Brendan Fanning: 'There were times I felt it was over'

The reaction to Joe Schmidt's Ireland squad was broken down along expected lines last week: general satisfaction that Rory Best, who commands widespread respect, should get the top job; and pockets of outrage that Garry Ringrose, who is locked on course to be capped before the year is out, got no job at all. Aside from that, a few commentators paused a while to look over a few other ins and outs. Nobody stopped off at Mike Sherry's empty space.