RUGBY:THE IRELAND management conceded yesterday it was more than a little irregular for Michael Bent's first night living in Ireland to be spent in the luxurious confines of Carton House.
The New Zealand-born prop has been parachuted into the Ireland camp as tighthead cover, arriving Sunday night with his girlfriend thereby increasing the likelihood of inclusion on an eight-man bench against South Africa on November 10th.
The hope is that Bent will be capped by Leinster, away to the Ospreys on Sunday in the Rabodirect Pro 12, after just one training session with his new province tomorrow.
Jet lag is being factored into this equation but the 26-year-old is match fit, having started 10 ITM Cup matches for Taranaki at tighthead after featuring as a loosehead replacement in five Super rugby matches for the Wellington Hurricanes earlier this summer.
“He is fit and very much a recognised tighthead who can play on the loosehead side, rather than the other way around,” said Ireland manager Michael Kearney.
Bent is immediately eligible for international duty because his maternal grandmother hailed from Rathmines, before marrying a Welsh man and moving to New Zealand. Incidentally, his sister Kim lives in Dublin and is a former Rose of Tralee contestant. This information was furnished by Kearney in a light-hearted moment during yesterday’s press briefing, where the issue of Bent’s arrival being unfair on home-grown props was also raised.
“Obviously there was a bit of thought put into it but it was felt that, number one, he is the holder of an Irish passport, he is qualified to play for Ireland,” said Kearney. “There are a number of players who have come through the same way. Maybe not just landed in Ireland and being straight into an Irish squad but I suppose the fact he is match fit and had been playing rugby at tighthead up to two weeks ago was a pretty massive consideration, considering the injury concerns we have in this position going forward.”
Declan Fitzpatrick is the injury concern Kearney was referring to. The Ulster prop impressed in last season’s Heineken Cup semi-final when John Afoa was suspended, but the All Black anchors that provincial scrum, while Nathan White, another Kiwi, was signed by Connacht and South Africa’s BJ Botha is Munster’s first-choice number three.
“In fairness to Declan Fitzpatrick he came on tour with us to New Zealand, he played in the first Test and did very well,” Kearney continued. “He was unfortunate to get injured early this season but he did come through 55 minutes for Ulster at the weekend. We hope he will get more game time for Ulster this weekend [against Edinburgh].”
Another factor in this rapid process is the state of the Irish scrum at Twickenham last March when Mike Ross went off injured. That appears to have ruled out Tom Court shifting across from loosehead again.
However, Bent could join Court on the bench against the Springboks as the IRB are trialling 23-man squads in the November international window.
It was also revealed yesterday that Bent was sourced by Leinster, not Ireland, via Dublin-based rugby agent Karl Hogan.
“Leinster put out a few feelers among agents around the world to see if they could come up with any Irish players through the grandparent rule,” Kearney explained.
“[Hogan] came up with Michael Bent and [Ireland and Leinster scrum coach] Greg Feek had knowledge of him from his time with the Hurricanes and Taranaki. So Greg checked him out, Leinster talked to him and he was keen to come over.”
Donncha O’Callaghan, expressing a player view, had no problem with the arrival of an 18 stone respected scrummager, even referencing the influence of Kevin Maggs, the Bristol-born centre who won 70 Irish caps.
“You want to have the strongest team and go out and perform at the top level,” said O’Callaghan. “I don’t think it is bending the rules in any way. It is something other countries have been using a long time and we don’t look into it an awful lot.” O’Callaghan added a typically hilarious comment about his new team-mate: “Tightheads are sound. If he was an outhalf or a nine you would have some reservations about him but a tighthead, dead-on.”
The Irish management and Leinster have already discussed playing Bent at Liberty Stadium this weekend but if that doesn’t happen he could become the first home-based player to be capped by Ireland before playing provincial rugby since Brian O’Driscoll way back in August 1999.
