Leinster scrum coach John Fogarty felt something akin to paternal anxiety last week with Peter Dooley, James Tracy, Tadhg Furlong and Ross Molony making their first European starts.
“I was a little bit nervous during the week purely because you want those players to have a good experience. What alleviates that is having watched them over the last number of years and knowing them as people,” he said.
Fogarty, who previously worked as an elite player development coach, explained that when he first came across Tracy, he was a young loosehead prop out of Newbridge College; Dooley was a number eight, whom he met as a teenager at a training session in Carlow.
Business
“Knowing the effort that Tracy exerts every week, knowing how he goes about his business; we have heard a lot about Josh [van der Flier] and how he does his business but Tracy is similar.
“Dooley went from Tullamore to Lansdowne and has played well consistently through that environment. [He then] goes into the British & Irish Cup and does well. He’s played against big English sides from the Championship.
“Then we see them in our own training environment. It’s really, really competitive. He has been doing consistently well in the sessions. It’s been encouraging in the last number of months, last number of weeks in particular, where you are watching him and you’re going, ‘this kid is alright’.
“You are having small conversations with Leo [Cullen] the whole time discussing the Dooleys, the Porters, the Jeremys, the Oisins, all these young players.”
That would be Andrew Porter, Jeremy Loughman, Oisin Heffernan.
“We have seen them up to here, tracked them. In the minutes that he has got in the Pro12, Dooley has gone well. Watching the first scrum, the way they went about their business, the intent, the energy they had through that first half, it was great.
“For me, it was let’s give them more opportunities, let them have those opportunities so they can grow; it drives competition the whole time. It drives that environment.
“In the first-half, the energy that frontrow had around the field, how the game was played, the tempo, the tackle count, the carries, were really, really encouraging.
“They’ve had a good experience. We have to take it step by step. They can’t get ahead of themselves. Tuesday is scrum day for us. They need to be really good in that session. They need to turn up really focused, know their drills, be in the right spaces.
Small steps
“They will keep moving forward in small steps. Where they’ll end up? I hope that they end up being in a blue jersey for a long time and winning competitions.”
Meanwhile Grenoble's Clontarf-born scrumhalf James Hart is concentrating on rehabilitating from hernia surgery and upcoming exams rather than focusing on renewed speculation linking him with a move to Racing 92.
Midi Olympique have suggested that the 24-year-old is on the Parisian club's wish-list to replace the departing Mike Phillips. Hart has also previously been linked with Leinster and Munster.
Hart hopes to be back from injury next week.
