‘Backs Against The Wall, Wales Will Come Out Firing’ – Bealham

After a 75% scrum success rate in their season opener against New Zealand, Ireland hit the 100% mark across their other November matches against Argentina, Fiji, and Australia, along with earning four scrum penalties.

Following the opening two rounds of the Six Nations, they have the second best scrum percentage of 93% (13 scrums won, 2 resets, and 1 lost), behind Wales (100%, 10 scrums won and 1 reset), and have been awarded two penalties and two free-kicks so far.

As an attacking platform, two of Ireland’s tries against Scotland originated from scrum possession. Captain Caelan Doris crashed over within two phases of a put-in, and James Lowe scored from the sixth phase while the visitors played with a scrum penalty advantage.

Last Sunday’s 32-18 win marked Bealham’s sixth successive start for Ireland, the Connacht prop stepping up to deliver in impressive fashion while Tadhg Furlong is out injured. It is fair to say he is enjoying his rugby at the moment.

“Delighted, we’ve had a really good start now. Ten points,” he said after the team made it back-to-back bonus point victories. “Coming to Edinburgh, facing a really good Scottish side and to come away with the bonus point, we’re chuffed.

“We’ll get a little regroup, get home, see the families, and then crack into work with Wales next. I think it’s Wales’ first game at home in this Championship as well so they’ll be well up for it, backs against the wall.

“I’ve no doubt they’ll be coming out firing, so we’ll go in with the utmost respect and do our thing. I suppose we just stay pretty consistent in our process.

“We’ve three more games and it would be silly to look too far in the future. One game at a time and try to put our best foot forward. Now it’s all eyes on Wales.”

Bealham’s team-mates were comparing him to Lazarus given his powers of recovery to overcome the ankle injury he sustained against England. His provincial colleague, Jack Aungier, had already been brought into camp by Simon Easterby given Furlong’s calf problem.

The 33-year-old, who likened himself to the ‘father’ or ‘older man’ of the tighthead group alongside Thomas Clarkson (24) and Aungier (26), proved his fitness to retain the number 3 jersey and produce another very effective performance against the Scots.

“I broke my ankle five years ago and I got a nasty enough one but I think all the hardware in there saved me from any significant damage,” explained Bealham, who had another strong scrummaging display, made 13 tackles, and won a turnover penalty.

“It was actually grand. The lads are calling me Lazarus! I was getting a bit of a slagging, more attention for me which is brilliant and, yeah, I cracked on, thankfully it was all good.

“The Six Nations is always a tough campaign so you want to be fit and firing and feeling good and getting after it.

“You want to be fit, you want to be healthy, and thankfully I was ready to go this week and no knocks from that so I’ll be ready again hopefully.”

Bealham and the rest of the Ireland matchday squad had a short break at the start of this week, and will reassemble from tonight for a mini camp in Dublin.

He is clearly focused on kicking on for the rest of the Six Nations, and interestingly, the opposition to come over the next few weeks are the same teams that he started against in 2023 when Ireland won the Grand Slam and he was picked in the Team of the Championship.

Asked about how the scrum is progressing with Bealham, Rónan Kelleher, and Andrew Porter as the front row starters in five of Ireland’s last six Tests, the Canberra native says the forwards are working hard in unison to make it the best it can be.

I think we built a really good platform in terms of our scrum in November, working with the likes of Ró and ‘Ports’, and having ‘Sheeno’ (Dan Sheehan) back now and the back five have been unbelievable.

“And I suppose we sat down during the week and were analysing our scrums and looking forward, you have big ‘Cheese’, James Ryan, coming in and asking what more he can do and what I thought of him.

“We’re all trying to evolve that part of our game as much as we can. Look, it’s an area which is a strength for us at the minute and we’ll look to keep it that way.”

Bealham is now just two games away from reaching the 50-cap mark, an achievement which seemed a long way away when he made his debut back in 2016 and had his first 11 appearances, including two starts, spread across a four-year period.

Slowly but surely he became the regular back-up tighthead behind Furlong, and his patience, robustness, and ability to learn from mistakes and come back as a more rounded player ensured he made the most out of those starting opportunities in 2023.

The recent Autum Nations Series ended with Ireland beating Australia in Irish Rugby’s 150th Anniversary Test match, but personally he was disappointed with his own performance, accepting it ‘definitely wasn’t my best day at the office’.

Connacht head coach Pete Wilkins praised Bealham this week for the manner in which he has bounced back from ‘a couple of errors that were not typical of himself’ in the autumn. The Six Nations – ‘some buzz’ in the prop’s own words – has him back on song.

“One of Finlay’s great strengths is scrummaging, and another is carrying the ball and handling around contact,” noted Wilkins.

“What we’ve seen is him getting back to those strengths, keeping his game simple in his own mind so he can deliver enormous intensity. You’re seeing that in his defence, his linespeed, the small moments.

“His speed off the ground and his double efforts are just terrific. We are seeing the true Finlay, performances with lots of personality and character.”

The experienced tighthead returned to action with Connacht, playing in the interprovincial derbies either side of Christmas before helping them to qualify for the EPCR Challenge Cup’s round of 16 as top seeds, scoring against Lyon along the way.

Hitting his straps right on time for the Six Nations, Bealham admitted: “I don’t think I put my best foot forward in the Autumn Series but such is life and I reflected on that, tried to move on and leave that there and take the learnings from it.

“Like anything, you just roll with the punches and move on. This campaign, once I knew Tadhg was out it was another big opportunity for me, and I tried to take the pressure off myself and really trust what I’d done, and all the work we’d done as a team.

“Coming into the games now I felt really good, really fresh. I’m just going to stay out of my own way.”