Invasive diseases, fungi, and parasites in Australia affect many native plants and animals, and as a result, management and the prevention of the introduction of new invasive species are key environmental and agricultural policy issues for the Australian federal and state governments.
Robbie Henshaw is not an invasive disease, or fungi much less, but his loss for the remainder of the Six Nations may be a parasite to this Irish team that sucks the livelihood out of its midfield.
The Leinster centre has been the best player in Irish Rugby this season and his tournament ending shoulder injury against Italy last weekend has caused a ripple in the Irish squad that has thrown a number of options on the table for Joe Schmidt.
None of the available alternatives are likely to match the heights that Henshaw has reached this season for both Leinster and Ireland, but the options to replace the 24-year-old range from the straightforward to the far reaching.
The logical approach suggests that Joe Schmidt will slot Munster centre Chris Farrell in as a direct replacement for Henshaw at outside centre, while the least likely option is that he takes a punt on 20-year-old wonderkid Jordan Larmour.
Between Farrell and Larmour, there’s a number of different ways that Schmidt can play this.
He could potentially shift Bundee Aki to outside centre and call up Rory Scannell to act as a second receiver. He could throw Joey Carbery in at 12. Stuart McCloskey could slot in at inside centre. He could recall Garry Ringrose following an injury plagued season that has involved three operations since last summer.
Fergus McFadden could do a job at 13. Jacob Stockdale has said that his favourite position is at outside centre. Keith Earls played there for Munster against Ulster last month and also started his professional career as a dynamic, line breaking centre that earned a call up to the 2009 British and Irish Lions tour of South Africa as a prodigious 21-year-old.
Schmidt has more alternatives at outside centre than he does for any other position in his squad, but realistically, while there are many ways to skin a cat there’s only one way of replacing one, and McFadden, Stockdale, Larmour or Earls is not the answer.
All four have enjoyed stellar seasons with their respective clubs but each player has spent the majority of their campaign on the wing or at full-back.
McFadden and Earls are arguably enjoying the best season’s of their careers on the touchline and there’s no need to jeoporadise their form by a change of position at the end of February. If it’s not broke don’t fix it, and in both players case, they’re far from broken.
Larmour isn’t either, but Italian full-back Matteo Minozzi showed last weekend that he still has a lot of learning to do from a defensive standpoint before you would be comfortable starting him in the Six Nations at outside centre.
Stuart McCloskey hasn’t started a Six Nations game for Ireland since their 2016 loss to England, and with that in mind, can you really see him starting in the centres against Wales with Ireland’s Grand Slam hopes still alive? I can’t.
With regards to his Ulster teammate Stockdale, the 21-year-old flier has scored a remarkable six tries in six tests from the wing and while he certainly has the physicality and line running for the midfield, his defence is very questionable even for the wing, never mind the hardest defensive assignment on the pitch at outside centre.
Against the Scarlets duo of Hadleigh Parkes and Scott Williams is not the time to roll that dice to see if he does.
Similarly with Joey Carbery, he has spent his entire career at Leinster operating exclusively as a fly-half or full-back.
Against Wales, at home, in a must win game, is not the time to see if he can make the transition to the centres. Let’s see if he can do it for Leinster first before he has the opportunity to trial there with Ireland.
With the outsiders now accounted for, Aki, Scannell, Ringrose and Farrell are the players that most fans, and more pertinently Joe Schmidt, would be comfortable starting.
Starting with Scannell, the Munster inside centre is improving with every season but he was overlooked for the November internationals last year in favour of Farrell and McCloskey.
He has since overtaken McCloskey on that road after he was called into Schmidt’s Six Nations squad last month but he’s probably still an outsider at this stage given that he has not started for Ireland since their summer tour to Japan and the USA last year.
That leaves Aki, Farrell and Ringrose fighting for two positions. Whatever way Schmidt leans between the three players, it’s hard to see Aki not being involved in some capacity.
The former Chiefs centre has been sensational for Ireland since debuting in November and he’s proven to be adept at both inside and outside centre for Connacht over the last three-and-a-half seasons.
Whatever position he lines up at from here, be it at inside centre or at outside centre, you have a fair idea of what to expect from him – carries, workrate, defence, broken tackles and metres made after contact.
With Aki in the midfield Ireland are likely to play direct, but then again, if Bundee Aki was in your midfield, why wouldn’t you try and play direct?
Assuming Aki is not shelved, his presence likely forces a two horse race between Ringrose and Farrell to succeed Henshaw at outside centre.
Farrell has been in excellent form this season for Munster and has won rave reviews from Schmidt for his performances in the November series where he erased any doubts over his passing.
He has since excelled alongside Scannell at Munster and has impressed with both his linebreaking ability and the choice of lines he has taken.
The Belfast native is the logical choice given his form over the last three months but he’s not the most talented player available at outside centre for Joe Schmidt. In other words, his only real fault is that he’s not Garry Ringrose.
Then again, Ireland’s problem is that Garry Ringrose hasn’t been Garry Ringrose either this season as he’s battled shoulder, hip and ankle injuries, all of which have required surgery.
Leinster senior coach Stuart Lancaster recently revealed that the 23-year-old has not trained with his teammates at the launch of Leinster’s new partnership with the InterContinental Hotel in Dublin, with the former England coach claiming that he does not think that Ringrose will feature this weekend for Leinster’s Guinness PRO14 clash with defending champions Scarlets at the RDS.
Lancaster did however claim that Ringrose is close to a return, and the matter then becomes how close?
Ringrose played every minute of last year’s championship and was exceptional against Italy and particularly at home against France.
Ireland do not have a centre like him that can change direction with such agility without losing pace. He has a great eye for a gap, the footwork to create an opportunity where none exists, and the speed and strength to finish from seemingly anywhere on the park.
In an Irish backline with the bulldozing Aki, they’re not bad traits to possess.
The problem with Ringrose is this line from Lancaster:
“He hasn’t actually trained with the team, yet. He’s done work on the side of the pitch — he certainly seems to be running well on the side of the pitch — [but] he hasn’t actually changed direction, made decisions in the moment, etc, so, once he takes that step, we’ll all be in a better idea of where he’s going to be.”
It now becomes a matter of when he takes that step rather than if.
If he can’t change direction less than two weeks before Ireland’s next Six Nations game, will he really be ready in 10 days time when Wales come to Dublin?
If he is, he’s the favourite to start given his ability, but all the ability in the world doesn’t prevail over availability. Especially when a player like Farrell is fit and waiting.
