The pair have played together for the past 20 months at Scarlets.
Aaron Shingler knows what it is like to be on the outside, looking in.
The Scarlets flanker was not the flavour of 36 straight months for Wales as Warren Gatland selected a slew of back rowers but left him with his club.
Shingler played seven Tests between 2012 and 2014 but was never close to being a regular. There then followed three years in the international wilderness until the Lions Tour to New Zealand and an injury to Ospreys’ James King saw him earn a belated Wales call-up.
Shingler played Tonga and Samoa while the likes of Sam Warburon, Justin Tipuric and Toby Faletau were sporting the Lions’ red. He has not looked back, playing seven of the last eight Tests and starting at blindside against Ireland.
Shingler believes Ireland were tear into his side from the start but he is surprised that Scarlets teammate Tadhg Beirne is not facing off against him.
The Dubliner is due to play for Munster next season, and arrives back in the country in the summer, but Joe Schmidt has opted not to select him for the November internationals or the Six Nations. Shingler tells us:
“Tadhg arrived for pre-season of 2016/17 and was often put on the opposition to the presumed starting team in the early training sessions. Pretty soon, you didn’t want to be facing him at all.
“He is such a tough opponent and a relentlessly hard worker. It did not take him long to get his opportunity and he never looked back.
“I was pretty surprised that he was not included in the Ireland squad, especially as he is going back to Munster in the summer. To me, he is one of the form players in Europe right now.”
Shingler is speaking for thousands of rugby fans in the country when he expresses that surprise.
Beirne, who is on the long-list for European Player of the Year, has been in to Carton House for a couple of training drills but Schmidt has drawn a line in the sand, it would seem, with foreign based players. So, even though Iain Henderson is injured, Ireland are opting to go without Beirne and Racing 92’s Donnacha Ryan.
