Leinster finished with two scrumhalves and two outhalves on the pitch in Bayonne last Saturday, a configuration that won’t have gone unnoticed by Ireland head coach Andy Farrell.
Veteran No.9 Luke McGrath was forced into survival mode when he was dispatched to the wing off the bench during Leinster’s hard-earned 22-13 Champions Cup victory as they progressed to the last 16 of the tournament.
“It was a bit of a mad back line to finish the game,” the 32-year-old said. “I was just trying to do as much as possible. Rieko [Ioane] has helped me a lot with that and, thankfully, I didn’t get the ball too much anyway, so I didn’t have a chance to make too many mistakes.
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“But we were delighted to get the win. It’s a difficult place to go, so it was very pleasing. Avoiding Toulouse and Bordeaux is important – they’re probably the top two in the competition – but people said we were favourites last year and we saw what happened, so it’s about taking one game at a time.”
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Sam Prendergast was sent on at fullback and Harry Byrne continued at outhalf.
Both players are set to be named in Farrell’s Six Nations squad on Thursday afternoon, along with Munster’s Jack Crowley, as the No.10 options.
With the championship opener against France in Paris a fortnight away, the selection of the starting outhalf is one of Farrell’s main concerns – and Byrne has firmly entered the frame.
“He learned a huge amount around Bristol and matured as a person as well,” McGrath said of Byrne’s loan spell at Ashton Gate last season. “He just seems more comfortable with everything.
“He’s obviously getting a lot of game time. He had a few injuries before, but he looks very fit at the minute and is playing great rugby.
“He’s confident. He always had that in him. He was brilliant when he came on the scene, but niggles and injuries held him back. I’m absolutely delighted for him and hopefully he can get into the Irish squad and he can definitely get into the mix.
“Ireland have really good 10s at the minute. You could almost start any of them. It will be interesting to see what happens.”
Now in his 13th season with the province, McGrath and Jamison Gibson-Park have played alongside Byrne and Prendergast at various points in Leinster’s evolving playmaking set-up.
“I played with Ross [Byrne] for years, so I knew all his triggers really well,” he said about his former Leinster team-mate. “You’re comfortable when you know he’s the 10 and I’m the nine. At the start I had to learn what Sam and Harry were like, but I’m just pleased to be able to play with them. They’re brilliant attacking 10s.
“It takes time in training to learn their triggers and what they like; it’s those connections. Now it’s very much about the attack. Everyone knows where we’re going and how we want to play, and whoever’s picked – whether it’s a nine, a 10 or a 12 – just fits into the system.
“The idea is that the performance doesn’t drop. We know what we’re trying to do every week. It doesn’t always happen, but that’s what we’re chasing.”
