Leinster full-back Jordan Larmour could make his Ireland debut this weekend after he was named on the bench for Ireland’s first home game of the Six Nations against Italy on Saturday.
Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt has made four changes to the side that defeated France last weekend with Jack McGrath coming in for Cian Healy, Devin Toner in for James Ryan, Jack Conan in for CJ Stander and Dan Leavy in for the injured Josh van der Flier at openside flanker.
Here's the Ireland team to play Italy in Round 2 of the #NatWest6Nations at @AVIVAStadium #TeamOfUs #ShoulderToShoulder #IREvITA pic.twitter.com/ndlNatXapM
— Irish Rugby (@IrishRugby) February 8, 2018
Larmour will start from the bench alongside Leinster teammate Joey Carbery, with Rob Kearney starting in an unchanged Ireland back-three alongside Keith Earls and Jacob Stockdale.
Schmidt said that he expects Larmour to produce the same type of form that he has offered with Leinster over the last two months but that there was no perfect situation to start the electric 20-year-old.
“I expect Jordan to be provide what he has been providing at provincial matches,” said Schmidt.
“That electric acceleration, that change of direction, but also that assuredness under the high ball. We’d love to see all that and away from the ball, he has a super work-rate. We know that if we are coming under pressure, he will work really hard to relieve that pressure.
“There’s never a perfect situation, but there are certainly better situations if he replaces Keith or Jacob on the edges, then having Rob at the back will be an asset.
“If he replaces Rob, then having Keith particularly with his experience on the edge, will be an asset as well. That’s part of what we do when we try to place a guy in, but you don’t place a player in and expect him to be looked after. He has an expectation himself of what he needs to do. Hopefully he will being those exciting elements to the game.”
With regards to Carbery, who looks set to deputise behind Ireland fly-half Johnny Sexton again, Schmidt hopes that the 22-year-old playmaker will see some time off the bench on Saturday and maybe a run at 10 for Leinster’s PRO14 matchup with the Scarlets next weekend.
https://www.facebook.com/irishrugby/videos/1704230946301492/
“It’s about combinations,” added Schmidt.
“One of the great thing about 6N at the moment, and I hope in the future is that it is played over seven weeks.
“If Johnny didn’t start this week, and didn’t play next weekend [rest weekend], then he’d have two weekends where he hadn’t played, which isn’t the best preparation for the next game.
“He may well come off the bench this week and potentially could play next weekend with Leinster all things being equal, and he will still get that exposure, potentially at 10. It would be fantastic for Joey because he had that period out. We want to manage his return back.”
