The Left Wing Podcast: Ireland team news – McCarthy & Nash start, 6/2 split on the bench

The Ireland team to play France in Friday’s Six Nations opener in Marseille has been named.

On today’s episode of the Left Wing podcast, Rúaidhrí O’Connor joins Sinéad Kissane from Ireland’s pre-Six Nations base in Portugal before they leave for France to discuss the big talking points of Andy Farrell’s selection, including starts for Joe McCarthy and Calvin Nash, Garry Ringrose’s absence through injury, Crowley’s start at outhalf and the 6/2 forwards/backs split on the bench.

Join us again on Thursday when Sinéad and Rúaidhrí will be back with more news and updates from the Ireland and France camps.

Listen & follow on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Applause] hello this is the left wing with the Ireland team to play France in Friday Six Nations opener in marsel has been named the top lines are Joe McCarthy starts in the second row alongside Ty burn James Ryan is on the bench Calvin Nash is on the right wing no Gary ring

Rose he picked up a shoulder injury Bundy Aki and Robbie Henshaw are in the center Jack Crowley is at out half Andy f has gone with a 6-2 split on the bench roro Connor is in Portugal where the Ireland team are having their pre Six Nations Camp a lot of talking points

There Rory let’s start though with Joe McCarthy Andy farl unleashing him for his first six nation start his form the season with lster has been undeniable this is a really exciting call yeah we were talking about it just there before the press conference you know people will complain that there’s

Not enough kind of new faces in a six Nation Squad but really you can’t think of any player other than Joe McCarthy and maybe Ryan be from the players who played kind of significant roles at the World Cup who have been battering down the door and and you know they both get

Their reward BR Ryan B is named on the bench and John McCarthy is deservedly picked in the in in the second row and I I did a piece earlier in the week I got on to our uh to Stats perform and got all the stats and he leads the way in

The contact zone of all of the r second rows and he’s basically forced Dean Henderson out of the out of the 23 which is a big big call you know Henderson started that World Cup quarterfinal against New Zealand he started the games the game against Scotland as well was

Calling the lineer at the World Cup and now we’ve gone with a completely different um pairing and a player who you know in my opinion will be the Cornerstone of the Irish pack for the next next decade if he can stay free of injury because he is so robust so big so

Strong so aggressive he’ll give away penalties but he is what the you know he’s the kind of player that Irish Ruby has spent fortunes on over the years bringing in from South Africa and New Zealand and now we that you know he’s been made made in Black Rock and and

Come through the system and you know he offers arand such a different profile in around the setpiece in around the mall you know his scrummaging he brings great power He’s listed as one one two kilos on the uh on the official statistics he’s much heavier than that he’s he’s

Must be packing down at least 120 now which is kind of the ideal weight for a tight head lock so it’s an interesting call I kind of expected them to go with James Ryan alongside him because they’re you know they’re provincial Partners they play together all the time that

Would offer him a bit of comfort I kind of thought they might go towards what they did in in Bordeaux for that opening World Cup game when they went with to burn at six and ammani at seven but instead they’ve gone with burn in the second row alongside McCarthy he’ll call

The line outs and then the captain Peter romman he stays at six with Josh vleer holding on to his spot but the 62 is another really interesting element because they’ve never done that before yeah I was trying to think that I can’t I can’t ever remember an Ireland head coach going with the

62 no no and they’re kind of late to the party on it they’ve kind of held the line for a long time on on being a 5-3 team and they almost seem proud of that in the last World Cup cycle and Andy FR was asked about in the press conference

Just there and he said the uh you know it’s just right for this game they want to finish with a really strong athletic pack on the pitch and that makes a lot of sense and you look at the players that they’re bringing off like Ryan BD has been terrorizing line outs and up

And down the country over over Christmas he’s been one of lancer’s best players this season You’ got Jack conen the Lions number eight you know you you know whether on M he can go 80 they’ve got Comfort to bring off um to bring him off they’ve got James Ryan huge experienc

One of the most experienced players in the squad now James Ryan to come out come on with this C and his industry and was probably with a point to prove as well like he won’t be happy being left out of this starting team he was dropped during the World Cup

As well so that’s a big and big snub for him so he’ll be coming on with a point to prove just like Josh vleer was in in lelle a couple of weeks ago um you a dynamic front row I know Keen H’s um you know the Elder Statesman but like

They’ve no game for nine days Andrew Porter can probably go 80 here if they need him to you know this is going to be an all handson deck job because that that you know it’s a Friday night kickoff and the next game isn’t until the following Sunday against Italy and

