Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Ireland's 5 key players in stunning Six Nations campaign

By PA
Johnny Sexton jumps for joy - PA

Ireland celebrated Grand Slam glory after defeating England in Dublin. Here, the PA news agency picks out five standout performers in the Guinness Six Nations triumph.

ADVERTISEMENT

Caelan Doris
Doris has become a colossal figure in Ireland’s back row having developed from a rising star to a world-class number eight since making his debut in the first match of Andy Farrell’s tenure. The towering 24-year-old claimed his country’s opening try of the tournament and has been a fearsome presence for opposition sides. His outstanding ball-carrying skills were a key weapon in the Irish arsenal, while he also produced a series of crucial turnovers.

Johnny Sexton
Influential on and off the field, captain Sexton continues to relentlessly drive standards. The 37-year-old taskmaster deservedly celebrated his final Six Nations campaign by lifting the title for the first time as skipper and a fourth occasion overall. He also took individual acclaim by surpassing former fly-half rival Ronan O’Gara as the championship’s all-time leading points scorer. His forthcoming retirement following the autumn World Cup in France will leave sizeable boots to fill.

Video Spacer

Video Spacer

Hugo Keenan
Like Doris, Ireland’s ‘Mr Dependable’ is one of the fresh faces who have helped the team kick on since the 2019 World Cup. Keenan has made the full-back role his own and started 30 of his country’s last 32 matches. Exceptional under the high ball, the 26-year-old is lightning quick and rarely makes mistakes. His major contributions during the championship included Ireland’s opening try in the pulsating victory over France, while he was among the tournament’s top performers for metres gained.

Mack Hansen
Successive man-of-the-match displays against Italy and Scotland underlined the Australia-born wing’s increasing importance to the cause. The 24-year-old, who only made his Test debut a year ago, was phenomenal at Murrayfield and, like James Lowe on the opposing flank, has added a different dimension to Ireland’s attack. A constant creative threat, he is fearless, pacey and chips in with crucial tries, such as his timely second at Stadio Olimpico.

James Ryan
The lock continues to grow as a leader and impressed players past and present by speaking passionately of Ireland’s troubled history and the significance of wearing the green jersey in the run-up to the France game. On the field, he is back to his formidable best after suffering a dip in form either side of the 2021 Lions tour, for which he was overlooked. He led the team in Rome and was a tackling machine throughout the tournament.

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

J
JW 34 minutes ago
How law changes are speeding up the game - but the scrum lags behind

Very good, now we are getting somewhere (though you still didn't answer the question but as you're a South African I think we can all assume what the answer would be if you did lol)! Now let me ask you another question, and once you've answered that to yourself, you can ask yourself a followup question, to witch I'm intrigued to know the answer.


Well maybe more than a couple of questions, just to be clear. What exactly did this penalty stop you from doing the the first time that you want to try again? What was this offence that stopped you doing it? Then ask yourself how often would this occur in the game. Now, thinking about the regularity of it and compare it to how it was/would be used throughout the rest of the game (in cases other than the example you gave/didn't give for some unknown reason).


What sort of balance did you find?


Now, we don't want to complicate things further by bringing into the discussion points Bull raised like 'entirety' or 'replaced with a ruck', so instead I'll agree that if we use this article as a trigger to expanding our opinions/thoughts, why not allow a scrum to be reset if that is what they(you) want? Stopping the clock for it greatly removes the need to stop 5 minutes of scrum feeds happening. Fixing the law interpretations (not incorrectly rewarding the dominant team) and reducing the amount of offences that result in a penalty would greatly reduce the amount of repeat scrums in the first place. And now that refs a card happy, when a penalty offence is committed it's going to be far more likely it results in the loss of a player, then the loss of scrums completely and instead having a 15 on 13 advantage for the scrum dominant team to then run their opposition ragged. So why not take the scrum again (maybe you've already asked yourself that question by now)?


It will kind be like a Power Play in Hockey. Your outlook here is kind of going to depend on your understanding of what removing repeat scrums was put in place for, but I'm happy the need for it is gone in a new world order. As I've said on every discussion on this topic, scrums are great, it is just what they result in that hasn't been. Remove the real problem and scrum all you like. The All Blacks will love zapping that energy out of teams.

159 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING Tom Hooper casts Wallabies future in doubt with move to England Tom Hooper casts Wallabies future in doubt with move to England
Search