A tale of two Ians: Ireland’s fly-half battle
By Grainne McGuinness
With Jonny Sexton forced to miss at least the first game of the Six Nations completing a 12 week concussion protocol, the competition has become a key opportunity for his understudies to make their cases for inclusion in the squad for this autumn’s World Cup.
Although some teams brought three fly-halves to the tournament in 2011, with only 30 places available most teams will select two players in the position and, barring injury, Racing Metro’s star man is surely nailed down for one.
His successor at Leinster, Ian Madigan, will be hoping for the second fly-half berth and with 25 caps is probably the most obvious choice.
But Munster’s Ian Keatley is also knocking at the door and will be hoping to use the Six Nations to put himself in the frame.
He gets his chance this weekend as Joe Schmidt hands him the number 10 jersey for
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The two players appeared in Joe Schmidt’s squad along with Sexton for the November series, and both saw game time during Ireland’s three victories, with Madigan kicking a penalty when he came on as a replacement for Sexton in the win over South Africa.
This earned Madigan a starting spot in the second game against Georgia where he scored three penalties in a solid performance and Keatley also featured from the bench during Ireland’s easy win.
Sexton returned to the starting 15 for Ireland's victory against Australia in their final match of the series, with Madigan again favoured over Keatley on the bench.
Madigan would appear to be the better fit for the running game Schmidt had Ireland playing during the series and it could have been argued that Keatley would be less effective at 10 in the current Ireland team, being more used to a different type of game with his province.
Munster’s style of play is less fluid, with Keatley expected to fulfil a more defensive, static role.
But Schmidt himself feels Keatley is better suited to the running game than people realise.
“He’s got a very capable passing game,” Schmidt said of the Munster man.
“I think his running game you know, the first time I saw Ian Keatley play I think he was playing 12 or 13 for Connacht and the first thing he did was slice straight through our Leinster defence. I do think he’s got a running game that can threaten as well.”
Schmidt admitted it was a difficult call to make between the two, but said Keatley’s recent form for Munster was a crucial factor.
“It was a tight decision,” Schmidt said, speaking at the team announcement yesterday morning. “It’s probably a vote of confidence in Ian Keatley.”
“He’s controlled games well, he’s finished games for Munster in clutch moments and that’s given us a degree of confidence that he can do the same thing for us.”
Provincial form is obviously going to be a key factor in Schmidt’s mind when choosing between the two. This may mitigate against Madigan due not to his own performance, but external factors.
Schmidt mentioned Keatley’s playing relationship with Ireland's first-choice number nine - Munster’s Conor Murray.
“Part of it is his combination with Conor Murray,” he explained. “They play week to week and they play well together and that understanding is very good.”
Another issue is that, at the moment, Madigan is being used as an inside centre as often as he is at 10. He started at 12 in Champions Cup games in December and January, something Schmidt alluded to yesterday.
“Keatley has had that rhythm of playing at 10 on a regular basis whereas Madigan has played a lot at 12,” he said.
“He’d love to be starting but he’d also acknowledge that he hasn’t had the game time and routine to quite have the same fluency at 10.”
Schmidt said Madigan understood this, despite his disappointment at missing out, and said the younger man need only look to the example of Sexton to see how to react.
“You could go back to Johnny Sexton,” Schmidt said. “For a long time he didn’t get to start for Leinster, let alone Ireland. He sat behind (Felipe) Contepomi, he sat behind (Ronan) O’Gara.”
“But he worked incredibly hard on his game and I think we’ve benefited from that as an Irish squad. And certainly Leinster benefited from it when he came of age there.”
Schmidt made it clear he sees the fly-half role as crucial to the game at international level.
“It’s a difficult task being a 10 at high European level or a test level. You’ve got to be controlling the game, you’ve got to be making decisions on the fly and there’s a degree of confidence and competence that comes from experiencing and doing exactly that.”
Selection will become even more difficult for Ireland’s backroom team after this weekend.
Sexton has been
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And after that it will be up to the two Ians to make the fight for the number 10 jersey as competitive as possible.
“We’re hoping that Keatley and Madigan keep him challenged to come back into the side.”
