He’s barely back in the day job and this is his first Ireland selection since his Lions segue, but the team he has chosen to face New Zealand in Saturday’s opening match of a four-Test autumnal window is, somehow, a very Andy Farrell selection.
No, it’s not a radical overhaul. He doesn’t do that. But he tweaks, and this selection is not without its tweaks. It’s not entirely based on form. It can’t ever be entirely, and least of all with such a scant body of work to assess since the season started. But there are some interesting form picks as well.
Nor is it especially age-related, or designed with the World Cup in mind – although it’s not without its pointers to Australia 2027. The rest of us go on about age but to Farrell this comes a distant third to form and pedigree, and so it is that the 33-year-old Stuart McCloskey is reinstated ahead of both Bundee Aki and Robbie Henshaw for the first time and for his first game against the All Blacks.
Meantime, though, he has also named the 22-year-old loosehead prop Paddy McCarthy for a probable international debut on the back of just 10 games for Leinster, of which only three have been starts, and all this season, and in the URC. Oh, that and a huge amount of strength, ability and promise.
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While enforced, Jamie Osborne and Tommy O’Brien give the back thee a new dash of ability and pace, and the gifted Ryan Baird is afforded a huge chance at blindside to become a key player in the team, with Farrell shifting Tadhg Beirne to lock while starting Jack Conan and keeping back Caelan Doris on the bench. Deservedly, and as expected and without fanfare, Jack Crowley has been preferred at 10.
For the tens of thousands of Irish fans who will be in Chicago this weekend and at Soldier Field, the World Cup can of course wait. But experience can often be underappreciated, witness the English and All Blacks World Cup winning teams were among the oldest at those tournaments.
“South Africa with the last two as well,” added Farrell. “Listen, experience is always important but it’s not the be all and end all, it’s just what’s right at that moment in time. There’s a long way to go obviously between now and then [the World Cup] and there is people who will continue to grow and people who will fall away by the wayside. That’s just how it is.
“We’ve not got thousands of players but we always bat above our average because we’re competitive, it matters to us. There’s always going to be a position where you think ‘where’s the next one coming from in that area’ but we tend to find it. We know where our depth chart is and where it should be.
“It’s up to everyone concerned to make sure they come to the party and make sure they’re ready for what it takes to be an international rugby player. And if that doesn’t happen, then it’s dangerous to put people in who are not ready.”
You suspect that Farrell has been a little frustrated with Baird heretofore but the player appeared to turn a corner with his barnstorming end-of-season form with Leinster, and his athleticism and aerial ability can add another dimension to Ireland’s lineout and forward play generally.
“He’s matured a lot,” said Farrell. “He really has. He’s very aware of himself first and foremost through that maturity. He knows his strengths and his weaknesses. He’s really stepped forward as far as a lineout leader is concerned and we all know the athletic ability he’s got to break up a game at any type of moment.
“His physicality has stepped up as well, he’s put a bit of size on, big strong athletic guy who’s a good set-piece player and that sounds pretty good to me.
Farrell laughed when recalling his first sighting of McCarthy during the 2023 Six Nations, when the Grand Slam-winning senior team trained against their Under-20 Grand Slam winning counterparts.
“That’s why we do train against the under-20s, so we know who is coming through. I get asked the question ‘do you want to train against them this year?’ Imagine being in the under-20s and you didn’t get an opportunity to train against the first team and every other year has. It’s an unbelievable tradition.
“You see people like Paddy and he was a pain in the ass, he spoiled our session on many occasions, but there’s something in the eyes there that not a lot of people have got. He’s been on the radar for a good few years because of how he took it to the senior boys a good few years ago.”
Farrell has long grown weary of the incessant focus and debate around who occupies the Irish number 10 jersey, while acknowledging he understands why given the history regarding the jersey.
“I get all that, but at the same time that experience that these lads went through last season, all the noise. It is just noise, and they’ve got to be able to cope with all that because what’s coming down the track is going to be something that’s bigger and better than all that.
“So them being part of that and having to deal with the pressure of all that and come through the other side and get rid of all the rubbish and just deal with the reality, which is playing well, taking control, growing their game, etc is priceless.”
IRELAND (v New Zealand): Jamie Osborne (Leinster); Tommy O’Brien (Leinster), Garry Ringrose (Leinster), Stuart McCloskey (Ulster), James Lowe (Leinster); Jack Crowley (Munster), Jamison Gibson-Park (Leinster); Andrew Porter (Leinster), Dan Sheehan (Leinster, capt, Tadhg Furlong (Leinster); James Ryan (Leinster), Tadhg Beirne (Munster)(; Ryan Baird (Leinster), Josh van der Flier (Leinster), Jack Conan (Leinster).
Replacements: Rónan Kelleher (Leinster), Paddy McCarthy (Leinster)*, Finlay Bealham (Connacht), Iain Henderson (Ulster), Caelan Doris (Leinster), Craig Casey (Munster), Sam Prendergast (Leinster), Bundee Aki (Connacht).
* denotes uncapped
