'He's learning and improving all the time, that's why he's back in this environment'

The 42

a day ago

HE'S BEEN ONE of Munster's most important players for years, but when it comes to international rugby, Gavin Coombes has often found himself on the outside looking in.
The 27-year-old has clocked up 120 appearances for his province but has been capped just twice at Test level, coming off the bench in a July 2021 meeting with Japan before starting against the USA a week later.
Over the past 12 months he's kept his head in the door with Ireland, but has been left frustrated when it's come to selection.
Coombes was named in the Ireland A squad ahead of their February meeting with an England A team, but missed the game after being called into Andy Farrell's senior squad ahead of the Six Nations meeting with Wales. He left that international window having played no minutes for either side.
However the backrower looks set to get back into a green jersey over the coming fortnight, with Ireland hoping to give gametime to all of their 33-strong squad on the upcoming tour of Georgia and Portugal, which kicks-off in Tbilisi this Saturday [KO 6pm Irish time, Virgin Media].
'Gavin, he's turned up, he's looking fit, he's looking hungry the last few days,' says Denis Leamy, Ireland's defence coach for the two-game tour.
Coombes won his two Ireland caps in July 2021. Ryan Byrne / INPHO Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO
'I think he's deployed himself really well, he's been really good in training. Gavin has been in and out of Irish squads over the last couple of years. The times he's been left out, he's understood the reasons why and (they) have been very fair. Gavin has gone away and worked hard on those parts of the games.
'He's back in now, he has that chance now on Saturday, hopefully, if selected, that he can go and apply that and put his best foot forward. He's a guy that over the last couple of years has been very good for Munster.'
Leamy, who coaches Coombes at Munster, feels the Cork man has points of difference he can offer in the squad.
'I think he's hugely strong around opposition 22. His ability to make yards, score tries, he's one of the best around at that and his general play is improving all the time.
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'He's worked great between 22 and 22. His ability to make yards in open play, his ability to clock up big numbers in his tackles, his rucks and the fundamentals around his basic play, around number eight (working) at the base (of the scrum). He's learning and improving that all the time, that's why he's back in this environment.'
With many of the Ireland coaches away on the Lions tour with Andy Farrell, Leamy is enjoying the opportunity to join O'Connell's set up as defence coach.
'It's brilliant to come in and just get different perspectives on how the different provinces are playing the game. Everyone's playing the game relatively similar, but there's little tweaks here and there and everyone sees the game slightly different.
Ireland assistant coach Denis Leamy. Leah Scholes / INPHO Leah Scholes / INPHO / INPHO
'A lot of the boys I've worked with either at Leinster or at Irish U20s level, so I know the vast majority of them. It's lovely to see them develop as players, how they've grown into men and how they've developed their own perspective on the game, their own opinions. It's excellent to be back in around them.
'We just find when it's a national set-up, the unity straight away, they all mix. My generation, there was huge rivalry and I think there is still rivalry but it took us a few weeks for the frostiness to wear off. The boys just seem to get on so well. They're straight in, they're best mates, they're constantly over and back on WhatsApp and all the different platforms. It's better than when I was a player. They've grown up a little bit from when we were there.'
Leamy expects to see this Irish group get tested in a variety of ways against Georgia.
'I think it's very clear that they're well put together off their launch players, their scrums, their lineouts. They have really good three phase, four phase plays and they run them really well. Their big threat is Davit Niniashvili [fullback/out-half].
'He's obviously an excellent player, but they're very well put together at 10 by Tedo Abzhandadze. He runs the thing very well. They have the ability to play around you. They have the ability to take you on confrontationally, and they're a very, very well coached team. You can see that they're top level rugby players and they're well used to playing in a big league like France.
'You'd imagine that Georgia would have loads of reasons to be inspired to play a huge game against us on Saturday,' he added.
'We're expecting a really tough, tough game. We're expecting opponents that are really well put together by their coaches… Richard Cockerill, you have Conor McPhillips who's worked in the Irish system and who's been with Bristol as well. He's a really experienced attack coach, so you can see in their game that they're well put together. They're physical. They've got a great platform around their scrum, their maul, their lineout. It is a big test. We're out of our comfort zone and it's exactly the sort of test that we're looking forward to.'