Ulster hooker Rory Best’s withdrawal from Ireland’s summer tour of Australia has left Joe Schmidt without a captain for the three-test series against the Wallabies this month.
Best withdrew from the Ireland squad last week with a hamstring injury and he was replaced on tour by Munster hooker Niall Scannell.
Schmidt told a press conference at Carton House that vice-captains Johnny Sexton and Peter O’Mahony could share the captaincy for the Test series but only one player can lead Ireland out of the tunnel for this Saturday’s first Test in Brisbane.
“A number of these things have just become apparent,” said Schmidt.
“We’ve two vice captains in Peter O’Mahony and Johnny Sexton and a strong leadership group.
“It will depend a bit on selection and what we feel we need at any given time. It could be that Pete and Johnny take the team on and share the load.”
The captaincy issue was discussed on the latest episode of The Hard Yards with former Ireland international James Downey insisting that it would be hard to name Sexton as captain given the fact that he may not, and probably should not, start all three Tests.
“If Pete and Johnny are on the pitch at the same time then fair enough but obviously they’re not going to be playing all three Tests and you wouldn’t expect them to play all three tests,” said Downey
“We need that gametime for certain players. For me it’s not a bad thing that Rory Best is out. I think he’s old enough now, he’s been there and done that, but the guys below need a bit more gametime just to get confidence up.
“If you can go down to Australia and get a Test win confidence will be flying. Come World Cup time you can throw players in that have been there and done that as opposed to ‘oh no Rory is injured and this guy hasn’t played much’.
“We need to get gametime for just that level below. I still think we’re extremely well equipped to deal with the Aussies down there, regardless of missing a couple of players.
“Even if Johnny didn’t play any Tests I don’t think it’s a bad thing.”
Listen to the full conversation from the 25:00 mark below
