Ever since the Rugby World Cup schedule was announced way back in February 2021, Pool B always seemed destined to come down to this Saturday night’s Celtic shoot-out in Paris, and so it has come to pass.
Johnny Sexton thought so then and never had much reason to change his view.
“Yeah, it was always going to come down to this game,” the Ireland captain said from the squad’s latest base about 30k north of the périphérique.
“It was possible that Scotland could be the unbeaten team and us needing to chase it to win but ultimately it comes down to a must-win.
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“So, it’s exactly where we want to be. We’ve been lucky enough with injuries to date so from that regard we’re in a good place. I think with our form we still feel that there’s more in us.
“Parts of the South Africa game, we look back and if we were on the other side of the result we’d be taking huge lessons from it in terms of some of our parts of the game didn’t click,” said Sexton of the 13-8 win over the Springboks, with Andy Farrell nodding in agreement.
“We still feel there are some parts of our game we need to improve if we want to go further in this competition and that comes down to this weekend.”
Alas, for the third World Cup in succession, Robbie Henshaw has missed two pool matches through hamstring issues, and he will likely be sidelined for at least a couple of weeks.
Otherwise though, Farrell was picking from a full deck. Following on from the lineout difficulties against South Africa, Dan Sheehan has been restored at hooker, but the more eye-catching change sees Iain Henderson picked ahead of James Ryan.
Ryan did have a slight wrist injury in the fallout from that South African game but the lock trained and “trained the house down, actually trained the best I’ve seen him in train in a good amount of years yesterday,” according to Farrell.
Which begged the question as to why Henderson is starting?
“Because he deserves it,” said Farrell. “He’s been excellent, outstanding as a leader all the way through preseason. It’s a new enough role for him being on the bench. It wouldn’t be that many times that he’s started on the bench throughout his career.
“He’s not just added to the team and been selfless in that regard, which you would expect him to do as a leader of the side, but he has performed really, really strongly when he’s come on, so he deserves his chance.”
Henderson, like so many of the thirtysomethings in this squad, appears to be in his best condition for some time after a few injury-ravaged campaigns. He looked particularly strong off the bench when replacing Ryan and adding some oomph in the last half-hour as well as contributing to an improved lineout – although the problem-solving had started in the first half.
Even so, while an impact replacement role is relatively new for Henderson, over the last nine seasons he has started 40 Tests and been a replacement 20 times. But what’s more striking is how unusual this role is for Ryan.
Since winning his third cap off the bench against South Africa in November 2017, all but one of his last 55 caps have been as a starting lock – the exception being the warm-up game against Samoa when his impact was crucial in the Irish lineout/maul rediscovering its bite. Ryan was an ever-present starter, for example, in the series against New Zealand and played every minute of the Grand Slam.
While Ronan Kelleher and Ryan revert to the bench, the fit-again Jack Conan and Stuart McCloskey are called into a match-day squad in deserved rewards for perseverance in each case.
Conan, 31, plays his first World Cup match since appearing off the bench in the 27-3 pool win against the Scots four years ago in Yokohama, eight weeks after sustaining a torn foot ligament in the opening warm-up win over Scotland.
McCloskey, also 31, makes a long-awaited World Cup debut which must have seemed unlikely until the last two years, and even at various intervals since then – including the past month – given the quality in the Irish midfield.
Of course, his good fortune is due to the latest hamstring problem to befall Henshaw. The management will await to see if Ireland advance further and how the injury profile looks then, but it is conceivable that were Henshaw replaced it could open the door for Cian Healy to complete his latest Lazarus-like recovery from the torn calf he suffered against Samoa and he could yet compete in his fourth World Cup.
“It’s not always a replacement like for like and Cian is obviously one of those players who’s at the forefront of our minds,” admitted Farrell.
Peter O’Mahony becomes just the tenth Irish player to win 100 caps for his country on Saturday night.
“When you think you couldn’t have any more motivation it does sprinkle a little bit more on top,” said the captain. “Pete means a huge amount to us as a team and he’s contributed so much to this group, in particular over the last four years – we’ve viewed it as a four-year journey and he’s been at the forefront of it. So, of course, we’re playing for him as much as we are ourselves.
“But ultimately the biggest respect we can pay to him is going and performing well and winning the game.”
But it could be that, in a more roundabout way, they are playing for the remarkable Healy as well.
IRELAND: Hugo Keenan (Leinster/UCD); Mack Hansen (Connacht/Corinthians), Garry Ringrose (Leinster/UCD), Bundee Aki (Connacht/Galwegians), James Lowe (Leinster); Jonathan Sexton (Leinster/St Mary’s College)(captain), Jamison Gibson-Park (Leinster); Andrew Porter (Leinster/UCD), Dan Sheehan (Leinster/Lansdowne), Tadhg Furlong (Leinster/Clontarf), Tadhg Beirne (Munster/Lansdowne), Iain Henderson (Ulster/Academy), Peter O’Mahony (Munster/Cork Constitution), Josh van der Flier (Leinster/UCD), Caelan Doris (Leinster/St Mary’s College).
Replacements: Ronan Kelleher (Leinster/Lansdowne) Dave Kilcoyne (Munster/UL Bohemians), Finlay Bealham (Connacht/Buccaneers), James Ryan (Leinster/UCD), Jack Conan (Leinster/Old Belvedere), Conor Murray (Munster/Garryowen), Jack Crowley (Munster/Cork Constitution), Stuart McCloskey (Ulster/Bangor).