The scope to change things there so it’s it’s a strongl looking Ireland team you know and we we’ll see France in in a little while but we’re expecting a very strong French team obviously both teams missing missing their Talis men and I think where the doubts around Ireland

Are surrounding Jack rowy at out half and Calvin Nash on the wing because they’re so improving they’re both very good players you know I expect them to have good games but until we see it I think there’s uh there still going um James Ry said on the bench that is a

Blow for him and he’s going to be pretty pumped when he comes on no Ian Henderson um we’ll get into that in a moment as well Calin said in there there were other contenders in the running there too Jordan larma had been going well with lster you’d suggested a move for

Gary ringrose to the wing but Gary doesn’t make the squad at all so there’s he picked up a shoulder injury when did this happen in L’s game last game against Lester he picked up the injury came over a little bit hurt and he’s flown home he he didn’t get through training and he

Flew home yesterday with a couple of the um the kind of training panelists um think s past o the AER and Keem Pendergast have gone have gone back as well so um it’s a like it’s a significant blow Gary ringos has been a really important player for Ireland you

Know Henshaw is obviously a very good replacement but he’s not like he’s played very well for Ireland at 13 he wouldn’t have huge concerns and him and Aki have a a very established relationship but in his 30s now Robbie Hena he maybe doesn’t have the the top

End speed that he once had albea France maybe you know they’re very powerful um contact driven mid Midfield maybe he won’t be tested in the same way as as some of the other teams defensively but it’s a big day for Hena Hena you know he had a couple of injuries at the World

Cup he’s lost know he wasn’t the first choice at that tournament he lost his place to Aki so he’s got a chance now and and far the Shon if you play well you keep the Jersey he’s got a chance now to to own that 13th slot through the

Six Nations if he plays well so and he’s like you know he’s one of been one of Ireland’s best players for a decade now and and i’ you’d have no fear about him um it’s just that maybe if poo gets one-on-one or gets into that channel

There’s a bit of a speed that it might be giving up a bit of speed maybe if France go with be Beret it might be even more of a concern but you know if if they go with mofan on the wing which is what we’re all expecting um they should

Be able to handle that comfortably and Nash on the wing has been so good in the air for monster that he can go after a center playing out a position as we record we don’t have the France team yet but just on Calvin Nash there will his inexperience be something that the

French team will go after oh yeah like I think they’re going to go after Crowley and Nash no matter what because you know that’s what you do you you see the kind of the new faces and you see what they’re up to you know and and Nash has one cap under his belt

Um he’s played a lot of Ruby for Monster he’s played a lot of very good Ruby in Europe you know he was here a couple of weeks or he was in the same neck of awards a couple of weeks ago beating tulan away from home winning that ball

In the air against Melvin J or Dan bigger and then pushing off Melvin Jam to to to go over under the post um that’s a good audition I think for Jack Rowley and Calvin Nash that game a couple of weeks ago so you know they they’re back in Marseilles um a very different

Atmosphere I suppose you know a big Stadium it’ll be full it’ll be full of French people you know I’m unsure as to how many Irish are going to travel it’s difficult place to get it um it’s obviously on the back of a very expensive World Cup so I think it’s

Going to be pretty hostile you know the home the Heartland the French Ruby is just up the road they’re going to descend into Marse on mass and they don’t get they’ve never had a chance to have a six nations game you know in their neck of the woods so I think

They’re going to make it a very big occasion a very special occasion and they’re going to make it a very difficult night for Ireland in as much as they can and when that French crowd do get on top of you it is an assault on the censes and and in 2022 when Ireland

Played France in Paris the players talked about that how when it got into the Melting Pot in the last 20 minutes and Ireland did really well in that game to stay in that game they just got a little bit frazzled and they worked a lot with Gary Keegan on their mental

Skills in the anticipation of being back again potentially against France in a World Cup final didn’t get that far but they looked much better able to handle the occasions in France at the World Cup but at the World Cup they had 50,000 Irish fans in the Stadium all waiting to

Sing the zombie at the end this will be a very different back in the same country a really different occasion and for Calvin Nash and for Jack Rowley who has you know started against Australia in a November game and be beaten Australia in that game he closed out the

Win over South Africa um and Scotland at the World Cup this is a very different atmosphere to try and handle and if if they do make mistakes it’s all that work that they do about getting back to neutral not compounding errors and being able to go the rest of the backline Hugo

Keenan full back Nash and low on the wings henan Aki in the center Crowley and Jimson Gibson park at Half Back Kiron folley has been named on the bench as well as H Conor Murray you were talking about Jack Crowley there this is going to be a Melting Pot you

Interviewed him recently you know from what you we’ve all seen from what you’ve heard from him like will he have that temperament and this is a bit of the long game with his career as well but at the same time it is a biggest game of his life coming

