“It is completely on me,” says Craig Casey. This week the cultural theme emanating from the Irish squad is not to shy away from ownership.
Last Saturday, New Zealand’s Cam Roigard took the ball from the All Black five-metre scrum in the 77th minute against Ireland and cut outside. Casey was moving the other way. He was distracted by another player.
The green shirts that clamoured around on the Irish line to stop the Kiwi scrumhalf from scoring glanced off him. The optics of it were all wrong and the All Blacks had their third try in 20 minutes to clinch a match Ireland had been leading until the hour.
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“I got caught up at the time with the winger coming in,” says Casey. “I have watched it 25 times and I still don’t know what I was thinking at the time.
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“I have to take it on the chin, come back from it and be better. It is never nice when a scrumhalf scores against you, either.”
Harsh and blunt. The hope is that Jamison Gibson-Park will be rested and Casey will earn an opportunity against Japan on Saturday to stop one bad moment running on a loop in his head.
“It has been eating at me for the last few days. I got the chance to say it in the meeting, be honest with the lads,” he says.
“Everyone has been like that over the last few days. You probably can’t recover from it if you are not honest with each other or honest with yourself.”
Casey is rarely anything but honest about his game and what he aspires to be. He missed this year’s Six Nations through injury, but that has no more dimmed his ambition than getting beatenby New Zealand has.
His is a ferocious, blazing drive to keep getting better .
In Chicago, he didn’t come off the bench and steal the show like in the cameo role that had been playing in his head. He didn’t get hands on the ball enough to swing momentum in a match where Ireland were drowning.
Still, that hasn’t diminished the burning desire to be better, nor muted his ambition to be Ireland’s first-choice nine.
“That is the goal, I don’t know how close I am,” says Casey. “I do know that whenever I step on to the pitch, I need to put my best foot forward and play well and have no excuses when I don’t play well.
“It is about consistently being world class and seeing where I can take my game. That is where the coaches will probably decide after that.
“I hope I am close. I have pushed a lot over the last 12 months but I have a lot of respect for Jamo [Gibson-Park] as a player.”
“I don’t want to be second choice. I didn’t want to be the third choice over the last few years. It is about taking the chance when I do get it. Hopefully I will get the chance. I am definitely not where I want to be as a player.”
Far from showmanship, Casey has the drive that pushes everyone in the squad along with him. His enterprise is an energy giver and the reality is that Japan in the Aviva Stadium might be his only opportunity until next year.
“I am very ambitious,” he says. “I want to get to the highest level of the game.”
How refreshing.
