Player movement

There's not much argument to suggest he'd be a better player - he's racked up 5,400+ minutes for Leinster, and is in his 8th season (he's 27). If you exclude the initial breakthrough season (when he was a teenager) he's averaged almost 800 mins a year, and has had a couple of bad injuries (ACL in 2020 where he lost a full year) and an ankle injury that saw him miss a good chunk too.

He got over 1,000 mins last season and is well on track for similar this year. If you compare him to other guys of 1997 vintage across the provinces, he's got a comparable number of appearances for Leinster as Fineen Wycherley has for Munster (106 v 104), more than Shane Daly has (106 v 84), a good bit more than Calvin Nash has (albeit a year younger, but he's at 67 or so), and more than Gavin Coombes has (106 v 86). Compared to Ulster, he's played for Leinster than all of the following have played for Ulster (Marcus Rea - 48), Greg Jones (42) and Robert Baloucoune (65). At Connacht - he's racked up more games than Paul Boyle (73) and Oisin Dowling (25 + 9 Leinster).

Even at Leinster, of the same vintage he's featured more than James Ryan (72), Will Connors (39), Ciaran Frawley (76), Hugo Keenan (50) and Jimmy O'Brien (76).

That's just comparing to guys of roughly similar age profile.

He's been in the best and most successful team over the course of his career, and has still racked up major minutes in a strong coaching environment with a track record of improving players and turning them into international class players. I don't think there's a credible argument he'd be a better player necessarily today had he left before now.

The guys he can't get past are the standard - he needs to be better than Caelan Doris, Ryan Baird and Jack Conan right now to make an Ireland squad, and he's getting the chance to test himself against them every day.

Well actually no.

None of the examples from other provinces have more Champions Cup games than him with only Fineen Wycherley equalling Deegan on 16.

All of Daly (12), Nash (10), Coombes (14), Baloucoune (15), Jones (6), Rea (9), Boyle (9) and Dowling (7) have less.

Of the Leinster contingent James Ryan, Hugo Keenan, Ciaran Frawley and Jimmy O’Brien have more, but that doesn’t enhance the argument that he’d be a better player if he’d left Leinster.

I’m sure plenty of them do, but plenty of them don’t as well.

It doesn’t change anything really - he’s got minutes for Leinster in European Cup knockouts multiple times.

The notion that he’d be a better player if he got a few more minutes in Europe with inferior teams and poorer coaching tickets hasn’t really been proven here IMO.

The thing stopping him getting more Irish recognition is he’s behind the exact guys he’s behind at Leinster.