Joe Schmidt announced his first Ireland squad for the Summer Internationals, and while there were no extreme surprises, there were a few things we could gather from this selection.
We’ll start with the inclusion of winger Andrew Trimble, and it looks like Schmidt is going to give the Ulsterman every possible chance to make the plane despite his lack of matches over the past year. It’s no secret that Joe is extremely fond of Trimble, especially in his recall to the international stage, and that favour will probably carry him all the way to England next month – whether he’ll start in the World Cup is another question, but for now we can safely surmise that Joe will be presenting the flier with plenty of game time over the next few weeks, in the hope that Trimble regains some of the form he showed before his injury.
Another interesting call was that of Keith Earls at outside centre. A perfectly legitimate choice at outside centre, without any doubt, however Earls was having a lot of success on the wing for Munster toward the tail end of last season and you would suspect that the utility back would much rather be given the freedom to fight it out with the wingers for one of those spots instead, given the fact that Robbie Henshaw and Jared Payne have cemented themselves in the centre of the park, whereas one, if not two, of the wing spots are up for grabs.
Paddy Jackson got the nod at fly-half over Ian Madigan, which was very telling. Ireland fans are well aware that Schmidt is yet to give Madigan the vote of confidence at 10, instead opting to favour the steadier Ulster playmaker over the more erratic, yet attacking minded Leinster five-eighth. The general consensus appears to be that both Jackson and Madigan will travel, along with key man Jonny Sexton, and Saturday’s selection would appear to suggest that Schmidt is continuing with his policy of having Madigan as a bench man for his versatility, with Jackson a direct replacement for Sexton should he be injured. Time will tell if he sticks with that.
The lock pairing of Iain Henderson and Donnacha Ryan also raised some eyebrows, especially in the case of the former. Not to be tied down to one position, Henderson has consistently stated he is happy with the utility player moniker, however I’m sure even he was slightly surprised to be starting in the engine room rather than at blindside flanker where he has been outstanding for Ulster in the past few months. His versatility makes him a near definite selection for the final squad, in stark contrast to his lock partner. Donnacha Ryan has been plagued with injuries which have seen him go from an Ireland regular to being unsure of whether he will travel or not – one suspects he has few chances to impress, but a big game on Saturday determined he will get another chance to see whether he is in Schmidt’s thoughts or if he is simply a reserve.
Casting a quick glance at the bench, Michael Bent’s selection as back-up tighthead was interesting to see given he has almost exclusively covered loosehead this season down in Dublin for Leinster, while Kieran Marmion got another shot at taking one of the reserve scrum-half positions in the squad having been seemingly cast aside toward the end of the season by Schmidt. Bent will probably need another shot to have a realistic chance at making the squad, while Marmion has already returned to Connacht to get some more game-time.
All in all we got a very interesting squad selection from Joe Schmidt that shed a little bit of light on his thought process heading into September. A few big performances from certain individuals will result in more chances to impress, while one flop might signal the end to a player’s hopes of making the World Cup altogether – and nobody will be happy to see that happen to them.
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