FRESH FACES SHOW SCHMIDT THEIR TIME IS NOW
IRELAND’S future has come early. The players Joe Schmidt will rely on in the next World Cup will not all be hardened veterans of multiple Six Nations campaigns.
On the evidence preserved in the Dublin permafrost last night, some of the talent indulged over the past fortnight will be in Japan, not to ensure safety in numbers, but as starters.
Five of the fresher faces started here, although Bundee Aki was an established talent, first in New Zealand and then Galway, before Ireland came calling.
Schmidt was not plunging into the unknown in choosing a centre who inspired Connacht’s Pro14 victory, but he took gambles of varying size with the selections of Adam Byrne, Chris Farrell, Jacob Stockdale and James Ryan.
Of that four, Byrne was the only debutant yesterday, but none of them would have figured as Test contenders at the conclusion of the Six Nations last March. Times are changing. They relished this run-out in the bitter cold, with Stockdale the obvious headline hoover thanks to his try-scoring.
The enormous 21-year-old could have been assembled in a lab dedicated to the modern game: he stands 6ft 3ins, weighs over 16 stone and covers the ground in quick, powerful strides.
His home debut against South Africa at the start of the month was marked with a try; he had two here within 42 minutes.
Free-scoring wingers do not gush from the Irish supply lines, so Stockdale’s value is obvious. He is a Six Nations starter once fit.
That claim can’t be made for Byrne, yet, but the Leinster wing has already shown an ability make great progress in rapid surges. When Joe Schmidt gave him his Leinster debut in December 2012, at 18 he was the youngest starter for the province.
He hadn’t been playing the game four years earlier. The three years subsequent to that brief appearance off the bench were scarred by repeated serious injuries, and little more than a year ago he had started just three times for his province.
The Kildare man has thrived since, and there were snatches of his talent evident here, if nothing on the scale of Stockdale’s impact.
After 10 minutes, a cross-field kick from Conor Murray looked like it might make for a fantastic first cap, but the ball bounced high back over his head.
Farrell was not supposed to win his second cap, but injury to Robbie Henshaw saw him double his tally a week after his first game for his country.
His attributes are more industrial than the subtler threats wielded by the back-three contingent, but he showed wonderful dexterity in freeing Sexton with a pass that allowed the out-half put Stockdale over for his first try of the night.
He made a more predictable impression with a handful of bruising tackles, and on the evidence of the past week he offers a viable alternative to Henshaw and Aki in midfield.
Farrell was gone after an hour, limping out of the game in the company of Ireland’s medics. This was 12 minutes after Ryan had made the same trip with the same escort.
The second-row is Ireland’s latest prodigy, and his removal here appeared precautionary. In the 48 minutes he lasted, Ryan looked at complete ease. He made his debut on the summer tour but this was a step-up against a hard-edged if battered-looking Argentina.
His work was unadorned compared to that of the other recent additions. Ryan was dutiful, though, in eking out a half-foot of an attacking advantage here, or a few inches there. For all of the bleakness around Argentina, they remain tough and proud, and the dirty work had to be done.
He did allow himself one flourish, a marvellous off-load released behind his back to keep an Irish move alive just before half-time.
‘The quality is there now, I’m aware, but I’m not giving up without a fight,’ Devin Toner said earlier this month of the threat manifested most starkly for him in the rangy frame of his provincial team-mate.
Toner will need all of that appetite for the battles ahead, because Ryan is good enough to make the future now.
He is not the only one, and there are others beyond Toner who will have watched this with some trepidation. Keith Earls, Dave Kearney, Jared Payne and even Henshaw have had a challenge laid down before them.
Blind faith is not a criterion Schmidt employs. If he has charted new levels in selection adventurousness this month, that is not proof of a conversion to risk-taking.
Structure remains sacrosanct, and he would not willingly risk it with untested materials. Ryan, Byrne, Stockdale and Farrell will have been vigorously stress-tested in training camps to be passed fit for use this month.
Having withstood that, they passed the real challenge impressively.
They provided the most encouraging contribution on a night when
Ireland as a collective veered erratically between clinical and complacent.
There were times when they looked capable of humiliating their visitors, but with less than 10 minutes remaining Argentina were two scores behind, 25-12. This was thanks to tries by Joaquin Tuculet and the great veteran Juan Manuel Leguizamon.
Both scores were confirmed by the television match official, but that was no indication of doubt given the enthusiasm of French referee Mathieu Raynal for consulting with his man in the stand.
Given Argentina are at the end of a long, miserable season, their brio in the last quarter of their final match was commendable, but it will irritate Schmidt that Ireland let their determination find a reward, particularly the third late try conceded to Ramiro Moyano that helped reduce the eventual margin to nine points.
Across the span of three matches in two weeks, periods of inattentiveness should not contaminate the wider body of evidence.
Ireland are highly efficient and occasionally brilliant. There are formidable grounds for confidence ahead of a Six Nations, even with a schedule requiring visits to Paris and London.
Living with growing expectations is one problem. A far more intriguing one is how the coach deals with the talents refusing to wait for tomorrow. They want their chance now.