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The Irish Sun

Craig Casey shares hilarious ‘fear' weighing on him before captaining Ireland for first time vs Georgia

CRAIG Casey will captain Ireland for their summer Tests against Georgia and Portugal. Interim boss Advertisement 2 The Shannon man has amassed 18 Ireland caps but this will be his first as captain 2 Casey won't be hoping for a repeat of when he captained Ireland A team against the All Black XV Since Andy Farrell selected Captain Doris was unavailable with a shoulder injury and With other seasoned internationals such as James Ryan and When speaking to Virgin Media he spoke about what it means to him to be given the Ireland captaincy for the summer Test matches. Advertisement Read more on Irish sport He said: "It was brilliant. It's probably not something you dream about when you are younger. Captaining Ireland is probably something that is way out of my league of what I thought I could do when I was younger. "When you see the calibre of players that have never captained their country I think it is very special for me. The former Ardscoil Rís captain was asked what will be going through his head as he leads his Ireland teammates out onto the pitch to face Georgia and his response was an unexpected one. He answered "Firstly I hope the mascot isn't taller than me like the (Ireland) A game." Advertisement Most read in Rugby Union The Limerick native's first taste of international captaincy came when the Ireland A team faced the All Black XV in the RDS Arena in 2022. An image of him leading the team out went viral as the mascot was taller than the Ireland A captain. Andy Farrell wants end to social media 'nonsense' after son Owen's Lions call The 5,5 star will be hoping for a different result in Tbilisi as they ran out 47-19 losers and he is also hoping for a shorter mascot. Casey added: "I'll be massively proud, it's going to be a huge occasion obviously for my family and all the people that have put a lot of time into me. Advertisement "It will be a huge honour to lead out my country for the first time and I'll be hoping to put my best foot forward."