{"id":10554,"date":"2026-03-14T20:31:54","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T20:31:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=10554"},"modified":"2026-03-14T20:31:54","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T20:31:54","slug":"six-nations-2026-from-forgotten-man-to-six-nations-star-robert-baloucounes-revival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=10554","title":{"rendered":"Six Nations 2026: From forgotten man to Six Nations star &#8211; Robert Baloucoune&#8217;s revival"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">So, what does Baloucoune put his good form down to? <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It&#8217;s a simple formula really; playing consistently and being injury-free, something he has not had the luxury of doing in the past two years, has helped increase his self-belief to perform at his best on the pitch.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;My ability to play games repeatedly is something that&#8217;s been a big focus of mine, trying to be in training consistently and being able to do that has allowed me to build confidence each game I&#8217;ve played and being able to do that continuously is a big factor in my game,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">On Saturday, Baloucoune will come up against two more wingers playing at the peak of their powers in Scottish duo Darcy Graham and Kyle Steyn.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Both wingers have registered three tries each to keep Scotland in the hunt for the Triple Crown and the championship.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Baloucoune is relishing the opportunity to show he belongs alongside such high-calibre wingers as Ireland also look to retain the Triple Crown and keep their outside hopes of a championship win alive.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I enjoy the opportunity to play against different types of winger and that will definitely be the case this weekend,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Scotland have been class this championship and have really exciting backs and the wingers have been playing well, but I also see it as an opportunity to show my ability on the pitch and back myself defensively.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Kyle Steyn is a physical character, I&#8217;ve played [against] Darcy Graham a few times at Edinburgh, he&#8217;s nippy and works round the nines quite well which is something I need to work on in my game, but they&#8217;re two class wingers, they know how score and that&#8217;s a main focus for every winger, so they&#8217;re doing well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It will definitely be a challenge at the weekend, but I back myself and looking forward to the challenge.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">His resurgence from forgotten man to a key player for Ireland shows that Baloucoune is always up for overcoming huge challenges.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So, what does Baloucoune put his good form down to? It&#8217;s a simple formula really; playing consistently and being injury-free, something he has not had the luxury of doing in the past two years, has helped increase his self-belief to perform at his best on the pitch. &#8220;My ability to play games repeatedly is something<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10555,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rugby"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}