Three significant talking points as Irish stars select XV to face All Blacks

“The talent and the options from 4 to 8 are ridiculous.”

As they have been saying all week, Ireland are not taking Argentina one bit lightly. Los Pumas are front and centre on the agenda for Joe Schmidt’s men, this Saturday, and they will need to be dialled in to repeat their victory from last season’s Guinness Series.

For the rest of us, outside that driven squad, it is hard not to look beyond Argentina towards to November 17 visit of the All Blacks to Dublin. Steve Hansen’s men have only lost four times in their past 45 Test matches and won a World Cup in the middle of that run.

Ireland are Grand Slam champions, though, and split the back-and-forth Tests in November 2016. If anything, Ireland’s squad has improved in quality and quantity since then.

Hosts Andrew Trimble and Paddy McKenna were joined by Jenny Murphy on Baz & Andrew’s House of Rugby and [from 50:00 below] thrashed out their Ireland XVs to face the world champions.

Both Trimble and Murphy have been part of Ireland teams to defeat to New Zealand, so they are well placed to offer up their options on players best suited to get the job done.

HOOKER

There were three areas of particular debate after Trimble and Murphy both revealed their teams – hooker, second row and scrum-half.

Murphy was unsure of Rory Best’s fitness, heading into the series, so she opted for Leinster’s Sean Cronin. Trimble was not having it. He said:

“Rory Best, for me. An established player, leader and captain of the side. There is a lot of talent there – guys went on tour [to Australia and America] and did well, Sean Cronin included. Sean is a serious, serious athlete and a talented operator but, for me, Rory Best is going to get that spot.”

SECOND ROW

Fair play to Trimble, here, for rightly noting how good Connacht’s Quinn Roux was against Italy but he did not feature much in the conversation thereafter. Forced to make a call on either James Ryan or Iain Henderson, Murphy opted for the Ulster lock. Trimble did too, but his decision was quicker.

That left one spot for Ryan, Tadhg Beirne and Devin Toner to fight it out for. Interestingly, neither Trimble or Murphy ended up going for James Ryan. This mirrors the decision taken by former Ireland coach Eddie O’Sullivan when he was selecting his XV for eir Sport.

SCRUM-HALF

“You could put any of them in there and they’re able to do a job.” So says Murphy on the three players vying to wear the No.9 jersey so long hanging on the hook where Conor Murray sat.

Luke McGrath got the start in Chicago, against Italy, and got 15 minutes off the bench. Significantly, though, Kieran Marmion was the one that remained at Carton House with the spine of the senior team, under Schmidt, to prepare for the All Blacks. Trimble commented:

“I’ve gone for Marmion. I could easily have gone for John Cooney or Luke McGrath, no problem, but the reason I’ve gone for Marmion is I think he will play this weekend [against Argentina]. And if he does well against Argentina, then he is set up and teed up nicely to start against the All Blacks.”

The former Ulster and Ireland winger joked that their debate was ‘one of the friendliest of all times’ as so many players are in top form and most would be backed to cause issues for New Zealand.

ANDREW’S IRELAND TEAM

JENNY MURPHY’S TEAM

In the end, however, McKenna was able to wrangle out an agreed starting XV between Trimble and Murphy.

Have a look at this set of players and let us know – @HouseofRugby – how you think they would fare against the ABs.

HOUSE OF RUGBY’S IRELAND XV

Cian Healy
Rory Best
Tadhg Furlong

Tadhg Beirne
Iain Henderson

Peter O’Mahony
Sean O’Brien
CJ Stander

Kieran Marmion
Johnny Sexton

Jacob Stockdale
Robbie Henshaw
Garry Ringrose
Keith Earls

Rob Kearney

You can watch the full debate on the show’s YouTube page too.

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