Schalk Burger gives his experienced take on Ireland's 'biggest issue'

Former South Africa flanker Schalk Burger believes a few issues have emerged for Ireland in 2024, but the biggest is that they are yet to find a successor to Peter O’Mahony at blindside flanker.

Though the 109-cap former captain has not retired from international rugby, and has indeed played during the Autumn Nations Series, he has been used less frequently as a starter after guiding his country to the Six Nations at the beginning of the year.

But no clear-cut successor to the 35-year-old has emerged over the past month, which Burger believes is Ireland’s “biggest issue”. The ideal composition of a back-row is an area that the former World Rugby player of the year-winning flanker knows very well, of course, but he is not sure Andy Farrell has struck a balance yet.

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With Jack Crowley, Ciaran Frawley and Sam Prendergast all vying to start at fly-half for Ireland, Burger pointed out that no one has yet “stepped up” to fill the void left by Johnny Sexton.

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“I think the issue is the other fly-halves haven’t really stepped up,” Burger said. “Frawley had his moment against us. Crowley hasn’t really stepped up to the plate. Then we all see Prendergast playing – not often for Leinster because they’ve got so much depth there – when he does play he looks like he has time on his side, he looks like a classy operator.

“If you take Ireland, this was the first match week (against Fiji) where they changed it up. Against South Africa they couldn’t, you see the same faces all the time. Unlike us who’s used 51 players, they’re not nearly as close to that unless there’s been an injury.

“Their biggest issue actually is finding a blindside flanker. They used Tadhg Beirne there to cover, but it’s not really a long-term solution. On the weekend they played Cormac Izuchukwu and he wasn’t really impressive, he didn’t really put himself about. Peter O’Mahony has now taken a step back so who’s that blindside flanker that’s really going to take it by the scruff of the neck like we saw Wallace Sititi do this year for the All Blacks?”