There’s a convincing case to be made for the Leinster youngster.
Amidst the Parisian drizzle, in a wet and typically intense Stade de France, Ireland were forced to dig deep. 41 phases deep, to be exact, in order to clinch a last-gasp win over a stubborn, well-organised Les Bleus outfit.
Everywhere you looked across the pitch, there were enormous shifts being put in by the men in green. From Keith Earls to Peter O’Mahony, who made decisive contributions despite having endured a relatively average game, the work-rate from Joe Schmidt’s men was phenomenal. It had to be.
Then there was James Ryan, the 21-year-old lock who shone in the Irish pack with an effective combination of carrying and tackling, the latter of which he had 12, more than any of his teammates. Ryan’s impressive debut in what was always going to be a bruising assessment of his credentials as a Six Nations starter showed precisely why Schmidt had plumped for him over the experience of Devin Toner.
And Ryan’s performance can be the model from which other novices in this Irish squad can draw inspiration. Following the win in Paris, there were calls for Jordan Larmour, the explosive Leinster wing, to be rewarded for his meteoric rise of late with a start against Italy in Dublin this weekend.
While France proved to be a draining war of attrition, there is a growing sense that the visit of Conor O’Shea’s Azzurri offers the opportunity to unleash Larmour. on Monday’s edition of The Hard Yards, the panel spoke of the likelihood of Schmidt resting either Rob Kearney or Jacob Stockdale.
“It’s an interesting shout [to start Larmour],” James Downey said. “If you’re going to blood him in a game, Italy at home is looking brilliant, so that’s definitely not a bad one for him.”
It will certainly be intriguing to see how many changes Schmidt will make from the France game. The consensus among The Hard Yards panel seems to be that he’ll make one or two changes, avoiding any major upheaval in a team that has just won in Paris for just the third time this side of the millennium.
Larmour would offer something different and it’s difficult to argue with the assertion that a home game to Italy would be one of the more benign environments in which to get him acclimatised to international rugby.
