JOE SCHMIDT HAS named his matchday 23 to take on the All Blacks at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday [KO 5.30pm, RTÉ 2].
Check out the squad here.
O’Brien back at 7
It was always likely to be a close call between Sean O’Brien and Josh van der Flier for Ireland’s openside slot, but experience has seen the Carlow native win out.
O’Brien looked sharp against Canada last weekend, particularly with some brutish carries of the ball, although there was one needless penalty concession as he continued to move towards his very best.
New Zealand don’t have too much awareness of the capabilities of many of Ireland’s players, but O’Brien is a different story. They won’t be pleased to see his name on the team sheet this week.
As for O’Brien himself, we can be certain he was deeply frustrated at having missed the historic feats in Chicago. He will demand the same, or more, of his Ireland team-mates, asking them to allow him to achieve what they have already done.
Van der Flier is unlucky to miss out after an all-action performance off the bench in Chicago, but it would be real surprise if O’Brien goes close to completing 80 minutes on Saturday. The 23-year-old will be ready to deliver work rate as his replacement.
Henderson makes the bench
The expectation was that Ultan Dillane had done enough to keep the reserve second row position this weekend, although it transpires that he is carrying an injury and has therefore struggled to train this week.
No worries for Ireland; they’ve got Iain Henderson fit and raring to go again. The Ulsterman is freshly back from a shoulder injury and though he has no game time under his belt, Ireland will be excited to welcome him into the matchday squad.
Starting this game would have been a step too far for Henderson perhaps, but using him as an impact substitute makes sense from Ireland’s point of view.
The 24-year-old has demonstrated over the last two seasons that he can genuinely influence games at international level and though he is short of match sharpness, Henderson will have an important role to play in the endgame on Saturday.
Jackson as back-up out-half
Joey Carbery has made a promising start to life as an Ireland player, showing his confidence and playmaking ability off the bench in the wins over the All Blacks and Canada in the last fortnight.
However, his place-kicking has not been as accurate as he would have hoped, with just one of his four shots off the tee being on target so far. Paddy Jackson kicked six from six last weekend against Canada, some of them from very testing positions.
Jackson showed his ability in South Africa back in June too, standing out in the first Test in particular. He did miss the gilt-edged try-scoring chance in the third Test, but overall made a very positive impression on that tour.
Indeed, the Ulsterman would have been on the Ireland bench in Chicago, only for his unavailability due to “personal reasons” for that trip. Having got the Canada game under his belt last weekend, Jackson is now ready to go in the first-choice matchday 23.
History-makers retained
Aside from the inclusion of O’Brien, in for the injured Jordi Murphy, Schmidt has kept faith with the men who made history in Soldier Field two weekends ago.
That comes as no surprise, with that group of players having delivered such a superb performance in their history-making win over the All Blacks.
Even where Schmidt might have been tempted to introduce players such as Cian Healy and Keith Earls, outstanding performers stood in their way. Jack McGrath is now one of the best looseheads in the world, while Simon Zebo had his best game for Ireland last time out.
Look across this Ireland team and you will see men who delivered in Chicago, and who earned another shot at the All Blacks. Backing up their performance that day is clearly no easy task, but there must now be some confidence in this Ireland group.
Earls, O’Mahony and Dillane carry injuries
It speaks volumes of the developing depth in Irish rugby that players of the calibre of Peter O’Mahony, Ultan Dillane and Keith Earls miss out entirely on the matchday squad and there are no major concerns about weakness in the 23.
O’Mahony remains on the comeback trail to his physical peak after a torrid time rehabbing his ACL injury, but he felt he was in a good enough place to feature for Ireland this weekend in Dublin.
Earls, meanwhile, stated a claim with his performance against Canada last weekend and offers a multitude of experience to the backline. However, he struggled with a dead leg this week and misses out.
Dillane has a knee injury at present and Schmidt says the Connacht lock was also unfit to feature this weekend. All three of those men are likely to be back next week.
There are others who will feel unfortunate not to be involved, particularly among the replacements, suggesting that Irish rugby is genuinely building depth after a 2015 World Cup that exposed a lack of it.
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