COMEBACK STAR ROB HAS EARNED CHANCE

Ulster winger Baloucoune seizing the Ireland chance he thought had passed him by

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ROBERT Baloucoune first broke into the Ireland squad as a powerhouse, athletic-type winger, called into the training panel in 2020.

He was going places — the fashion was for big types with explosive pace and he was capped on the 2021 summer tour, playing 80 minutes and scoring against USA.

But, then, there have been all sorts happening since not least successive injuries preventing him making a linear claim for an Ireland spot.

While his sunny Ireland sky started raining No.14s — almost all of them without warning, hard to forecast and freezing him out!

Mack Hansen's feet had barely touched the ground in Galway in August 2021 before, with unprecedented alacrity for a player not scouted by the IRFU for a major province, he ended ups training with Ireland in November and becoming a key 2022 Six Nations component.

Around that point Andy Farrell, having undergone a late RWC2023 rethink, made an express pilgrimage to Limerick to hold a summit with a cagey Keith Earls; could the winger hold off retirement for a year?

Meanwhile, Calvin Nash turned up the hard-nosed physicality at Munster through the first half of the 2022/23 season and made the November training.

He debuted in a RWC2023 buildup game and started the terrific 2024 opening Six Nations win against France in Marseille2024 — the first of a run of seven consecutive games.

Moreover, Leinster's unshakable faith in that if Tommy O'Brien ever attains full fitness they will have a gem proved a terrific credo; and the 27 year old made his debut in the summer of 2025, the start of a run of seven straight games taking him in to this Six Nations and France.

All of them, wear the No.14 shirt, that’s their bread and butter.

Ahead of the field in 2020 and 2021, Baloucoune had watched, helplessly, this peloton of rugby players whizzed by before redemption.