The prize may not be a first win in 111 years but it is huge nonetheless. Tomorrow at the Aviva Stadium this Irish squad can become the first in history to beat the southern hemisphere big three of South Africa, New Zealand and Australia in the same calendar year.
Alternatively, they can also become the first to lose to all three in the same year.
Either way, it would still probably be regarded as a pretty good end to 2016, but given tomorrow’s result will be the final chapter in both the calendar year and this memorable November window, it will also go some way toward defining them.
Most of all, Joe Schmidt wants a big performance from Ireland to round off both, and after the physical, emotional and mentally draining meetings with the All Blacks, to that end has refreshed his line-up by calling in Garry Ringrose, Keith Earls, Paddy Jackson and Iain Henderson.
His hand has been forced to some degree by injuries to Johnny Sexton and Robbie Henshaw as well as the toll on Donnacha Ryan and Simon Zebo, who nonetheless makes the bench along with a recalled Ultan Dillane and Joey Carbery. There are still slight question marks over CJ Stander, Rob Kearney and Zebo but Schmidt is "confident" all will be fit.
Pivotal players
“It is hugely important,” admitted Schmidt when asked how important signing off the year would be with a win, “especially when you’ve got pivotal players who aren’t available, who have been part of the spine of the team for so long. We’ve worked our way through without having those players available.
“You’re still Ireland. You’re still a national team and you still take that much pride. These players really do take pride. It’s incredibly hard not to get emotionally caught up with how much effort they’re making and how keen you are to make sure that continues and they get some reward for it. You are just trying to help them get the reward that they deserve for rolling their sleeves up. I know everyone is.”
Schmidt added: “But there’s kids coming into this side that are pretty wide-eyed. If they can gain more experience this weekend, that’s incremental. I said right at the start, Chicago is a reference point for us and, result aside, I don’t think we got too far from the reference point last weekend. I don’t think we cowered or got knocked off our game too far, despite losing those three guys in the first 30 minutes and despite how physical the New Zealanders were.
“I’d like to think that we can finish really positively, and it would be great to get the result; it would be a bit historic. If we could get a result against Australia after getting a result in Cape Town and a result in Chicago, we could really say that we’ve got some kids coming through and we’re building something that will endure a little bit further into next year and the year after.”
On picking Ringrose to make his second Test start at a less familiar inside centre, where he played the final hour last week, Schmidt ventured that it would be a greater test for him physically but that tactically being in the middle of the 10-12-13 axis would offer Ringrose a degree of tactical “certainty”.
Noting Ringrose’s high tackle count and hard running against the All Blacks, while it was “hugely” frustrating to lose Henshaw and the cohesion that came with last Saturday’s enforced reshuffle, Schmidt added: “Those guys [Ringrose and Jared Payne] trained together today. They played together for 60 minutes last week, they will hopefully benefit from that and get a bit of confidence going into Saturday.”
After-effects
Renewing acquaintances with Australia coach Michael Cheika, his predecessor at Leinster, Schmidt admitted: “You have to say they were getting better and better during the Rugby Championship.
"Tevita Kuridrani is such a handful to defend. (Israel) Folau, he's a freakish athlete, he's such a good player and then they've got real threats on the wings with (Dane) Haylett-Petty and (Henry) Speight. But I do think that Genia and Bernard Foley have really found form. Will Genia probably went a bit quiet for a little while, but he's back to the best form I've seen him in, in a long time."
Ireland have parked last week's game but the after-effects continue to rumble and are liable to carry over into this weekend. It has been reported in New Zealand that World Rugby referees chief Alain Rolland admitted to Steve Hansen that Aaron Smith had been wrongly yellow-carded last week.
Ignoring that, Schmidt was of the opinion that Rolland would be keen for the officials to make the “safety of players” paramount this weekend, adding pointedly: “I think he’ll be making not just referees, but TMOs, maybe accountable to make sure that they are tracking the game and making sure they are accurate within it.
“But at the same time what you don’t want is a witch-hunt where you’re stopping the game every two minutes for something that might have been this or might have been that. The game is going to be physical and fast, and there’s going to be a few of them this weekend and so you don’t want to stifle the game, but you want to keep it as safe as possible.”
