Ireland will kick off their summer tour of Australia in Brisbane this weekend as Joe Schmidt’s side look to follow up their Grand Slam winning campaign with a series win against Michael Cheika’s Wallabies side.
Ireland have won three of their last four matches against Australia and are favoured for the three-test series after the Wallabies lost to Gregor Townsend’s Scotland last summer.
The mid-year tour has been touted as an excellent opportunity for Joe Schmidt to test his squad depth ahead of next year’s Rugby World Cup in Japan as the New Zealander has a chance to experiment with the likes of Ross Byrne, Joey Carbery, John Cooney and Tadhg Beirne among others.
Schmidt will likely rotate his squad over the three Tests and Twitter user Conor Quinn has made a very decent attempt at predicting three potential sides for each Test.
Here's how I'd rotate the @IrishRugby squad for the Australia tour:
✅Best, O'Mahony, Stander, Murray, Stockdale, Ringrose, Earls start all 3 tests
✅Tired Leinster bodies get a rest
✅Murray-Carbery axis gets a look
✅Beirne fastracked
✅Cooney & Byrne eased in pic.twitter.com/g1tZOsPKYh
— Conor Quinn (@conorquinn85) May 28, 2018
Ideally, we’d like to see a closer look at Beirne given his fantastic season with the Scarlets as Schmidt will have to somehow rotate the former Leinster lock with established internationals Devin Toner, Iain Henderson and the increasingly impressive James Ryan.
Elsewhere, Sean Cronin should step into start for the injured Rory Best at hooker with Rob Herring or Niall Scannell providing support off the bench, while the backrow should see Peter O’Mahony, Dan Leavy and CJ Stander reprise their partnership from the Six Nations.
In the backs, apart from the fly-half situation which should see Johnny Sexton miss at least one Test to accommodate Carbery and Byrne, the centre situation is probably the most interesting dynamic in the Irish backline.
Both Robbie Henshaw and Garry Ringrose were injured at different points during this year’s Six Nations but both players are now available to play.
Incumbent inside centre Bundee Aki performed admirably for Ireland this season but he’ll be seriously challenged by the Leinster pair of Ringrose and Henshaw on tour.
The Irish Times are reporting that Ringrose could make way in the midfield on Saturday and that Sexton, Leavy, Tadhg Furlong and Cian Healy could also be left out of the starting side for the opening Test.
Meanwhile Australia are in the midst of an injury crisis with hooker Jordan Uelese and flankers Ned Hanigan and Jack Dempsey all ruled out with injury, while number eight Sean McMahon is unavailable after signing for Japanese club Suntoy Sungoliath late last year.
However, the Wallabies should still be able to field a strong side in the first Test with David Pocock and Michael Hooper expected to lineup alongside each other in the backrow once again following the former’s return to Super Rugby this season following a year-long sabbatical from rugby last year.
Very interesting 'probably' Australian 23. Paenga-Amosa has been very good this season pic.twitter.com/L5FmPtINiW
— @bhhooker.bsky.social (@BHHooker) June 6, 2018
Elsewhere, uncapped Queensland Reds hooker Brandon Paenga-Amosa should replace Uelese in the front-row while Reds teammate Caleb Timu could replace McMahon at number eight.
Australia have a very good backline with the likes of Israel Folau, Kurtley Beale, Will Genia and Bernard Foley all available but they could be outmatched in the pack with the Irish tight-five of Beirne/Henderson/Toner, Ryan, Healy, Cronin and Furlong a much better collection of forwards compared to their Wallaby counterparts.