Up yeah I like I think he’s ready he’s 24 years old he’s started week on week on week for Monster he’s endured some tough times but he’s played some beautiful rugby as well he’s been in this setup for more than a year now he’s he’s shadowed Johnny ston he’s won nine

Caps he come off the bench in Big World Cup games as I said he started a big test match in November against Australia on his debut like you know he has he served a fairly good apprenticeship you know and yes you would maybe if you were designing this you would rather have him

Have 25 caps going into this and a couple more starts and big games but there’s no perfect way of getting into an international Ruby he’s 24 now it’s his 10th cap he feels comfortable in the environment sexon Shadow Has Lifted I know it’ll be there in some form you

Know everything he does will be um compared to him but it’s not like seon sitting in the stands and the camera’s going to go on to him like the the the rod sexon Dynamic years ago it’s it’s a it’s a blank canvas for Jack Crowley in

Many ways to go and own this jersey look he’s got s penas coming down the tracks he’s got Harry burn and Kieran Foley behind them but really you couldn’t say that they’re because of the way lenser have chopped and changed you couldn’t say that they’re really breathing down

This is is callor you know it’s it’s really his championship to go and own and if he does that and he stays fit then he can go to South Africa in the summer and own that and really establish himself as Ireland’s number 10 and say

To the others right you’ve got to get up to my level and I think he’s capable of doing that yes there will be mistakes we saw it in tulon and against Northampton like he kicked his his kick off dead in that game he there was a touch finder

Went to straight it was Miss conversions in a couple of the games that that were like tough kicks but they’re the kind of kicks that if you’re an international 10 that’s ding the stake into the heart of your opponent you know if arand get ahead but crowy doesn’t nail the extras

It’s just keeping France in the game you know or if they but if they’re chasing I think what he does bring is we’re so used to Johnny seon being in that Jersey but we’re used to a 35 six seven year old Johnny seon who wasn’t as mobile as

He was in his early days crowy will challenge the line himself he’ll make breaks He he’ll he he has a spark um an individual spark that maybe sexon had it in the first half of career but you know inevitably Fades with age you know towards the end against new

He was basically standing the liver you know it was uh he wasn’t able to do what he was able to do in his mid-20s whereas Crowley has all that you know he has he’s fast he’s fast he’s able to to to challenge the line in different ways he’ll present France with different

Pictures but at the same time you know that they’re going to be sending big big traffic down his channel you know that he’s going to have to take some punishment but he’s tough as well he makes his tackles he hits Rooks when he has to and he Prides himself on that I

Think he spoke to me in that interview about he played for corom one time and and they they they asked him to go out in the wing to kind of hide him and he felt got he felt insulted by that almost and felt like it was something he had to

Work on so all of that comes together now and this is his moment not to say if he doesn’t nail it he won’t get another chance I think he will but it would be lovely to see him step up you know behind a very strong Irish pack

Alongside 31 32 year old jemon Gibson park inside Aki and Henshaw reams of experience there it’s very solid Bas to work um so just the pack to go through is Porter she and furong in the front row burn and McCarthy in the second row and Captain Peter mahy Josh Vander Fleer

And Kay andaris in the back row Keen Healey back in there it’s amazing really after that injury that ruled him out of the World Cup he’s on 125 irand caps so on the bench then it’s kellerer beum Ryan be Coran and Murr and folley as mentioned as I said we don’t have the

France Squad but we kind of have been getting the Vibes out of there is this the squad that will beat France Rory in your opinion no I I I I be looking at the tip them I like I think it’s going to be we saw the World Cup when the top four

Teams in the world met as they were in 2023 how close those two quarterfinals were how high quality they were how it came down to these individual moments of um you know like Ron and Keller being held up over the line or or New Zealand working a line out play it releases

Moonga and breaks the game wide open or you know B Beret struggling under high ball and suddenly South Africa fight their way back into a game chz and kby chasing down a kick I don’t expect this to be any looser or any kind of much I don’t think the Gap has has broadened

Much obviously there is a bit of doubt about Ireland in terms of their halfbacks sorry in terms of of Crowley and and Nash but I don’t really have huge fears about them at the same time I heard the point made by Tom English in the BBC podcast today Ireland have only

Won in France sorry again have only beaten France away twice in since 2000s and both games were by two points they needed like a A desperate hold out in 2014 to win the Six Nations and Johnny’s dropped goal in 2018 you know last gas two-point win so it’s not like Ireland

Are ever comfortable even when France were a poor team and they were a poor team for a lot of that period Ireland never have been massively comfortable coming over to France and winning add in the Friday night Mars Factor the fact that both teams were broken after the

