Schmidt fully loaded for Oz tour
Squad has World Cup feel as Kiwi targets Test series win Down Under
JOE SCHMIDT has left little room for experimentation on Ireland’s tour of Australia after naming a 32man squad yesterday that is locked and loaded with Grand Slam stars for the three-Test tour.
If the World Cup was to start next month, this is close to the squad the head coach would pick.
The New Zealander has decided against resting the Irish Lions who toured his home country last summer, or some who are recovering from injury.
Ireland are confident that Robbie Henshaw, Bundee Aki and Iain Henderson will be fit to make the trip.
Henshaw (right) and Henderson suffered knee injuries in the final weeks of the season, while Aki was pulled from captaining the Barbarians against England on Sunday.
Henderson has spent this week working with the IRFU medical team in Dublin and they are happy with his progress, while Henshaw will miss Saturday’s Guinness PRO14 final against Scarlets but is on track to travel.
Aki’s withdrawal was precautionary, according to a union spokesman.
Schmidt yesterday named uncapped duo Ross Byrne and Tadhg Beirne in a strong panel for the endof-season games.
“This has probably been the most difficult selection process for the coaching group to date,” he said.
“We sat down on Monday morning to review the last pieces of footage and to discuss the balance and combinations that we felt we might need in Australia.
“We made the final decisions which included a number of very tough calls and some players are incredibly unlucky to miss out on selection.
“Over the past couple of months the national coaches have spent time in the provinces and been in communication with the provincial coaches who have done a super job in managing the players.”
Meanwhile, Ulster have been hit by a big blow with news that Luke Marshall (knee) and Louis Ludik (hamstring) will miss most of next season after suffering serious injuries in last week’s play-off against Ospreys.
Elsewhere, Leinster are close to agreeing a move for teenage Wasps academy back Aaron O’Sullivan for next season.
An Ireland underage international, the back-three player made his senior debut for the Premiership club in December.
ANYONE who expected Joe Schmidt to experiment with his squad for the upcoming three-Test tour of Australia hasn’t been paying attention.
If the World Cup was starting next month, this is the squad (minus one player to fit the 31-man panel allowed) the head coach would pick.
This end-of-season trip Down Under is seen as a critical step towards next year’s tournament; a window to build on the Six Nations success and to make a statement of intent by securing a first southern hemisphere series win since 1979.
There are those who want the coach to rest his big names, to take the Lions out of the firing line and go with the young guns.
That was never on the agenda. The players got their rest during the campaign and Schmidt gets little enough time together with his players to leave them at home for a World Cup dress rehearsal.
Presuming the Leinster players and Tadhg Beirne come through Saturday’s Guinness PRO14 final unscathed, the 32-man panel named yesterday will be confident of securing a series win in Australia.
Indeed, privately, they’ll be targeting a repeat of the clean sweep England achieved against Michael Cheika’s side two seasons ago.
With assistant coach Paul Gustard jumping ship for Harlequins, Eddie Jones’ juggernaut has well and truly lost its sheen in the past year and, suddenly, Ireland look like the chief rivals to New Zealand in Japan.
Traditionally, that has not been a comfortable position for Irish teams to occupy, but one of Schmidt’s stated ambitions when he took the job was to make them more comfortable with the favourites’ tag and they will certainly travel with a weight of expectation next month.
AIRWAVES
Australian rugby is at a low ebb, but no one in Irish rugby would underestimate a Cheika-coached team.
The former Leinster supremo has already hit the airwaves playing up the arriving Grand Slammers as favourites, but the bookies don’t agree.
Most are calling it as a scratch series, but others are leaning towards a home win.
Two seasons ago, while England were dominating at the same venues Ireland will visit, Schmidt took an injury-ravaged squad to South Africa and lost a series they should have won 2-1.
They’ll want to rectify that this time around and, fitness permitting, should have a similar side to the one that beat England in Twickenham on St Patrick’s Day available.
Doubts exist over the fitness of Iain Henderson, Robbie Henshaw and Bundee Aki, but Schmidt wouldn’t bring them if they couldn’t contribute.
In South Africa, he picked his strongest side for the first Test in Cape Town and rotated heavily for the second game in Johannesburg; opting to hand first starts to the likes of Tadhg Furlong and Quinn Roux, before picking his best available XV for the finale in Port Elizabeth.
Expect a similar pattern here, with the team locked and loaded for the opener in Brisbane and the coach will go from there.
Yesterday, he described the selection as one of the toughest he’s faced since taking charge but he has the luxury from a settled squad that is relatively low on injuries.
Seán O’Brien, Josh van der Flier and Chris Farrell may have forced their way in, but at this stage of the season this is a strong position for the coach to pick his team from.
He will have them in camp for a few days next week before the squad make their way to the Gold Coast where they will acclimatise initially before making their way to Brisbane.
He has his first- and secondchoice front-rows available, his preferred second-rows and, while O’Brien and Van der Flier would argue their own case for inclusion – a formidable back-row trio and some excellent cover options.
Conor Murray and Johnny Sexton are a world-leading half-back partnership, picking between Aki, Henshaw and Garry Ringrose is the kind of difficult choice coaches love and hate, while the back-three options are strong with Andrew Conway and Jordan Larmour challenging the established trio of Rob Kearney, Keith Earls and Jacob Stockdale.
There may be a chance to get some experience into the reserve half-backs and it would be no surprise to see Joey Carbery start one of the three Tests; while Kieran
Marmion and John Cooney are decent back-ups for Murray.
Ross Byrne and Tadhg Beirne are rewarded for their strong seasons and will hope to contribute. It is likely that all 32 will see some gametime.
Cheika names his squad next week against a backdrop of 39 successive Super Rugby defeats for Australian franchises against New Zealand opposition and the rumbling controversy over his star Israel Folau’s comments on homosexuality.
He is expecting a very difficult trio of games.
“How we were changing the team around and where we are now, with Grand Slam champions coming now, I think it is a good gauge (of where we are),” he told reporters in Sydney.
“It’s going to be tough, but we’re looking forward to putting ourselves up against a contrasting style of play.
“They are obviously very wellcoached, they’ve got a clear and coherent plan they want to deliver and they deliver that plan every week.
“That’s what’s got them to number two in the world and it’s a place that we’ll be looking to cut them down from when they come over here.”
It is the strongest possible squad and one more than capable of winning the series.
Australia are ranked fourth in the world and have plenty of talent on their books, but an unforgettable season for Ireland can carry into June.