Considering Ireland have come through back-to-back wins over South Africa and Georgia relatively unscathed – and while starting 28 players and using 34 in all – Joe Schmidt and his coaching staff have had a couple more selection issues to contend with for Saturday's Test against Australia than might have been expected.
The loss of Jared Payne breaks up his fledgling midfield partnership with Robbie Henshaw after just one game and has left Ireland with what Simon Easterby admitted is a straight choice; namely the experience of Gordon D'Arcy or the youthful potential of Stuart Olding as an inside centre partner to Henshaw, who will shift across from 12 to 13.
Rory Best’s return to fitness and, significantly, full training all this week makes him a live candidate for a return to the starting line-up. Well though Sean Cronin played against South Africa from the start, there were lineout wobbles, albeit Paul O’Connell assumed responsibility for them.
Performed admirably
Rhys Ruddock
performed admirably as a morning call-up for Chris Henry in a relatively unfamiliar No 7 shirt, and is therefore probably favoured to retain his position having been rested last week along with Peter O’Mahony and Jamie Heaslip. Nevertheless Schmidt would have considered the credentials of Tommy O’Donnell and Dominic Ryan as more of an authentic openside to counter the outstanding Michael Hooper. There might also be scope for accommodating
Felix Jones
, whom Schmidt clearly admires hugely, in the back three at the expense of Simon Zebo.
Ultimately though, it will be no surprise if Schmidt limits the changes in personnel to the starting line-up against South Africa to two, with both of them injury-related, in welcoming back the experienced duo of Best, capped 77 times, and D’Arcy, capped 80 times.
Similarly, the only other change to the match-23 squad for the South African game might also be injury-related with Dave Foley, man of the match against Georgia, set to replace the concussed Mike McCarthy on the bench, not least as he's the only other specialist lock left in the squad after the long-term injuries to Iain Henderson, Donnacah Ryan and Dan Tuohy.
Schmidt could avail of this opportunity to pair Olding with Henshaw. It is assuredly a pairing of the future, whether for next year's World Cup or later, and if it isn't to be tried now then one wonders when it could be. So it would not be entirely a shock if the Irish coach opted for this combination.
Yet Easterby appeared to drop a broad hint on Tuesday that the management value D’Arcy’s 80 caps, and when first announcing the Henshaw-Payne combination to face South Africa, Schmidt said D’Arcy would still feature in the November window.
Presumably this was with more than the Georgia game in mind, all the more so now that Payne has been sidelined.
A further hint was D’Arcy wearing the number 12 jersey last week, given the odds were then that Henshaw would be shifting across to 13 this week.
The bench
But such is his versatility that by dint of scoring one try and giving a perfect pass for another as well as initiating the long-range try finished by Jones, Olding may at least have put himself in contention for a bench place.
Amid a prevailing view within the squad that whatever about the clinical victory, in actual fact, the performance against South Africa wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, the Irish management appear to be acutely aware of the more inventive passing and running threat of the Wallabies.
“They have more natural footballers in the team than maybe some sides. Whereas South Africa might try and run through you, Australia might try and run around you a little bit. They have certain things in their game which suit them.
“They are actually a very good forward unit and they could really cause you issues if you’re not on your game and you leave little holes or leaks here and there at scrum or lineout time,” said Easterby.
“We’ve got to really focus on what we can deliver and not give them . . any little hole to get in. . . Against South Africa we didn’t deliver exactly what we wanted and we were below par. We changed a lot against Georgia and to be fair to the lads who came in . . . they all stood up really well and performed at that level but we’ve got to step it up again this week. The challenge will come from those guys that would have been involved in that South Africa match to come and put the standard back to where it was before that.”.
Hence the expectation must be that 13 of that starting team, and 20 of the match-day squad on duty against South Africa, will be chosen today.
POSSIBLE IRELAND TEAM: R Kearney; T Bowe, R Henshaw, G D'Arcy, S Zebo; J Sexton, C Murray; J McGrath, R Best, M Ross, D Toner, P O'Connell, P O'Mahony, R Ruddock, J Heaslip. Replacements: S Cronin, D Kilcoyne, R Ah You, D Foley, T O'Donnell, E Reddan, I Madigan, F Jones.