World Cup and we don’t you know Ireland seem like they’re in really good spirits and that they they’ve gotten over that and at the same time we won’t know that until we see them there’s so many different factors of play and I just think Home Advantage tips the balance in

France’s favor um like I think Maxim luku and Matthew jalar coming in they’ve far more experienced you know they they have played a lot of Tess rugby albe lcu’s got a probably two minutes at the time coming on for dupon but he’s still a very good player who played at the

World Cup so um they have the capacity um with that to to harness that Home Advantage to play through and over Ireland but I like the fact that Ireland have gone 62 that makes it that levels it up a little bit for me I think it’s

Going to be really tight it’s one of those five margins games but my gut is that that you know the Home Advantage will just tip the balance fa well pressure on uh France as well you know going into this one so you’ve been there I am going to go with Ireland I

Think I’m really excited by this uh Joe McCarthy call I have to say but come here you’ve been down in Portugal all week I have absolutely no sympathy for you whatsoever be weather uh what has the feeling been there generally you know obviously as you were saying we

Won’t know until game day on Saturday you know how they’re going to pitch up but what’s the feeling been there in Portugal yeah well YouTube viewers will see I’m in a are you yeah are you gonna get on those after we finish here no absolutely not absolutely not no and

They’re departing for for um France now they d a direct flight to Marseilles the rest of us are on a going via Lisbon and I think the fact that they’ve gotten away has been good for them you know they it feels a little bit like we’re

Back at the World Cup albeit with a lot less cameras the Netflix scw in they’re they’re making their presence Felts but you know it’s not as uh intense um kind of media kind of it’s a much smaller media every press conference is smaller and more intimate um certainly the mood

In the camp seems to be quite upbeat um just seeing them the players around the place they they hang out at this kind of the campus it’s this kind of high-end Sports facility in the algar that they and they you know just they just do seem

To be a lightness around the mood I think they’re glad to be back in Camp with each other I think they really like this environment I happened to just walk by the team room yesterday when they were doing their meeting as I think far was naming the team and there was a GAA

Of laughter coming out you know so um that’s all I could hear regardless I couldn’t hear anything else but I could hear that the room seemed to be in very good spirit so whether that counts for much I do think that it’s always been a Happy Camp under Randy Farrell and I

Think they’re they’re very confident they like being back here and and they still feel like there’s lot lots to achieve with this team you know so it’s it’s an older team like there’s a lot of players in their early 30s who who will have question marks hanging over them

About the next World Cup so they’re trying to get as much out of this jersey as possible in the next year or two and um I think the Friday night Factor the fact it is France the World Cup final that never was all that that that sort

Of thing is feeding into them being um in like in a pretty confident Mo I think if they they I don’t think they feel like they did a lot wrong against New Zealand I don’t I think France maybe will be more rattled by the defeat to

South Africa in in that way and that they squandered something there like Ireland were you know they know what went wrong but it wasn’t fundamental it’s not like they fell apart like four years ago they’ just been hocked you know eight years ago they’d just been hockey in a World Cup quarterfinal this

Is slightly different can we ban one phrase though between now and Friday can we ban the World Cup final that’s never been I do not want to hear that phrase again I’m moving on from it I’m like any I’m moving on from the World

Cup no no not as we go back to France we we’re recording our podcast again it’s going to feel very World Cup again a little bit cooler I think it’s going to be like I think the conditions are good I think it’s going to be a really good

Game so um it’s it’s no I’m not no you can try and banish but we’re to say what we want but like it’s fair enough like you know it is start of cycle but it feels because of the way farell is selected it does feel like the World Cup

Squad essentially has just kind of got the band together again with a couple of new faces but you’re right McCarthy’s really exciting crowd’s very exciting Nash there’s a bit of change in there the 62 I think is really interesting to see how arand managed that will they

Stick to it will they go 7-1 will Jack nber’s influence filter through so um there’s lot to there’s lot to like to to a lot of interest in this game I I felt the buildup has been a bit lowkey this week I’m not sure if the public have

I’ve had people being surprised that it’s on Friday night they didn’t really realize that that the game was on was on really you know because I maybe that World Cup hangover has kind of spread into the public but I think by the time we get to Friday evening um this game

Will capture the imagination and it’s a great way to start the tournament all be it I’m not sure what’s left after it’s over if I have feeling that the team who wins this game well um thanks to that safe trip to Mar and enjoy your gym workout there

Um well we are going to be in Mars tomorrow we’re going to be doing another podcast after the captain’s and press conference at the stad vome so do keep an eye out for that we’ll have all the latest from there thanks for Listening