One area where Ireland have not struggled for players in recent years has been in the back row, with all three spots fiercely contested for some time now.
Andy Farrell has had a wealth of options to choose from among the Leinster contingent alone, with heavy pressure from around the country.
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A symbol of Ireland’s strength in this position is the limited game time that has been afforded to the likes of Gavin Coombes.
Despite all of that, however, it is hard to argue that Grégory Alldritt would not stand a great chance of walking straight into this team.
Leinster fans will know all about Alldritt’s back-to-back Champions Cup final wins as La Rochelle captain, while he has emerged as one of the first names on the France team sheet since his debut in 2019.
One aspect some Ireland fans may not be aware of is that Alldritt was, in fac,t eligible to line out for the Boys in Green before he made his debut for France.
Alldritt comes from a varied background, with roots in Denmark, Scotland, and Kenya. However, his paternal grandfather was born in Dublin, a fact he confirmed ahead of La Rochelle’s first Champions Cup final clash with Leinster in 2022.
As La Rochelle prepare for a new Top 14 season, Alldritt has revealed why he chose not to declare for Ireland at the outset of his international career.
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Grégory Alldritt explains call not to declare for Ireland
2 February 2024; Referee Karl Dickson speaks to France captain Gregory Alldritt and Ireland captain Peter O’Mahony during the Guinness Six Nations Rugby Championship match between France and Ireland at the Stade Velodrome in Marseille, France. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
France’s Grégory Alldritt has explained that he never felt “Irish enough” to be tempted to consider declaring for Ireland.
Alldritt spoke this week as La Rochelle ramp up their pre-season preparations.
The back row’s grandfather was born in Dublin but grew up in Scotland, and Alldritt admitted that he felt more of a connection with Scotland than with Ireland.
To be honest, I’m not feeling Irish enough to play for them.
I’ve got lots of respect for this team. I love this team and this country, but if I had a choice to make, it would have been between Scotland and France.
But I couldn’t play for Scotland because neither of my grandparents’ parents were born over there.
Alldritt’s head coach at La Rochelle is, of course, Ireland legend Ronan O’Gara.
“Yeah, he explained to me that he could play for Ireland,” O’Gara said in 2024.
“He could have played for France, Scotland or Ireland. It’s a live joke among us. He’s perfectly fluent in English.”
After several years straight of tremendous success with La Rochelle, it was a more difficult year for O’Gara and Alldritt last year. An early exit from the Champions Cup was followed by failure to reach the Top 14 playoffs in France.
Alldritt intriguingly suggested that the team had become too comfortable with their success of recent years, and that O’Gara had the team “resetting” this summer to come back stronger.
I think we need to make [the fans] proud again. We need to go on the pitch and earn the respect we used to have. We don’t have it anymore.
We started again on the 14th of July, so six or seven weeks of hard work. It was really tough, but we looked at it like an opportunity, because for the last year we were generally semi-finalists or finalists, so we had a really short pre-season. So it’s the first year we were able to work hard and work well.
It can impact the season, but I think it was the main issue we had.
I think we had a great year with two titles, two Champions Cup titles, and we were a bit surfing on this. And we needed a reset, and I think it’s what happened at the end of the past season.
So now we are starting a new base.
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