Schmidt looks to Larmour to deliver late surge

AFTER the drama of Paris, Ireland fans are expecting something more straightforward tomorrow when Italy arrive at the Aviva Stadium.

Although they caused his side problems twice in 2015, Joe Schmidt’s charges have generally dealt comfortably with the Azzurri challenge and there is nothing to suggest that the roundtwo clash between the teams will be any different.

Conor O’Shea’s men shipped seven tries against England on Sunday and have had a day less to prepare for this one and that’s before you factor in the travel. Twelve of the former Ireland fullback’s side started in Rome, meaning fatigue will be running high as the second half ticks on.

That’s when Schmidt will plan to introduce Jordan Larmour (below) to the Test arena, making him Ireland’s youngest Six Nations debutant since Luke Fitzgerald 10 years ago.

The 20-year-old deserves his call-up after tearing up trees for Leinster in recent weeks and Schmidt is looking for more of the same qualities he first spotted when he watched Larmour line out for a Blackrock College President’s XV against a touring school side from New Zealand three years ago.

“I just like the way when I first saw him playing probably three years ago he was playing in the midfield that day and how dynamic he was, how he sensed really good timing whether to make the pass or whether to carry the ball or whether to step back inside or take the outside break,” he said.

TALENT

“The great thing with Jordan is he has actually got the talent to do whatever of those that are required.

“He is not a huge young man by any means but he has got so many other aspects to his game that he more than makes up for maybe that size and maturity that other players will bring to the game with the aspects that I have mentioned.

“I expect Jordan to provide what he’s been providing, what we’ve all seen in provincial matches.

“That electric acceleration, that change of direction, but also that surety under the high ball, that skill. There has been a couple of really nice passes that he’s linked in with to set players away.

“We’d love to see all of that and away from the ball, he’s got a super work-rate, Jordan.

“We know that if we are coming under pressure he’ll be working really hard to relieve that pressure.

“You don’t place a player (on thepitch)and expect him to be looked after, he has an expectation himself, Jordan, that he is going to look after what he needs to do and hopefully bring those exciting elements that I mentioned to the game.” Although his side have scored nine tries in each of their last two meetings with Italy, Schmidt is asking for patience from an Irish crowd who are expecting a big win. He believes the scores will come, but it may take some time to break Italy down.

“I remember four years ago when we won the championship by points-differential, we scored 19 points (against Italy) in the last six minutes,” he said. “If the crowd can be patient, maybe we can do something similar. “Sometimes it takes a lot to break a team down. Italy, I remember four years ago, when we did do that, they had been very close to beating Wales in the Millennium that year. “It was only last year that they managed to beat the Springboks. They’ve got some new, exciting players. “If it takes a while, I hope the crowd can stay in behind theteam.The only thing we can guarantee is that we will be working as hard as we can to keep them entertained and the scoreboard ticking over.

“How we do that? We’re going to have to vary our game and try to keep them guessing. At the same time, we will have to match a fair level of physicality from what they are going to bring.”

Ireland have lost the physical presence of James Ryan who has a lingering groin problem after his all-action display in Paris.

Schmidt is confident he will recover in time to train during the squad’s camp in Athlone next week in order to be ready to face Wales in two weeks’ time.

“It’s more precautionary than anything else,” Schmidt said.

“He is a young man who has had quite a few intermittent injury niggles through his development period into the professional career that he has now and so I think with some of those players it is about placing them.

TORRID

“Now, he placed himself on Saturday in some of the most torrid trench warfare that you can imagine and won a lot more battles than he lost.

“I thought he was carrying incredibly strongly, his number of involvements was very high, his tackle reliability is fantastic, so a lot of what James brings we just want to make sure we look after.

“Because he didn’t train on Tuesday we decided that he wouldn’t play this week so we didn’t bother training him today just as a precaution to give him a little bit more time so that potentially in camp in Athlone next week he can participate fully, which is ideal in the competition going forward.”

Although Ryan misses out, his former U-20 colleague Andrew Porter is on a bench laced with impact.

If they deliver when introduced, Italy won’t know what hit them and Ireland will hope to close out the game in a manner that secures a big score to take into the remaining rounds of the Championship.