Stuary McCloskey has become an international rugby sensation at 33, leading to the question in Ireland and beyond: Why have we not seen more of the Ulster giant in an Ireland jersey?
There are several reasons – two of them being Bundee Aki and Robbie Henshaw – explaining why McCloskey has only won 26 caps since his debut against England at Twickenham in 2016.
Late bloomer: McCloskey has burst onto the scene in his mid-30s
He played well that day but not enough to convince then Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt, who was not a huge admirer of the type of offloading that defined McCloskey’s game, in tandem with his bulk on the charge.
Ireland have been well served at 12 over the last 10 years with Aki and Henshaw but McCloskey’s impact has been so extraordinary since being installed in the midfield that it feels like Ireland have missed a trick by not turning to him sooner.
And, looking back over the years, McCloskey is not the first Ireland player who could justifiably claim to be unfairly overlooked through their careers…
TONY WARD (1978-87, 19 caps)
Ward’s name has been in the news recently given the comparisons drawn between his battle for the Ireland No10 jersey with Ollie Campbell and the ongoing tussle between Sam Prendergast and Jack Crowley.
Ward burst onto the international scene in the late 1970s and immediately earned the reputation as one of the most exciting players in the game.
His jinking ability and speed off the mark made him a nightmare to defend but it was his explosive off-the-cuff style that made him a huge hit with supporters. The claim in Irish rugby at the time that when the ball was fired out to ‘Wardy’ no-one had a clue what was going to happen next made him box-office viewing but not universally popular – certainly not within the ultra-conservative IRFU.
The huge hype and hoopla surrounding Ward did not go down well within the stuffy headquarters of Irish rugby and when the glamorous No10 was controversially dropped for Ollie Campbell on the 1979 tour to Australia, it was seen as the establishment reasserting their authority. The problem for Ward was that Campbell was another world-class talent (albeit in a more structured fashion) and the discarded star was on the fringes of the Ireland team from that point on.
Maverick: Tony Ward was a crowd-pleasing attacking talent
However, whereas few could quibble with Campbell’s place on the team, there was a definite case for Ward being picked ahead of Paul Dean, the player who was installed at No10 under Mick Doyle in 1984.
Dean, who had played in the centres on the 1982 Triple Crown-winning team, was a lovely handler and passer of the ball but his kicking game was not at elite international level and there were many who felt Ward should be reinstated.
However, by that stage, Ward’s reputation as a maverick was entrenched and he was reduced to the odd game here and there until his retirement from international game after the win against Tonga at the 1987 World Cup.
It meant one of the greatest talents of his generation ended his career with a meagre 19 appearances for Ireland – the more adventurous Welsh always maintaining that if Tony Ward had been born in Wales, he would have won well over 50 caps.
MICK GALWEY (1991-2002, 41 caps)
The Kerryman and Munster rugby icon is renowned for being the most dropped player in Irish rugby history. Having won his first cap against France in 1991, Galwey was never able to nail down a regular spot in the Ireland second row and was in and out of the Ireland team throughout the difficult 1990s.
Underappreciated: Mick Galwey is the most dropped Irish player in history
This did not reflect Galwey’s capacity for producing on the big occasions – including Munster’s remarkable win over world champion Australians in 1992; his try-scoring man of the match display in the 17-3 victory over England in 1993 that earned him selection on that summer’s Lions tour to New Zealand; and his leading role on the phenomenal Shannon side that won four in a row All-Ireland League titles in the mid-to-late 1990s.
When rugby turned professional in 1995, there was a mass departure of Ireland players to England in pursuit of full professional contracts – a trend that became so pronounced there was talk of Ireland holding their training sessions in London rather than Dublin.
The fact that Galwey opted to stay put undoubtedly affected his selection prospects at that time and the consistent exclusion of Munster players helped to develop a chip-on-the-shoulder attitude in the southern province that would ultimately change the face of Irish rugby.
Declan Kidney’s side famously defeated the Ireland national team in a pre-World Cup warm-up game in Musgrave Park in 1999 and their exploits in Europe, where they started racking up wins against far better resourced English and French teams ultimately forced the hand of the national selectors.
A clutch of Munster players, including Galwey, Ronan O’Gara, Peter Stringer and John Hayes were brought into the Ireland side for the 2000 Six Nations and that was seen as the catalyst for the transformation of the national side from the whipping boys of the 1990s to a team that has won more Six Nations games than any other country since the turn of the century.
Galwey, at this stage in his mid-30s, was even awarded the Ireland captaincy on the back of his outstanding leadership of Munster – the clearest acknowledgement of all that the selectors had got it wrong earlier in his career.
ALAN QUINLAN (1999-2008, 27 caps)
Quinlan has become a familiar face and voice in Irish rugby through his extensive work as a pundit but when his own career is revisited, it is generally his storied achievements with Munster that are dwelt upon, rather than his time in the Ireland jersey.
Tall, athletic, fast and tough, the Tipperary man was an explosive talent in Irish rugby in the late 1990s and through the 2000s but only has 27 caps to his name, many of them coming in off-Broadway settings.
