JOE MUST WORK ON HIS BACK-UP PLAN

AS A body of work viewed in isolation, November 2016 will be fondly remembered by Joe Schmidt’s Ireland. The undoubted highlights were wins over 2015 World Cup finalists New Zealand and Australia, but what about the long-term need to build better depth in the squad in order to harvest the greatest performance at a World Cup in 2019?

Ireland were an accident waiting to happen at last year’s finals. They gambled in certain instances, such as pencilling in Ian Madigan to provide emergency scrum-half cover and depending on rookie Test level tightheads Nathan White and Tadhg Furlong as emergency back-up to Mike Ross, who hogged the game time in preceding years.

Neither risk became a problem but the tournament still ended in tears. Lack of readiness elsewhere ensured Schmidt couldn’t disguise the absence from the starting team of first-choice Paul O’Connell, Peter O’Mahony, Sean O’Brien, Johnny Sexton and Jared Payne for the quarter-final hammering by Argentina.

Thirty-one games now remain before the start of Japan 2019 (three five-game Six Nations campaigns, two three-game summer series, two three-game November series and a four-match finals warm-up run-in), but what strides were taken by Schmidt last month to build towards Ireland progressing beyond the World Cup quarter-finals for the first time in three years’ time?

Thirty-nine players, including nine new caps, were used across the fourgame schedule, 31 as starters. However, the coach’s unwavering preference for consistency in selection in the big games continued as 10 (Rob Kearney, Andrew Trimble, Jared Payne, Conor Murray, Jack McGrath, Rory Best, Furlong, Devin Toner, CJ Stander and Jamie Heaslip) started the three high-profile fixtures against the All Blacks, in Chicago and Dublin, as well as last weekend against the Wallabies.

Here, Sportsmail ponders Schmidt’s picks and assesses whether Ireland are now any better prepared to cope with a finals injury and suspension crisis like the one endured last year in Cardiff.