Whatever about keeping his powder dry, Joe Schmidt has held back many of his big guns for the showdown with Wales two weeks' hence as auditioning for the World Cup squad of 31 remains the primary focus against Scotland at the Aviva Stadium tomorrow.
In making 14 changes form the starting XV which helped to push Ireland up to second in the world rankings with last Saturday's win over Wales, Schmidt has handed a debut to Jack Conan. As with last week's exercise therefore, opportunity knocks for a host of players to force their way into the squad or up the pecking order.
Aside from Conan, this assuredly applies to Simon Zebo, who is afforded the opportunity to showcase potentially invaluable versatility as a fullback. Two-time Lions' tourist Tommy Bowe could do with reminding Schmidt and co of his class, while Gordon D'Arcy is also thrust into the frame.
First cap
Luke Fitzgerald
can cement his place in the squad and lay a claim to the ‘11’ jersey while replacement
Dave Kearney
, reportedly flying in training, is in line for his first cap since forcing Pascal Pape’s forward pass to
Damien Chouly
to help secure Ireland the Six Nations title in Paris two seasons ago.
Ian Madigan is afforded only his fourth Test start, and likewise David Kilcoyne, with Dan Tuohy his sixth. Michael Bent this week provides cover at loose-head, while Marty Moore and Tadhg Furlong are not being risked after shoulder surgery and ""a slight niggle" respectively. Hence, Mike Ross maintains his record as the sole ever-present under Schmidt, with 33-year-old Nathan White poised to make his debut off the bench.
Schmidt clearly expect more of a test from Scotland (apparently ticket sales are pushing toward 35,000) than was the case against inexperienced Wales.
“We didn’t get as much from the Wales game as we would have liked because Wales looked a little bit flatter than we were,” said Schmidt yesterday.
“They didn’t have the same energy levels and I understand why and understand there’s a reason for that that makes a lot of sense.”
Bulk suppliers
“It was a little hard to judge that performance and Scotland will come in and they will be tough, regardless of what level of their preparation they’re at because that’s just the nature of them,” said Schmidt, who highlighted the form of bulk suppliers Glasgow.
Schmidt also plainly didn't agree with Matt O'Connor's view that Madigan was not equipped to control games from the start at outhalf, pointing to his proven form in the position two seasons ago in a six-game run at Leinster while Johnny Sexton was sidelined.
“There’s evidence looking back that he’s capable of doing it and he’s got a window of opportunity on Saturday to demonstrate that. I’d love to see him do it, because of that puzzle around the number ‘9’ and ‘10’ area. With those three number ‘10s’, you’d love to see them competing for the spot and not having an absolutely clear hierarchy necessarily.”
Paul O’Connell returns to the bench for his penultimate game on Irish soil in a green jersey as a precursor to captaining the side against Wales. Seán O’Brien thus leads his country for the first time, and is the fourth captain in Schmidt’s 20-game tenure thus far, on the premise that when the going gets tough the tough get going, no-one is liable to get tougher.
“Paul is aware of the plan for him going forward so he’s prepared to slot into that. We’ve two weeks until Wales and that will allow another building window and he’s always in the frame to captain because as long as he’s picked, he’s captain.”
While a cloud continues to hang over Healy’s full recovery from neck surgery, Schmidt again intimated they would give him every chance.
“There are a lot of teams in the world that would love to have someone that generates the power that Cian Healy does, so you’d like to have him involved and the sooner he can be involved for us the better. But we’re not going to push that.”
There was widespread relief that the second scan on Andrew Trimble’s foot injury was “relatively positive” and the Ulster winger will “hopefully” return to training in the week of the Welsh game.
Despite bein fully appreciatie of the way Wales have thus far prioritised physical conditioning, nothing about last week has made Schmidt rethink his approach, not least with Jason Cowman as a ""top-class" strength and conditioning coach. "He's driven a lot of what we've done in the pre-season, because he knows the athletes we have and he's been intent on building their capacity, and I think he's done a really good job of it. At the same time we've tried to work on a couple of skill areas just to try and make sure that we can be efficient in what we are trying to do." . ."
Schmidt knows many others have done the same, including “some teams who don’t have as much time as a collective as we do because the (Irish) players are more accessible, so some of those teams are always more of a threat at World Cup time.”
He could have Scotland in mind, or indeed all of Ireland’s four World Cup pool opponents and more.
