton (6.78mpc) and Simon Zebo (6.2mpc).
Haley has started a minimum of 14 games in each of the last few seasons but has never scored more than four tries in any given campaign.
Try scoring ability does not necessarily determine if a full-back will start or not but Fitzgerald’s ability to beat defenders may convince Johann van Graan to give the 22-year-old a shot if Haley is not delivering and if he decides to keep Andrew Conway on the wing and not move him to the back.
Angus Curtis – With Jared Payne retired, Stuart Olding now at Brive and Louis Ludik out until possibly November with injury, Ulster are quite light in the centres.
Stuart McCloskey and Darren Cave should start the majority of the games in the midfield, while Henry Speight can provide some short-term cover before he heads back to Super Rugby next season, but Curtis could have a breakout campaign if he can manage to force himself into the starting side.
A solid tackler and a powerful runner with an eye for a gap, Curtis was one of the standout performers on a weak Irish U20 side last season and he should be poised for an increase in games this year after breaking into the side towards the end of last season. Fellow centre James Hume could also be a potential bolter this season.
Kyle Godwin – At 26, Kyle Godwin could be getting a little old to be tipped to have a breakout season, especially in comparison to the players listed earlier in this article, but he was nevertheless impressive against Wasps last week.
The versatile back can play at 10, 12 and even 13 and he looks to be a very solid signing for new Connacht coach Andy Friend.
The presence of Bundee Aki and Fans Player of the Year Tom Farrell could push Godwin into fly-half this season where he has the chance to form a promising partnership with scrum-half Kieran Marmion.
He could be the player to get an exciting Connacht backline firing again.
Predicted Ireland team
With Ireland facing a Six Nations title defence and a World Cup challenge next year expect frontline players like Conor Murray, Johnny Sexton and Peter O’Mahony to be rotated quite frequently throughout the season.
Their protection may offer increased opportunities to others in the first half of the season but here is a predicted team for Ireland’s opening Six Nations game against England in Dublin.
Player of the Year Candidates
Keith Earls won the Irish Players’ Player of the Year 2018 award at the Zurich Irish Rugby Awards last season and he became the fourth Munster player in the last four seasons to claim the honour after previous wins by Conor Murray, CJ Stander and Paul O’Connell.
O’Connell, former Leinster centre Gordon D’Arcy and former Ulster winger Tommy Bowe are the only players to have won the award twice and no players has ever won the award in back-to-back seasons, which makes Earls’ chances of retaining his title quite slim.
Expect James Ryan, Johnny Sexton, a healthy Robbie Henshaw and Beirne to contest for the top prize at the end of the season while you could make strong arguments for CJ Stander, Dan Leavy and Conor Murray too.
Plenty of dimes to choose from with over a dozen contenders.
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