Who else could have seamlessly fed in eight new players to Six Nations cauldron?

The Joe Schmidt era just gets better and better. So many boxes ticked as the clock ticks towards the 2019 World Cup.

A first Test win over South Africa when Ireland defeated the Springboks in Cape Town in 2016, despite having CJ Stander sent off after only 25 minutes.

Five months later, an even bigger scalp with a first-ever victory over world champions New Zealand in Chicago.