{"id":299130,"date":"2026-02-15T09:36:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T09:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/299130\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T09:36:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T09:36:08","slug":"injury-pain-makes-6n-debut-matter-more-for-izuchukwu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/299130\/","title":{"rendered":"Injury pain makes 6N debut matter more for Izuchukwu"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s only a few months ago that Ireland played a major Test match without a single Ulster Rugby representative.<\/p>\n

Less than three months on, and the province\u2019s resurgence has been rewarded.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, Richie Murphy\u2019s squad supplied three players to the Irish starting team and another two to the bench, and almost all of them justified their inclusion in the 20-13 win against Italy<\/a> in the Guinness Six Nations.<\/p>\n

Rob Baloucoune scored a try and was named Player of the Match, although this observer would have voted for his fellow Ulsterman Stuart McCloskey, who assisted two Irish tries and forced a crucial turnover just before half time.<\/p>\n

Nick Timoney and Tom O\u2019Toole both added impact off the bench to help Ireland see things out, while the last of that Ulster quintet was Cormac Izuchukwu, earning his fourth cap and first in the Six Nations.<\/p>\n

\"14
\nCormac Izuchukwu was Ireland’s main lineout option on Saturday<\/p>\n

“I was delighted,” the versatile forward told RT\u00c9 Sport after Ireland\u2019s win.<\/p>\n

To make it extra special, the 26-year-old didn\u2019t expect to be featuring in this Six Nations.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s only played five games in a season which has been stop-start due to injuries to his ankle, foot and toe, while this was his first appearance since 2 January.<\/p>\n

And having initially been left out of the squad due to injury, only to be brought back in to replace the stricken Tom Ahern, Izuchukwu has been keen to make the most of his rare opportunity in green.<\/p>\n

“Obviously I’ve had a pretty crap season. I’ve been injured for the whole season, played like four or five games, haven’t played since December [early January], I think.<\/p>\n

“I met a surgeon recently and I was supposed to get surgery, and said I’d give it one more shot and then all of a sudden you’re playing again, so it’s class.<\/p>\n

“It’s unbelievable. I was delighted.<\/p>\n

“The France game was such a big stage and I had a taste of it from sitting on the bench as the 24th man.<\/p>\n

\"14
\nCormac Izuchukwu (r) squares up to Italy’s Lorenzo Cannone<\/p>\n

“They’re all so special to me, whether it’s Portugal or Fiji or Georgia or whatever, they mean the world to me.<\/p>\n

“But I was blown away by the response from just social media, online, my family, it’s such a big deal to them.<\/p>\n

“Six Nations, maybe I didn’t grasp it as much as I should have, so that was a shock, but I kind of came to terms with the last couple of days, got my head around it and then just got stuck in,” he added.<\/p>\n

The flanker made seven tackles and seven carries across 58 minutes, but it was at the lineout where he was most influential as Ireland\u2019s main option for Dan Sheehan.<\/p>\n

On the other side of the ball, he made a crucial steal close to his own line early in the second half, although he admits there should have been a couple of others to go with it, but for a well-drilled Italian setpiece.<\/p>\n

“No shock to anyone, anyone who plays six for Ireland usually is used and used well [at the lineout], so I was happy enough to get up, and I got lucky sometimes in defence.<\/p>\n

\"14<\/p>\n

“I thought I picked my spots well, we had a plan going in.<\/p>\n

“Their drill is class, they get double-top height every time and unlucky not to steal a couple more, just got the one, but happy enough.”<\/p>\n

The large Ulster contingent will all have made real cases to keep their place for next week, as Ireland take on England at Twickenham, a game that has taken on a different complexion after England\u2019s surprise defeat to Scotland.<\/a><\/p>\n

And Izuchukwu is hoping his Ulster contingent can spread their infectious confidence across the squad, ahead of next Saturday\u2019s trip to London.<\/p>\n

“Stu [McCloskey] has been class for the last 10 years. He\u2019s been unbelievable for Ulster and if you watch us play or watch him play for Ireland he has always been good.<\/p>\n

“Rob [Baloucoune] obviously, a complete joke when he was on today.<\/p>\n

“Whenever you\u2019re winning games you obviously feel bigger. You stack that back-to-back every week and hopefully when you come in to camp you have that belief and trust that you are playing well.<\/p>\n

“We play that system [at Ulster] that is similar to Ireland and Mark Sexton is an unbelievable coach so it is easier to get back into it.<\/p>\n

“If you look at the [Ireland] squad and who\u2019s there, a lot of the lads are the best players in the world in their position. And if not, then they should be viewed that way.<\/p>\n

“Everyone on that team is so good. It\u2019s a bit younger now but when I come in here I feel like I am in the best team in the world with the best players in the world. That\u2019s all that really matters for me.”<\/p>\n

Watch Wales v France in the Six Nations on Sunday from 2.30pm on RT\u00c92 and RT\u00c9 Player<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s only a few months ago that Ireland played a major Test match without a single Ulster Rugby…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299131,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-299130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}