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"Does a bear..." - Zebo leaves little doubt over his view on Ireland exclusion

There's little doubt how Simon Zebo views his enforced absence from Ireland's Rugby World Cup pla...



There's little doubt how Simon Zebo views his enforced absence from Ireland's Rugby World Cup plans.

The former Munster wing made the switch to France's Racing 92 in 2018.

Under the current IRFU selection policy, in almost all cases a move abroad rules Irish players out of contention for international duty.

However, that hasn't dampened discussion about whether Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt should have made an exception in Zebo's case.

BOD & ROG on Zebo


On last Friday night's Off The Ball, his former Ireland team-mates Brian O'Driscoll and Ronan O'Gara gave their views on the matter. They debated whether they would have called him up for Autumn's World Cup in Japan.

O'Gara would have liked to see an "amicable" solution to the impasse due to Zebo's qualities.

"It’s a pity an amicable solution wasn’t found," he said.

"If they could have a sit-down and get it right because we don’t have players like that too often.

"There’d be other people that disagree with me and say his work-rate isn’t anywhere near it but I’m convinced that you can get that right if you get the person right."

Twitter

Zebo gave more than a hint to where his thoughts on the matter lie on Twitter. In response to the Off The Ball video of the above debate about whether Ireland have "missed a trick" by overlooking him, the Cork-man kept it short and sweet:


Taking the phrase "does a bear..." to its logical conclusion, it's apparent that Zebo feels he should have been considered for Ireland.

In 2018, he admitted that he didn't expect his exclusion to be "so quick or so blunt". But he had also acknowledged that "you have to accept that some decisions have consequences and that is the way it had to go for me".

He has won 35 Ireland caps up to now, scoring nine international tries. The 29-year-old was also part of the Ireland team that won Six Nations titles under Schmidt and started as the Irish side beat the All Blacks for the first time in Chicago.

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Brian O'Driscoll Ireland Off The Ball Ronan O'Gara Rugby Simon Zebo