McFadden keen to make a pitch for number 13 jersey

RUGBY NEWS ROUND-UP:ASSUREDLY, NO Irish player has ever done more to encourage young boys to take up rugby than Brian O'Driscoll, although at the same time, ironically, no position in the history of Irish rugby has seemed like more of a closed shop over the last 11 years than the green jersey with the number 13 on its back.

Now though, with Ireland resigned to facing their first Six Nations campaign without the great man since 1999, there is a posse of young pretenders jostling for a shot at replacing the seemingly irreplaceable. In the continuing absence of Keith Earls, the provincial midfields over the last few weeks have featured the inexperienced, uncapped quintet of Eoin O’Malley, Danny Barnes, Eoin Griffin, Darren Cave and Nevin Spence.

Luke Fitzgerald has also expressed his interest in having another run there, and Fergus McFadden, having had a couple of games there before injury ruled him out of the Heineken Cup game against Glasgow last Sunday week, yesterday made it clear he regards it as his favourite position.

“I’ve put my hand up of course,” he said with a smile as he acknowledged the stampede for the number 13 jersey. “I played there against Munster and Montpellier and felt I did well. I was injured for the Heineken home game against Glasgow and Eoin (O’Malley) played there and I thought he did great. He played well again against Treviso. That’s the competition and it’s at every position. It’s making everyone perform better and hopefully it’ll make me play better too.”

Judging by McFadden’s forays into Test rugby, the Irish management appear to regard him more as a winger, while under Joe Schmidt, more of his midfield game time has been at inside centre. He believes he can do a job at either 12 or 13, but admits to a preference for the latter.

“I can play both but 13 is probably my favourite. You probably get your hands on the ball in a bit more space, you’ve to make some good reads in defence. At 12, depending on the type of game, you might get your hands on the ball a bit more and be a bit more of a playmaker. Both have their pros and cons.”

Outside centre is widely regarded as the most difficult position on the pitch to defend and McFadden would agree. “It’s kind of the fulcrum because you’re a small bit vulnerable through set-piece, with the forwards tied up with lineouts and scrums, and you have to make good reads out there. As Brian has showed over the last 11 years for Ireland, it is key in defence.”

Last Saturday, necessity being the mother of invention, McFadden was obliged to return to the wing, which he regards as something worth having “in the locker”. Having made the cut for the World Cup squad, he does not regard himself as a victim of his versatility.

“No, as long as now that we are coming into a few of the bigger games I will get time in the centre. We’ll see how things pan out. At the moment in Leinster we have such a strong squad and the great thing is the lads who do come in do nearly equally as good a job as anyone else. It’s great.”

Leinster have no new injury concerns arising from their win in Treviso, and along with some of the international contingent who were rested for that game, it is anticipated Isa Nacewa, (who incidentally celebrated the birth of his third daughter, Lucy, last week), Richardt Strauss and Heinke van der Merwe will return.

Cian Healy also returned to training and scrum coach Greg Feek anticipated the Irish loose-head will be fit for consideration as Leinster seek to extend their eight-match unbeaten run.

McFadden believes Fionn Carr, having adapted to less game time than he’d have been accustomed to at Connacht, will become a better player under Schmidt. Regarding another of their Connacht recruits, Jamie Hagan probably has the furthest to travel, but similarly Feek has seen evidence of progress.

Feek particularly liked the way Hagan recovered from one or two bad scrums against Treviso. “As a coach, you look at that and see he got decked but he came back on the next one.

“As a tighthead you can never say ‘I never got caught in my whole rugby career, I won every scrum’. There are not too many tightheads in the world who can say that. With Jamie, I like the fact he came back and he hung in there and fought.

“For Jamie I think it is minute by minute,” added Feek. “Let’s not worry about next month, next week, next year. Every minute he gets on the field, let’s just make the most of it. A scrum goes for 15 seconds, get to the next one and we’re just trying to get him to do what he needs to do really. So, we’ll see.”

Already over 15,600 tickets have been sold for Friday’s game against Cardiff Blues at the RDS and tickets are on sale from www.leinsterrugby.ie, the Leinster Rugby Store (Donnybrook), Spar (Donnybrook) and Ticketmaster outlets nationwide.