O’brien axed as Schmidt makes seven changes
Van der Flier recalled at openside to face France Last Six Nations game at Aviva for Ireland coach
Joe Schmidt said it would be emotional leaving the Aviva Stadium following tomorrow’s Guinness Six Nations game against France, his last competitive game in his adopted city. But he showed no compunction about his selection yesterday, making seven changes to the team who laboured to victory against Italy two weeks ago, including dropping Sean O’brien from his match-day 23 altogether.
It is the first time for a while that a fully fit O’brien has been dropped from the 23. The 32-year-old British and Irish Lion recently announced that he would move to London Irish from Leinster after this autumn’s World Cup. Schmidt, who steps down as Ireland head coach after the tournament in Japan, has instead named Josh van der Flier at openside for a game Ireland must win, and probably with a bonus point, if they are to stand any chance of retaining their crown.
The Ireland pack to face the French shows six changes from the game in
Rome, with Rory
Best, Cian Healy and James
Ryan all returning after being rotated out. Iain Henderson and CJ Stander slot straight back in after returning to fitness, the latter following the facial fracture he suffered in the opening defeat by England.
In the backs, the fit-again Garry Ringrose resumes his midfield partnership with Bundee Aki. But the bigger calls are on the bench, where John Cooney holds off the challenge of Kieran Marmion as reserve scrum-half, and Connacht fly-half Jack Carty looks set to win his second cap with Joey Carbery injured. Schmidt admitted he would feel a tinge of emotion, even if there are still two World Cup warm-up games at the Aviva Stadium later this year. “I briefly mentioned it to my wife yesterday when I called in at home and it will be hard to say goodbye to it,” he said. “We’ve had some great days and occasions in the Aviva and it would be great if this was another. [But] it’s about the players this week. They take control and put the performance together. These are things you will miss for sure.” After a frustrating afternoon in Rome, where he felt his team “lacked cohesion”, Schmidt said: “People probably underestimate how tough it is in Rome and the pressure from Italy. Wales didn’t get a big score there either and then turned it around with a big game against England. I hope we can demonstrate that we are up for this challenge.” Former Ireland centre Brian O’driscoll said he was not worried by Ireland’s patchy form. “We got well and truly humbled [against England],” O’driscoll told The Irish Times podcast. “And it has knocked the stuffing out of us. But that said, it is a fine-margin game at the top level and Joe Schmidt teams are all about detail. And I just sense there is a little bit of detail off.
“We’ve had a number of injuries, replacements coming in. It’s good for building for the World Cup squad. But ultimately it’s been at the expense of a loss of form in the Six Nations. I still think that they’ll click in one of the next two games.”