Brendan McKibbin, Ben Meehan, Scott Steele
Ask any three London Irish fans which scrum half should start and be on the bench and you'll get three different answers. Personally I believe that McKibbin will be the main scrum half at the start of the season with Meehan taking over later on. Steele will be rotated in as necessary. Meehan seems to have an extremely blunt personality, having described how Australian players are scrambling to get contracts abroad to escape the uncertainty and stating his pitch for the England 9 shirt in an interview before he'd even touched down in the UK. However in pre-season he was very, very impressive and his long darts to the likes of Nalaga, Treviranus, Lewington and Cokanasiga could cause teams some sizeable issues.
Fly Half:
James Marshall, Theo Brophy-Clews
Fly Half is almost the opposite of scrum half for us, in that every single London Irish fan would back Marshall to start. It's quite striking that last year he always seemed to be a few seconds ahead of everyone else in the game, simple an exceptional player at FH and he'll probably see his profile raised quite significantly by the end of the season. Theo Brophy-Clews, or TBC for short seems to have been around for a while, captaining England in a game in the world championships this summer as well as down the age group, unfortunately however he spent most of the last season out injured and hence if Marshall is injured Tommy Bell will probably be the one to provide cover (see Full Backs).
Centres:
Aseli Tikoirotuma (Fiji), Johnny Williams, Fergus Mulchrone, Ciaran Hearn (Canada), Luke McLean (Italy)
Tikoirotuma is a hard hitting (sometimes a bit too hard for the ref's liking...) fast Fijian that joined us a few years ago from Harlequins, and has been a fan favourite ever since, but it seems like Hearn has overtaken him for the starting outside centre spot. Johnny Williams enjoyed a breakthrough season in 2015-16 with hard lines and elusive running providing a tricky prospect for other premiership defenders, unfortunately since his debut he's been used as a battering ram, resulting in his fair share of injuries. When he recovers from his current one the academy coaches will be hoping that he solidifies his role in the team as a starter. Mr McLean's hiring was based on Conor O'Shea's recommendation, but from what I've seen in pre-season I can't see what justified that recommendation. Overall, without wishing to be harsh we're a bit lightweight and inexperienced in the centres so I suspect Naplioni Nalaga will be moved into 13 fairly swiftly (as indeed he was in the last friendly).
Wings:
Napolioni Nalaga (Fiji), Alex Lewington, Joe Cokanasiga, Topsy Ojo, Ben Ransom, Tom Fowlie
First up, we need to talk about Joe Cokanasiga. He's an absolute monster in attack (enough so that he got called up to Argentina without playing in the Prem (but unfortunately picked up an injury on tour)) and has potential to be a world beater, however without wishing to beat around the bush, his defence is poor. As far as I can figure out it is not due to any inherent weakness but rather because he is only 19 years old. He'll get eased into fixtures this year and next year should take over the starter jersey. Napolioni Nalaga is the standout signing of our summer. His career stats so far read as 125 Top 14 and European Champions cup tries from 189 games, which you can't really argue with. ALth
ough he came to us significantly overweight he's now trimmed down and has been putting in some big hits in pre-season, as well as contributing with tries. Third in London Irish's pretty impressive stable of wingers is Alex Lewington, if he was in a top 6 side he'd be an England winger, he has great defensive positioning with pace to spare and defenders can't seem to lay a hand on him. His contract runs out in the summer and his will probably move on and leave then (unless he gets injured at contract renewal time... again), when we got relegated apparently over 10 clubs from the Prem & Top 14 contacted London Irish enquiring about a release clause. It feels harsh to leave a club legend like Topsy until fourth but his age is really catching up with him. He won't get run out too often and will transition into a coaching role at the end of the season. Ben Ransom and Tom Fowlie are both sharp attacking players but questions remain over their defensive capabilities.
Full Back:
Tommy Bell, Greig Tonks (Scotland)
Tommy Bell is unambiguously our first choice full back, not because of his attack or defence but because of his metronomic boot. Given that in 2015/16 if we had kicked as well as Bell kicked last season then we would not have been relegated I would be shocked if Bell does not play every game that he's able to. However Tonks is another player rediscovering his mojo and may manage to displace Bell if he keeps improving.
SO there you go, that's the complete lowdown on the London Irish squad, the coaches haven't hidden the fact that the plan this year is to dominate in the forwards and score a lot of rolling mauls, with Nalaga, Cokanasiga or Tikoirotuma occasionally running over defenders to touch down.
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