It was only inevitable that Joe Schmidt would be forced to shuffle his deck at the end of such a long season.
Ireland have named their starting XV, and replacements, for the Third Test against Australia and some trends have now been established.
- Rob Kearney, Keith Earls, Robbie Henshaw, Conor Murray, James Ryan, Peter O’Mahony and CJ Stander will start each Test.
- Jordan Larmour is the go-to backline replacement on the bench.
- All three hookers are getting a start. Rory Best remains top dog.
- Reserve scrum-half Kieran Marmion will probably play less than 10 minutes in Sydney.
With positional switches in the back row and on the wings, only James Ryan (5), Conor Murray (9) and Rob Kearney (15) will have been handed the same jersey for each Test. Joe Schmidt has made some tweaks and given game-time to fringe players but he most definitely has a spine of players that he inks on the team-sheet.
James Ryan is now part of that spine.
Schmidt, however, will have to do without a quartet of key players for the Test decider in Sydney this weekend.
As he often does, immediately after matches, Schmidt sounded positive notes about the knocks picked up by Dan Leavy (sternum), Andrew Conway (hip) and Cian Healy (AC joint). He expected all three players to train fully during the week but the biggest fitness doubt of all, Healy, is the only one that makes the match-day 23.
Leavy’s absence sees Schmidt re-jig his back row. Tadhg Beirne and Jordi Murphy are kept on the bench and Jack Conan leapfrogs them into the row. He starts at No.8 while Peter O’Mahony moves to openside and CJ Stander starts at blindside.
Iain Henderson (knee) misses out on the squad entirely but, we are told by Schmidt, that he is carrying a knock too.
Conway missing out is not as worrying a loss as this allows Jacob Stockdale to slide back into the Irish back three. Still, the Munster flyer will be disappointed to have only lasted 15 minutes in his only tour appearance. Conway scored a try in Melbourne but was injured in the process and hobbled off.
The biggest blow to Ireland’s chances of claiming the series must be Garry Ringrose (foot) missing out. Schmidt, as he so often does, stressed that the knock he is carrying is not too bad but he is erring on the side of caution. That means Bundee Aki and Robbie Henshaw are reunited.
Ringrose put in a superb performance in the 26-21 Ireland win, in Melbourne, and he was key in Kurtley Beale and Israel Folau having much less influence on events than they did in Brisbane.
Henshaw and Ringrose looks to be Ireland’s best long-term bet for midfield but both are injury prone. Saturday’s series decider will only be Aki’s second game in eight weeks but a lot could rest on his sizeable shouders if Ireland are to take this one 2-1.
