“His presence affects us in attack and in defence.“
That is a pretty ambitious call for someone who was a sub in five of his last 10 Test appearances for Ireland.
Granted that the first name on Joe Schmidt’s team-sheet is surely Johnny Sexton or, when fit, Conor Murray, the RTE panel made a solid case for Devin Toner.
The Meath native has been a replacement for the wins over Italy and Argentina, but Ireland’s lineout was seriously troubled on Saturday night and he could be in line for a recall. New Zealand – and Brodie Retallick in particular – disrupted England’s lineout at Twickenham so Joe Schmidt will be well aware this is one area Ireland need to get right.
Following their 28-17 win over Argentina, Ireland captain Rory Best noted how the visitors had selected three locks in their pack and how they were shooting two jumpers up for most of his darts. Ireland won 10 from 13 lineouts but very few takes were clean and, as a consequence, Ireland’s attacking platform was hampered.
At one stage, when they did win lineout ball in the Argentina 22, there was a careless knock-on as they tried to get a maul rolling. Joe Schmidt called them “inaccuracies” post-match but he may use more industrial language when he gets his team behind closed doors.
Iain Henderson was selected ahead of Toner and called the lineouts but, through a mix of Irish waywardness and good Argentina pressure, it was not great going. Analysing the game for RTE, former Ireland head coach implored Schmidt to get Toner back in the starting XV. He said:
“Devin Toner is the key. Whenever Devin Toner is on the field, our lineout always fires well… It’s a problem without him on the field. I think that was what Schmidt was trying to find out today – if we could cope without him – and we knew pretty early that it was a problem. That feeds into next week, no doubt about that.”
Brent Pope pointed out how Ireland looked flat in midfield without quick lineout ball. O’Sullivan then explained how Toner also aided Ireland in defending lineouts as it limited Argentina’s throwing options.
“They couldn’t throw down the line, to where Toner was so they threw to where Peter O’Mahony was, and he stole it. That led to [Luke McGrath’s try].
“His presence affects us in attack and in defence.”
With that former Ulster and Ireland flanker Stephen Ferris jumped in, “So, first name on the team-sheet next week [is] Devin Toner?”
“I would think so,” O’Sullivan replied. “Yeah.”
Ferris nodded his head but did not look entirely convinced.
Henderson and Ryan looks to be the combination Schmidt would prefer but until one of them starts running a functioning, ball-winning line at Test level, Toner may be the go-to guy for big games.
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