Nov 25,2024
One of the most pleasing aspects of Ireland's 52-17 win against Fiji was that on a day when Andy Farrell gave his wider squad an opportunity to impress, those players took their chance.
That hasn’t always been the case, such as their previous meeting with the Fijians in 2022, or the final World Cup warm-up against Samoa in 2023, but those that were drafted into the side last Saturday produced an impact.
The debutants, Gus McCarthy and Cormac Izuchukwu, as well as out-half Sam Prendergast, grabbed the headlines, but one of the more established players who caught the eye was Craig Casey.
The Munster scrum-half won his 17th cap on Saturday, his sixth in the starting team, and while he’s unlikely to remove Jamison Gibson-Park from the starting team for next week’s clash with Australia, his stock price in the national squad is continuing to rise.
A first international try, and a very rare conversion, were the obvious highlights across an 80-minute shift, but the 25-year-old is becoming much more consistent at the boring stuff; decision-making and pass quality, the latter of which was summed up by a brilliant pass for Mack Hansen’s second try, where Casey zipped the ball to the touchline, which took five Fijian defenders out of the game.
His try (above) was excellently taken, a diving finish to the right corner, after hooker Gus McCarthy broke down the blind side of a maul, and while it looked spectacular in the moment, Casey played down the acrobatics.
"I don’t know about 'spectacular’," he said.
"Gus did very well to hear me and delivered it really well. It was a nice finish in the corner but to get my first international try is a dream come true.
"It is something I dreamed about going to internationals when I was younger and seeing the likes of Brian O’Driscoll and the lads doing it. You want to replicate it."
It wasn’t all perfect, and the 5ft 5in Casey was humbled on a couple of occasions when he went too high in the tackle on a couple of Fijian ball-carriers, and was given his wings each time.
"The first 10 minutes were a bit of a rude awakening. I got sent to the ground twice but it’s all part of playing teams like Fiji, I think. Serious, serious athletes.
"Going into it you are almost expecting it and trying to hype yourself up for the hits. Just mistimed them but I will learn from it.
"They are a very good side and I think you saw that over their autumn games so a good win."
Having also excelled in his previous start for Ireland, the first Test against South Africa in the summer, Casey (above) will be hoping to be involved again next week when Ireland complete their Autumn Nations Series against Joe Schmidt’s Australia in Dublin.
And Casey says while they took a big stride, in terms of performance against Fiji, Saturday’s visit of the Wallabies will be another step in quality.
"We’re always striving to get better.
"We were very disappointed with the New Zealand loss and they are a very good side but we hold ourselves in a bit more esteem than what we produced that night and we are very disappointed with how we rolled into camp with that loss.
"This was a step forward again, we probably put our game onto them more than the other games, although I thought the first-half last week was outstanding. We just needed to do it for 80 minutes. We probably did it for 75 this time. It’s all about next week now. It’s going to be a colossal Test match.
"I never worked with Joe [Schmidt]. I was U20s and that was the closest I got to a Joe Schmidt session but the lads have a lot of respect for him, for what he did for Leinster and for Irish rugby.
"It was very special times and he was the coach and we know what’s probably coming with Australia. He will have them psyched up. You can see the improvement in them already.
"It’s going to be a colossal Test match and they have a few freak players as well. Should be a good one," he added.
