Ireland finished their finest ever season with a 20-16 win over the Wallabies in Sydney last weekend to wrap up a first Irish series win in the southern hemisphere in 39 years.
James Ryan, Andrew Porter, Jacob Stockdale and Dan Leavy all emerged as breakout stars for Ireland over the course of the last campaign and as we head into a World Cup season we look at who else may be in line for Ireland selection when the next round of international fixtures kick-off in November.
Sean O’Brien, Rory Best, Fergus McFadden, Josh van der Flier and Rhys Ruddock should all be available again after finishing the season injured and the Chicago test could be a first chance for them to re-immerse themselves in Schmidt’s squad.
Ireland will begin their November internationals with a trip to Chicago to play Italy at Soldier Field before returning to Dublin to play Argentina, New Zealand and the United States.
Ireland played South Africa, Georgia and Australia in the 2014 internationals with a host of fringe players including Felix Jones, Craig Gilroy, Darren Cave, Ian Madigan, Robbie Diack, Dave Foley and Dave Kilcoyne all receiving starts against Georgia.
Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt could continue to experiment with his side against Italy, Argentina and the United States in November as he prepares his squad for a Rugby World Cup in Japan where Ireland will be among the favourites for the tournament.
Here we take a look at some players Schmidt could start against Italy in another one-off test in the United States.
Potential Ireland team to play Italy:
15. Andrew Conway
14. Jordan Larmour
13. Chris Farrell
12. Bundee Aki
11. Fergus McFadden
10. Joey Carbery
9. Kieran Marmion
8. Jack Conan
7. Josh van der Flier
6. Sean O’Brien
5. Tadhg Beirne
4. Iain Henderson
3. Andrew Porter
2. Rory Best
1. Jack McGarth
Substitutes
16. Niall Scannell
17. David Kilcoyne
18. John Ryan
19. Devin Toner
20. Rhys Ruddock
21. Luke McGrath
22. Ross Byrne
23. Tiernan O’Halloran
