THE INCLUSION OF Craig Gilroy, 21, into the Irish team to play Argentina tomorrow has led to multiple headlines about Ireland’s youthful thrust and Kidney’s young guns.
Looking at the starting XVs of both sides, Ireland’s average age is 26 years and six months.
The Pumas come in with an average age of 27 years and nine months [Julia Faria Cabello, 34, representing for rugby players in their mid thirties].
At 23, Conor Murray is one of the Irish team’s junior members but he has more caps than six of the other players that will tackle Argentina at the Aviva in the hope of gaining a much-needed win and preserving Ireland’s second-tier status in the world rankings.
Murray is set for his 11th start in green tomorrow. Only three of his caps have come from the bench and Eoin Reddan has been placed firmly in the back-up category by coach Declan Kidney.
He told TheScore.ie, “Before the South Africa game there was a lot of talk about the huge options Declan has at his disposal at nine so I was delighted to get the nod there.”
“Being picked in that game might have raised a few eyebrows,” he said, “but I saw it as another opportunity to play well and put my hand up again.”
Battle stations
Having rewound the South Africa and Fiji videotapes back and put them in their cases, Murray and his colleagues have turned their attention to an Argentina side that did a comfortable number on the Welsh two weeks against.
He said, “Looking at the games they played in The Rugby Championship, the game against Wales, and speaking to the lads that played them before, they make it quite difficult to play your game against them. You really have to concentrate on the breakdown and cleaning them out.”
There is no doubt in the Limerick man’s mind where the game will be won and lost. He said:
Argentina and us pride ourselves on the breakdown so it’s going to be a ferocious battle there. It is going to be the team that is more willing to put their bodies on the line that will come out on top on Saturday.
“It might get messy,” he added, ” but, with the way we’ve been training all week, we want to provide clean ball for our attackers.”
Met Éireann’s predictions that the rain might hold off until the final whistle may also benefit Murray’s opposite number Martín Landajo and a backline containing Juan Imhoff and Juan Martin Hernandez.
“They’ve come on leaps and bounds now, when they do get the ball,” cautioned Murray. “[Argentina] in attack is a very different proposition to what it was a few years ago.
“They’ve very quick wingers – you can see that from the tries they scored in the championship and in the November games. We can’t afford to give them that much space out wide.”
A wise head on young shoulders.
