2 weeks Ago
IRELAND U20S RAN into mightier specimens and came up short against England in their Six Nations opener at Musgrave Park. The game was a microcosm of the challenge awaiting Gene O’Leary Kareem if he is to reach career heights commensurate with his skill level. With Ireland two scores down to the larger, vastly more experienced world champions last Thursday week, head coach Neil Doak introduced the Munster centre in search of a creative spark.
It was the right idea in theory: Doak moved the outstanding Leinster man Connor Fahy inside to 12 and swapped out the defensively excellent Eoghan Smyth for his fellow Cork man O’Leary Kareem, who only eight months earlier at the same ground had lifted the Munster Schools Senior Cup with Pres after running amok against their cross-city rivals Christians. That the change yielded little for Ireland was certainly not the fault of the former PBC captain, who had precious little to work with as Mark Mapletoft’s England finished over the top of the hosts. But it was a tall order for O’Leary Kareem even optically: his opposite number, Saracens 13 Angus Hall, is 6’2 and listed at 91kg.
Inside him was Exeter’s Cape Town-born 12, Nic Allison: 6’3 and 95kg. O’Leary Kareem, the same age as the English pairing at 19, is somewhere between 5’10 and 5’11. He has already visibly bulked up since school, certainly — he’s probably near the 90kg mark — but given his relatively diminutive frame for a centre, the imperative for Munster will be that he doesn’t become so bound in muscle that he sacrifices the dexterity which makes him a standout talent.
That balancing act was encapsulated in Munster A’s December defeat to their Leinster counterparts in which O’Leary Kareem exhibited signs of his attacking brilliance, notching a tidy score for good measure, but demonstrably struggled to get to grips with his Leinster counterpart when the ball was going the other way. Ironically, the man opposite O’Leary Kareem in Nenagh that day will today become his starting Ireland midfield partner: Connor Fahy begins at inside centre against Scotland tonight at Edinburgh’s Hive Stadium (7:45pm, RTÉ 2). Fahy was, along with blindside Michael Foy and virtually the full Irish front row in the circumstances, the standout performer on an otherwise miserable Thursday night on Leeside.
The 20-year-old Wexford Wanderers product, now turning heads for Clontarf in AIL Division 1A, was a destructive force on either side of the ball, punching holes in the England defence from both centre positions and melting a handful of visiting ball-carriers. Against a more timid Scottish line, his partnership with new starter O’Leary Kareem should be considered appointment viewing for Irish rugby fans. Those who caught O’Leary Kareem’s Pres team in last year’s Munster Schools Senior Cup will know the scéal.
This Ireland duo is very similar in profile to that of Ger Burke’s cup-winning midfield, where O’Leary Kareem did wreck outside a genuine power athlete in James O’Leary, his first cousin and Pres’ SCT skipper this year. The younger O’Leary’s time with Ireland 20s may one day arrive: he’s built like a number eight and is, like Fahy, a dynamic ball-carrier with excellent footwork and deft hands out of contact. Fahy will provide a similar go-forward platform for O’Leary Kareem in the Scottish capital tonight, from which point the Munster 13 should have the step, instinct, and outrageous offloading ability to knit together attacking sequences that proved impossible against England.
It should be noted that the step up in physicality from schools even to U20 rugby is massive. Doing it in the space of eight months constitutes more of a leap. A line of thinking among some coaches who have seen O’Leary Kareem at close quarters is that he plays so much of his rugby at the line, his smaller-than-most stature may prove inconsequential as he furthers his professional career.
His hands, footwork, and feel for the game are — theoretically, at least — that good. Only time will tell whether theory will become reality but O’Leary Kareem, who sat his Leaving Cert only last summer, has plenty of it on his side as he makes his proper bow at this level. That he can tonight lean on a centre partner of Fahy’s calibre to test the fence for weaknesses should buy him enough time to catch the eye.
Leinster man Fahy is good enough that he will demand serious attention from Scotland. And many an age-grade defence has lived to regret taking its eye off the Munster prodigy outside him. Neil Doak’s Ireland side should bounce back against the Scots, who fell 22-10 to Italy in Edinburgh last week.
Gene O’Leary Kareem and Connor Fahy may combine for style points on top of what should be a maximum return from this trip across the water..
