JOE DELVES INTO IRISH ROOKIE JAR

Injury situation takes the biscuit but Schmidt happy to blood his hopefuls

JOE SCHMIDT says his raw recruits’ mission is to survive the Pumas’ deadly thrusts in tomorrow’s final Guinness Series game.

When these sides last met two years ago, Ireland’s lack of depth was cruelly exposed as Argentina sent Schmidt’s understrength side crashing out of the World Cup.

“I don’t think there’s any team in the world that aren’t a little bit vulnerable without their very top players,” said the Ireland boss, reflecting last night on that massive disappointment.

“Probably the most impressive thing that day was how we fought our way back into it. With a quarter to go, it’s a three-point game.

“I know they got away at the end. It’s something that Martin O’neill said recently when he was subbing attacking players for defensive players, ‘Well, we can defend a loss and still go out or we can chase the win’.

“In chasing wins, you’re potentially going to expose yourself to a bit of vulnerability.”

Tomorrow, Schmidt will see the number of starters he has selected since that Cardiff calamity climb over the 60 mark.

He’s able to call on backline stars Johnny Sexton, Rob Kearney and Conor Murray who between them have 202 Test caps.

But the other starting backs possess just five in total. Jacob Stockdale, after three appearances, is the most experienced of a quartet facing what Schmidt believes is Argentina’s form side.

Bundee Aki and Chris Farrell both had to adjust to new centre partnerships over the past fortnight. With Robbie Henshaw (hamstring) ruled out after Tuesday’s training, they must forge another one together for their second Test appearances.

Adam Byrne hasn’t been capped at all and he fellow winger Stockdale will face a Puma outfit intent on repeating their Cardiff triumph – when they destroyed Ireland on the flanks.

It amounts to a different level of challenge from what Schmidt described as an “acid test” against South Africa, even if he says that Sexton and Kearney will provide the communication required while Aki will bring “energy and also calm”.

The head coach acknowledged: “Robbie being unavailable wasn’t something we’d foreseen. He would have added more experience.

“But part of the attraction for us is that guys will have to independently survive

JOE SCHMIDT predicts that Ronan O’gara will bring a wealth of coaching experience back to Ireland following his foreign jobs.

O’gara’s spell in France will come end ahead of schedule at Christmas as Racing have agreed to release him on January 1 from his contract. The 40-year-old Corkman is then New Zealandbound, and make good decisions, not have somebody directing them around the pitch.

“We’d rather we had someone right there to assist them but sometimes that doesn’t happen. And we want to be able to play our way through destabilised periods.

“We’ve had a few opportunities to try and survive big games when we haven’t had the preparation we wanted.”

Schmidt believes that started to happen last November, when a

“very makeshift” backline that included scrum-half Kieran Marmion ending the game on the wing, scrambled victory over Australia.

“It’s not always going to work out perfectly like that,” acknowledged Schmidt.

“The more opportunities we have to test people in those situations, the more they’ll learn about themselves, the more they’ll be better equipped to cope in the Six

Nations or further.”

having secured a position at the Crusaders.

Schmidt said of the former Ireland out-half: “I think the Crusaders environment is a great one to go into.

“Scott Robertson, Crusaders’ head coach, was at the game against South Africa and is excited about getting ROG down there - and that’s reciprocated by

ROG’S excitement.

“Crusaders is a great environment, they’re the Super Rugby champions. He’ll get some learnings that hopefully he’ll bring back to Ireland in the future.”