His most memorable contribution in green was scoring the try against Argentina that secured Ireland’s progress to the knockout stages of the 2003 World Cup – and severely injuring himself in the progress – but a player of his ability should have well over 50 caps.
The reason Quinlan does not have a higher tally can be summed up in two words – Simon Easterby.
Explosive: Alan Quinlan scores the vital try against Argentina in 2003
Ireland’s current defence coach was a favourite of Eddie O’Sullivan’s in the 2000s – a solid, consistent operator on the blindside who always stuck to the script. Like Quinlan, Easterby was an excellent lineout operator and a good defender but he was nowhere near as explosive on the ball and did not bring the same edge that defined the Munsterman and could have made a difference during the disastrous 2007 World Cup campaign – when Quinlan was an unused reserve.
JACK CONAN (2015-, 57 caps)
Conan has had a stellar international career, the Test No8 on successive Lions tours, and would be seen as a late bloomer, having made the most impact since turning 30.
However, there is a reason Conan had to bide his time after winning his first cap way back in 2015 – Ireland’s questionable devotion to South African CJ Stander.
The Afrikaaner arrived over to Munster in 2012 with very little English but after an awkward bedding-in period, impressed everyone with his commitment and industry. When he qualified on residency in 2016, he was straight into Joe Schmidt’s Irish team and was a fixture there until he decided to quit and head home to South Africa in 2021.
What might have been: Conan has a far more rounded game than CJ Stander
During that six-year period, the Munster no8, along with various injury issues, constituted a major roadblock to Conan. It was only when Stander was gone and Conan got his shot that we realised what Ireland had been missing. Conan had all the workrate and innate toughness of the South African but far more skill and nuance, embracing the more expansive style under Andy Farrell and adding to the sense of regret at caps squandered.
GEORDAN MURPHY (2000-2011, 72 caps)
Murphy won 72 caps, a superb international tally by any standards, but the reality is that for the majority of his Ireland career, he was understudy to Girvan Dempsey under Eddie O’Sullivan.
Genius: Geordan Murphy was renowned for his exciting attacking style
Dempsey was an excellent full-back, especially in defence where he offered reassurance for those in front of him, but he could not compete with Murphy when it came to attacking innovation.
The Kildare man went to Leicester as a teenager and won over the notoriously hard-to-impress Welford Road crowd to the point of idolisation for his attacking brilliance. Once famously described as the ‘George Best of rugby’, O’Sullivan was less convinced and, with injuries also getting in the way, Murphy was not able to have the impact with Ireland his talents deserved.
JOHN COONEY (2017-, 11 caps)
Arguably, the most unfairly overlooked of all. For about four years after controversially replacing Rian Pienaar as Ulster scrum-half in 2017, it would be no exaggeration to say Cooney was the best No9 in European rugby.
Following the French, ‘petit-general’ style favoured by the likes of Antoine Dupont, Cooney unleashed a string of ‘Roy of the Rovers’ match-winning displays for Ulster that immediately won over an initially hostile Ravenhill crowd and quickly made him a cult hero.
Le petit general: John Cooney’s form was not rewarded by Ireland
A superb kicker, out of hand and off the tee, Cooney was also a physical presence at the base of the ruck and had tremendous speed on the break, leading to regular tries. However, while there were numerous calls for his Ireland elevation from outside Ireland, neither Joe Schmidt nor Andy Farrell seemed overly convinced and there was talk that influential members of the Ireland squad were not fans of the confident Dubliner and that his ‘face did not fit’. Unfortunately for Cooney, the one time where his form seemed irresistible and he was destined to be first-choice scrum-half was the same time the pandemic struck and he was firmly consigned to the ‘what might have been’ files.
MATT HEALY (2016, 1 cap)
There has been a lot of talk recently about Ireland belatedly realising the virtues of out-and-out gas though the selections of Robert Baloucoune and Tommy O’Brien, but they could have gone down this path a lot sooner if they had put their faith in Healy.
The scrum-half-turned-winger (who was overlooked by Leinster and ended up in the professional game via AIL rugby with Lansdowne) was absolutely rapid and for several seasons in and around Connacht’s seminal Pro12 title in 2016, was lethally effective out wide for Pat Lam’s team. One European game against Grenoble stands out, when Healy was practically unplayable and ripped the French side apart at will – leading to wonderment in France’s media how he did not have a bag of caps for Ireland.
Flyer: Matt Healy had raw speed which could have been huge for Ireland
The reason was that Healy was a tad too maverick for Joe Schmidt, who preferred the solidity of wingers like Dave Kearney and Andrew Trimble. However, in 2016, Healy’s form could not be ignored and he was taken on the tour to South Africa, where he won his solitary cap off the bench. It has never been publicly confirmed but the story goes that, within that cameo, Ireland management were unhappy at how Healy had failed to clear out a ruck properly and banished him back to the international wilderness – possibly to their own detriment, based on their attacking struggles at the 2019 World Cup.
