THE LONG DEBATE is over, the hard calls and harder phone calls have been made and today Joe Schmidt sent off his finalised 31-man squad for next month’s Rugby World Cup.
Schmidt will officially present the touring party tomorrow, but The42′s Murray Kinsella has it on good authority that this is the 31 headed for England. Here are some of our instant reactions after seeing the squad.
Where’s Trimble?
Cast your mind back to the 2014 Six Nations and think about how difficult it was to get across the line that night in Paris. Now think about the man who scored a crucial try that day and the player who Irish players themselves voted Player of the Year.
Andrew Trimble can rightly feel hard done by to miss out on Schmidt’s group of six outside backs.
He entered this pre-season phase having missed most of last season with a foot injury, yet his stand-out display in the opening warm-up game (albeit against a lacklustre Wales) showed a man who about to come roaring back.
Instead, his foot niggle in that game appears to have swayed Schmidt to other, more flexible back three options. After a series of centre trials in the early part of his career, Trimble doesn’t tend to play outside of the number 14 jersey, but sometimes having an experienced specialist is no bad thing.
999
Sometimes just the two 9s will do. When The42 writers sat down to draw up a World Cup squad last week, we went in feeling that six half-backs was too many. Eventually we replaced the ‘if you want three 10s, you have to sacrifice a scrum-half’ theory to second guess Schmidt’s pragmatic nature and we figured Isaac Boss would get a boarding card. Never second guess Schmidt.
Only Conor Murray and Eoin Reddan will travel as specialist number nines. It’s a gamble we can understand for a tournament so close to home. But that doesn’t mean we won’t be sweating bullets dreaming of the nightmare scenario.
If a scrum-half suffers an injury in a game and is ruled out for the tournament, then Isaac Boss or Kieran Marmion can be called in in plenty of time to feature in the following game. However, if Murray were to take a knock in a Captain’s Run then Ireland would go into a matchday with Ian Madigan as Reddan’s understudy. That would leave Reddan with a big target on his head for the opposition and an almost identical situation would likely happen again a week later.
Confidence in Cian Healy
All summer long we’ve been on high alert looking for a prop who will cover both sides of the scrum after worrying news about Cian Healy’s neck.
Ireland do have that man in Tadhg Furlong, but the Wexford man does not have the loosehead experience of Michael Bent and that bodes very well for Ireland’s number one.
If Healy does indeed get 20 minutes against England this weekend, then he will need to be on the team-sheet again against Canada or Romania in order to be up to speed to ride to the rescue with impeccable timing for the pool-defining games in early October.
When versatility is the key…
Trimble lost out to back three rivals including Keith Earls, Luke Fitzgerald (both hampered by injury after Saturday), Tommy Bowe, Simon Zebo and Dave Kearney.
The latter two of that quintet will be expected to cover fullback when Rob Kearney isn’t on the field. Like Trimble, Kearney missed out on the chance to be involved at international level this season and Saturday brought his first Test start since Paris. Yet his reported training ground form and comfort at fullback have earned him the nod ahead of Felix Jones.
The trio of Bowe, Fitzgerald and Earls, meanwhile, have been used in the 13 channel by Schmidt this year and they will be seen as situational cover for Jared Payne — himself at home in the fullback role.
Madigan’s ability to adapt to a variety of positions has also been well-flagged, but rather than being a stand-in 15 as he was during Schmidt’s time at Leinster, he will be a scrum-half option the Kiwi would prefer not to use.
… and when it isn’t
Arguably the biggest surprise inclusion in the list is Ulster centre Darren Cave. Unfortunately, the great Gordon D’Arcy has appeared to be outside of Schmidt’s September plan from a long way back, so a specialist centre was required to back up a first-choice midfield of Henshaw and Payne who were both fullbacks 24 months ago.
Under these circumstances, Cave’s face fits.
Schmidt has used the 28-year-old at inside centre numerous times on top of his favoured outside role so he does cover more than one position for Schmidt. But whereas Trimble lost out for being a specialist Cave has profited.
Furlong and the bolters
Just when we thought there was no longer such thing as a bolter, Schmidt goes and throws in two tightheads at opposite ends of the age spectrum with a combined three caps.
Furlong has been an international for just over 48 hours after making a 20-minute debut in Saturday’s defeat to Wales.
It is a terrific story for the 22-year-old who was one of the real bright elements from an otherwise disappointing season from Leinster. It feels a long time ago now, but entering the Six Nations period, the Wexford man made it look like Mike Ross’ run in the Ireland team was coming to an end as he was being preferred to the Corkman at provincial level.
Furlong was omitted by Schmidt on that occasion and Ross proved all the doubters wrong with another Championship medal. This time, he really is breathing down Ross’ sizeable neck.
It is also a great story for 33-year-old New Zealand-born Nathan White. However, we can’t help feel for Marty Moore who has played in all 10 Six Nations fixtures over the past two years only to miss out on the big dance through injury.
