Ireland’s bid for a world record run of consecutive Test victories fell six short but this Saturday in Melbourne is the perfect opportunity to start all over again.
It was a case of 12 and out for Ireland in Brisbane, last weekend, as they ran into a Wallabies side intent on smashing them into an earlier than planned summer break.
The Wallabies fronted up something fierce and Ireland captain Peter O’Mahony said, post-match, that the game’s first 15 minutes were as physical and exacting as any he has ever experienced in Test rugby.
Joe Schmidt is expected to make a number of changes to his starting XV for the Second Test in Melbourne, with both ourselves and The Irish Times predicting that there could be as many as nine fresh faces brought in.
Former Ireland internationals Kevin McLaughlin and James Downey joined Andy McGeady on The Hard Yards to review Australia’s 18-9 victory [from 1:30 below] and look ahead to the “championship decider” in Melbourne.
Georgina Robinson of Sydney Morning Herald was on hand, Down Under, to look back on that Wallabies win and she predicted Michael Cheika will go with the guts of the same team that won in Brisbane. Pete Samu may replace Caleb Timu at No.8 but Cheika is expected to go with the guys that got their country off to a winning start.
Robinson asked if ‘the rugby-appreciating public’ in Ireland would stand for Schmidt continuing to give relative outsiders game-time rather than chasing a series win.
“It’s something we have spoken about before,” I responded. “Do Ireland want to keep winning and going out with the strongest team every week, or do you want to give a few lads a bit more game time?
“That was Schmidt talking after the game, and he said he wanted to give lads this white-hot atmosphere of playing against a Tier One side… the furnace, yeah.
“Everybody knew here, in Ireland, that they were going to test a few things out but now that we’re 1-0 down, I think people may be saying, ‘Eff that!’“
McLaughlin, who played under Schmidt for three seasons, feels the Kiwi will bring back the likes of Johnny Sexton, Dan Leavy, Tadhg Furlong, Cian Healy and more front-liners.
“The experimenting is finished,” McLaughlin declared. “Joe wants to win this series.
“Part of this Irish team’s evolution is they have to be able to go down to Australia, South Africa and win a Test Series.
“You look at England, when they won a World Cup, they went down to New Zealand and beat New Zealand. I think they beat Australia as well. That was part of their evolution and, the following year, they won the World Cup. That is the way Joe (Schmidt) is going to be thinking now… this is a massive Test.
“They lost the first game so he’s going to bring back… he’s going to go all out for the next game. A championship decider, really, because if they lose, they’ve lost the Test Series. I think you’ll see Ireland coming out all guns blazing and fully stacked this weekend.”
Further changes we put forward include Sean Cronin starting at hooker, Jordan Larmour getting a start on the wing, Devin Toner coming into the second row, Garry Ringrose getting the 13 jersey and Robbie Henshaw moving to inside centre.
We called for Tadhg Beirne to make his Test debut at blindside but both McLaughlin and Downey predict the newly-acquired Munster forward will be named on the bench.
