Ireland players endure nerve-wracking day waiting for call

Waiting by the phone for a phone call from the boss is no one's idea of a pleasant Sunday, and that was certainly true of the Irish players vying for World Cup squad inclusion. No news was indeed good news, with even an established starter such as Devin Toner describing the day as "nerve-wracking" until the fateful email landed around 10.15pm confirming his inclusion.

In truth, as an ever-present under Joe Schmidt over the previous two seasons, when starting all but the first Test in Argentina and the home game against Georgia, Toner's day ought to have been less angst-ridden than others'.

Even so, he admitted: “I suppose I refreshed it [his inbox] about 50 times but once it came through I was delighted and then there was a bit of excitement coming in yesterday. But then it was back to the grindstone and focusing on England because we’ve obviously got a massive test coming this week. So yeah, it was great but obviously it’s subsided now.”

The only person Toner contacted that evening due to the late hour was his fiancé, Mary Scott, before he rang his parents and family on Monday morning.

Then it was back to business, and coming into camp with the other chosen 30. “The mood was pretty good on Monday, everyone’s in flying form, everyone knows they’re in. Training was quite light. We didn’t do much because some lads were still quite sore after the weekend, but it was a good quick training session and everyone was in flying form.”

The late-developing 29-year-old has made the cut for his first World Cup. Four years ago, he was so focused on maximising game-time in the Pro12 that even watching Ireland’s games on television did not prompt him to target this tournament there and then.

Anxiousness

“Not at the time, no, to be honest. I only really thought about it when I started getting into the squad two seasons ago. It’s all come good.”

Another contributory factor in Toner's anxiousness could well have been Iain Henderson's barnstorming performance in the secondrow against Wales last Saturday, which has rather thrown down the gauntlet to the 6' 10" Leinster lock.

“Yeah, I’ve said it before, the competition is massive for places and obviously Iain had a pretty good game. He took his try very well and Donnacha [Ryan] did well in that first game against Wales, and obviously Paulie as well. So the competition is massive in the secondrow and if I get selected this week, I’ll have a massive job to do,” said the lock.

With the die cast on the squad selection, and both England and the World Cup looming sharply into view, yesterday’s training was altogether more intense.

“We got a good few mauls in, a good few hits out. There is a competitive tension. In the forwards it mainly comes out when we’re doing the mauls, because that’s the one area where we can just go hell for leather and go after it.

“But we only had about four competitive ones, so there wasn’t much chance to do it. So far it hasn’t boiled over yet. There haven’t been any scraps or anything, but it’s always on the brink.”

This was confirmed by forwards coach Simon Easterby. “We had a session out there today and it was pretty competitive. I think it’s a forward pack that the players who were maybe perceived to be a little bit weaker have started to gradually meet those players who are higher up the pecking order and there’s very little between them when we stick packs together.

“If you can deliver that throughout the World Cup and you can rely on most players throughout the World Cup to have game-time and not dropping the standard and the quality of the performance, then it’s huge,” added Easterby.

Agreement

Maintaining the theme, and with both Joe Schmidt and Les Kiss nodding in agreement, Easterby added: "The preparation that goes into preparing that forward pack that starts the game on the weekend, for example against England, is as good as anything that we've had, that I've ever been involved in, certainly in my time in the Irish camp. And it's that type of edge and that type of quality that will see us through the next few weeks and beyond.

“We came up short in a couple of areas against Wales and that’s hurt a few players and it hurt me as well. There’s no better team to step up and put a few things right going into a World Cup than going over to Twickenham and playing the English.”

Reluctant

Kiss, a survivor from the 2011 coaching ticket, was reluctant to compare this squad to four years ago. “Different times, different reasons, different type of group of players, where they have developed through the experiences they have had.

“There are a lot of things that make it different for sure but the one thing that is common is the commitment to try to nail this mission. A lot of people have a lot of expectation and the people who have the most expectation are the players themselves really. They are a hungry group, they’re competitive but they are also very generous in the way they offer themselves if they are not in the 15 to deliver for the other group.”

Finalising this squad was, said Kiss, “the culmination of a lot of weeks together recently but also the last two years and what we have been able to extrapolate from what the team can deliver in different combinations and as individuals. I’d rather look at it as a group now and not compare it. We’ll back what decisions we have made.”