Giuseppe Verdi once said “you may have the universe if I may have Italy”; a sentiment with which Ryan Baird might empathise.
The 23-year-old will win his ninth Ireland cap at the Stadio Olimpico tomorrow afternoon and a third of those will have been against Italy. It’s not merely the frequency that spawns an affinity but a couple of milestones in his fledgling international career.
Baird made his Ireland debut against the Italians in 2021 in the empty Roman stadium due to coronavirus restrictions, a 17-minute cameo that he shared, his erstwhile buddy Craig Casey also on debut, with whom he had shared some good times in Irish jerseys at Under-18, Under-19 and Under-20 levels.
Five more caps followed that year, a couple in the Six Nations, two summer Tests and another against Argentina in November. Baird came on against Wales in last year’s Six Nations and then started against Italy at the Aviva Stadium, marking the occasion with his first try for his country.
Although he toured New Zealand with Ireland last summer he didn’t play in the Tests — he was introduced from the bench in the two games against the Maori All Blacks as Kieran Treadwell and Joe McCarthy were the preferred secondrow combination — while injury precluded him from being involved last November following a heavy fall while playing for Leinster and against the Sharks.
Seven of his 10 appearances provincially have been as blindside flanker, where his innate athleticism is given greater scope to affect the game. To his credit, he’s also refined and developed the more mundane aspects of the tighter exchanges at the breakdown and in making defensive reads.
He also appreciates the importance of putting first the greater good of the collective.
“While you’re not playing at the weekend, you still have such a great opportunity on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday to practise things in training because we are all on about habits here a lot. Paulie [O’Connell] would drive that and the only way to create a habit is through repetition, so I use, and we all use, training as that platform to do that,” he said.
“We have specific goals and objectives that we want to instil in ourselves throughout training and then you’ve got to think long-term that I’m doing this for the betterment of the future Ryan Baird. Not just thinking short-term like, ‘what am I going to do this week?’
“But obviously, yes, when you do get to play, it’s a great opportunity and the bank of work you have done over the last couple of years shows in the performance on the Saturday. You can’t just pull something out of the hat on the Tuesday and hope it works on the Saturday.”
Those opportunities are hard-won in an Ireland team that is going well, a situation that Baird touches upon several times during the conversation. He’s very much attuned to the gospel according to the Irish team’s high-performance manager Gary Keegan, whom he describes as “phenomenal”.
Would be cool to see Ireland’s two uncapped players linking up like this again tomorrow.
— Cian Tracey (@CianTracey1) February 26, 2021
Craig Casey and Ryan Baird were a real force for the U-20s in 2019.
This kind of attacking rugby would be very welcome too. pic.twitter.com/gBXCE4qYxK
Baird advocates a simple mantra arising from collaboration. “Gary will always say that nine-tenths of high performance is preparation, so the more you prepare, the less surprises you can face.” He’s diligent in that respect and it helps him cope with the vagaries of selection, trying not to not only maintain an equilibrium emotionally but focus on what he needs to do to change that picture for the coaches.
“Well, I guess I look for feedback. You know, where can I go? What can I do? It’s understanding what your objective is and trying not to let something external affect your focus. So, for me, preparing on selection day, preparing myself mentally if I don’t get selected, it’s not going to affect how I approach the rest of the day. I’m still going to get what I need to get out of that day and try not to let things sidetrack me,” he said.
“Obviously we are humans, your emotions come into play. It’s a lot easier said than done, but I guess if you have that kind of focus, that kind of north star of where I am trying to get to, it’s easier to put stuff aside because you know where you want to go.”
Tomorrow he will get a chance to reinforce the theory in practice against that familiar, comforting blue background.
