IT WON’T BE the main attraction on Saturday but Ireland A’s meeting with Spain will be worth keeping an eye on as the next layer of Ireland hopefuls look to further their case.

Andy Farrell’s Ireland play Japan at 12.40pm, with Ireland A lining out in Leganés later that evening (4pm Irish time).

Cullie Tucker assembled a squad in Abbotstown earlier this week and named his matchday 23 this afternoon. The group have trained separately to Farrell’s senior squad, but attempted to mirror their schedule across the start of the week before flying out to Spain today.

The Connacht coach acknowledges it’s an interesting challenge for the coaches, who look to bring a new group together and deliver a cohesive performance, while ensuring those who get a shot on the pitch aren’t trying too hard to impress.

“It’s probably one of the biggest challenges, but they’re experienced and knowledgeable enough as players to know that performance collectively will mean as an individual they’ll kick on,” he says.

“Putting our stock into the team and how we play collectively both sides of the ball will breed opportunity for them. For us it’s been team-first all week, us performing collectively and that’ll put the best foot forward for the people on the pitch to hopefully put their hands up in the future.”

Saturday’s fixture is the latest across a series of more development-based Ireland squads. Ireland A played an England A selection earlier this year, in a game where injuries desperately disrupted Ireland on the day, and there was a younger feel to the Ireland squad brought on the summer tour to Georgia and Portugal while many of the more senior stars headed off with the Lions. In recent seasons there were also Emerging Ireland tours to South Africa as well as Ireland/Ireland A games against the Maori All Blacks and All Blacks XV teams.

While the games are the main focus of these windows, the coaches also put a lot of stock into how the players handle the training weeks and experiences in camp.

“It’s not just a match, it’s five days to prepare yourself for a game,” Tucker continues.

It’s pushing yourself out of your comfort zone to connect with other people from other provinces, both on and off the pitch.

“You learn a lot about them. As coaches, we learn so much about them during the week and then the proof of the pudding will be in the performance at the weekend. 

“I think stretching players and pushing them out of our comfort zone as much as we can is where we need to put them so they can put their hand up to kick on and challenge the guys in the senior squad.”

And while the experience is a valuable opportunity for the players involved to boost their chances with the senior squad, it’s also a useful window for the coaches picked to lead the group, who hold similar ambitions of improving and furthering their own careers.

With Tucker in place as head coach, Mossy Lawler is in charge of backs/attack, with Jimmy Duffy working as forwards coach and Sean O’Brien looking after the defence. 

“It’s incredibly valuable,” says Tucker. “I’ve worked with Mossy before. I’ve worked with Jimmy and I’ve worked with Sean with the A team last year.

“It challenges you as a coach to get aligned very, very quickly to the messages you want to deliver so the players aren’t overloaded on the pitch and they can’t perform on Saturday. It’s brilliant picking each other’s brains, getting nuggets, seeing how they present, seeing how they deliver messages from my point of view.

“We’re all learning from each other and then it’s the challenge of, as I said, coming together and preparing a team in five days to play a Test match. So, to come out of your provincial environment and for me as a scrum (coach) and doing the ruck in Connacht and then being a head coach here, it’s a brilliant different stimulus for me as well. Fantastic opportunities.”