Craig Casey: First Ireland try a dream come true

One of the most pleasing aspects of Ireland's 52-17 win against Fiji was that on a day when Andy Farrell gave his wider squad an opportunity to impress, those players took their chance.

That hasn’t always been the case, such as their previous meeting with the Fijians in 2022, or the final World Cup warm-up against Samoa in 2023, but those that were drafted into the side last Saturday produced an impact.

The debutants, Gus McCarthy and Cormac Izuchukwu, as well as out-half Sam Prendergast, grabbed the headlines, but one of the more established players who caught the eye was Craig Casey.

The Munster scrum-half won his 17th cap on Saturday, his sixth in the starting team, and while he’s unlikely to remove Jamison Gibson-Park from the starting team for next week’s clash with Australia, his stock price in the national squad is continuing to rise.

A first international try, and a very rare conversion, were the obvious highlights across an 80-minute shift, but the 25-year-old is becoming much more consistent at the boring stuff; decision-making and pass quality, the latter of which was summed up by a brilliant pass for Mack Hansen’s second try, where Casey zipped the ball to the touchline, which took five Fijian defenders out of the game.

His try (above) was excellently taken, a diving finish to the right corner, after hooker Gus McCarthy broke down the blind side of a maul, and while it looked spectacular in the moment, Casey played down the acrobatics.

"I don’t know about 'spectacular’," he said.

"Gus did very well to hear me and delivered it really well. It was a nice finish in the corner but to get my first international try is a dream come true.

"It is something I dreamed about going to internationals when I was younger and seeing