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Andy Farrell breaks his silence on the Ireland axing of John Cooney

Andy Farrell has once again decided against including John Cooney in his Ireland squad. (Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

Ireland coach Andy Farrell has broken his silence on the John Cooney situation eight days after the popular Ulster scrum-half was left out of the national squad for the upcoming Six Nations games against Italy and France. 

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Farrell unveiled a 35-strong squad on October 8 for the autumn Test programme that begins in Dublin on October 24 against the Italians. 

There was no room for Cooney and also Leinster’s Luke McGrath, the respective first-choice Ulster and Leinster scrum-halves both getting left out to accommodate the uncapped Jamison Gibson-Park and Kieran Marmion.

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Dylan Hartley and Jamie Roberts look ahead to Saturday’s Champions Cup final

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Dylan Hartley and Jamie Roberts look ahead to Saturday’s Champions Cup final

It was doubly tough on Cooney as he was touted as being a likely Ireland starter when the match versus Italy was originally due to be played in early March. However, that was postponed due to the outbreak of the pandemic and despite having subbed for Conor Murray in the three February Six Nations games, he now finds himself looking in from the outside.   

“I wouldn’t say it’s a new direction,” said Farrell when asked about his scrum-half selection thinking. “John Cooney is a great player. Luke McGrath is a great player as well and Luke has missed out. I don’t get any pleasure whatsoever from not picking lads. 

“I know they are desperate to play for their country and rightfully so but you have got to make a call, what’s good for the team and you look at all sorts of things regarding selection. Obviously, form, attitude, what the last seven months have looked like, how they have come back etc and my job is to make sure I select a team that is going to keep everyone on their toes.

“Competition for places has got to be one of the key factors going forward for this team and some people are going to lose out, but I hope that galvanises them and I hope that they come back bigger and stronger and give us a few headaches along the way.”

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Farrell added that injury concerns Johnny Sexton and Andrew Porter are progressing encouragingly before next week’s team selection to face the Azzurri. 

“They have got a few protocols to come through but they are looking good. They trained a low key session Thursday and got through that absolutely fine. We have got a decent old session Saturday and we’ll see how they go with that, but at this moment in time they are progressing very well.”

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JW 1 hour ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Where? I remember saying "unders"? The LNR was formed by the FFR, if I said that in a way that meant the 'pro' side of the game didn't have an equal representation/say as the 'amateur' side (FFR remit) that was not my intent.


But also, as it is the governing body, it also has more responsibility. As long as WR looks at FFR as the running body for rugby in France, that 'power' will remain. If the LNR refuses to govern their clubs use of players to enable a request by FFR (from WR) to ensure it's players are able to compete in International rugby takes place they will simply remove their participation. If the players complain to the France's body, either of their health and safety concerns (through playing too many 'minutes' etc) or that they are not allowed to be part in matches of national interest, my understanding is action can be taken against the LNR like it could be any other body/business. I see where you're coming from now re EPCR and the shake up they gave it, yes, that wasn't meant to be a separate statement to say that FFR can threaten them with EPCR expulsion by itself, simply that it would be a strong repercussion for those teams to be removed (no one would want them after the above).


You keep bringing up these other things I cannot understand why. Again, do you think if the LNR were not acting responsibly they would be able to get away with whatever they want (the attitude of these posters saying "they pay the players")? You may deem what theyre doing currently as being irresponsible but most do not. Countries like New Zealand have not even complained about it because they've never had it different, never got things like windfall TV contracts from France, so they can't complain because theyre not missing out on anything. Sure, if the French kept doing things like withholding million dollar game payments, or causing millions of dollars of devaluation in rights, they these things I'm outlining would be taking place. That's not the case currently however, no one here really cares what the French do. It's upto them to sort themselves out if they're not happy. Now, that said, if they did make it obvious to World Rugby that they were never going to send the French side away (like they possibly did stating their intent to exclude 20 targeted players) in July, well then they would simply be given XV fixtures against tier 2 sides during that window and the FFR would need to do things like the 50/50 revenue split to get big teams visiting in Nov.

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