In another unexpected move, head coach Schmidt preferred Luke McGrath as his back-up scrum-half over Conor Murray’s long-standing number two Kieran Marmion.

One imagines Nigel Carolan and the rest of his U20s management team have spent many an hour poring over footage of England’s opening Six Nations loss to Wales in Colwyn Bay this last two weeks.

A satellite over the Sahara Desert will be deployed this season to beam Ulster Bank League games onto computer screens.

Munster and Ireland second row Paul O’Connell hopes the international training camp held in Carton House this week will help Ireland produce more consistent performances over the November test series against South Africa and Argentina.

Leinster and Ireland fly-half Jonathan Sexton believes Ireland can learn from last Saturday’s uninspiring defeat to Scotland.