Opportunity knocks for Ireland’s young stars in testing Canada clash

IRELAND’S next generation of potential Test stars are determined to make their mark in today’s summer tour opener against Canada (10pm Irish time).

The Vancouver clash, coming just two months after Ireland’s Grand Slam success, will see six players make their senior debuts for Ireland from kick-off and a further five could do likewise off the replacements bench.

Head coach Declan Kidney’s long-stated ambition since being appointed a year months ago is to create more competition for places in the squad and a match like this, against the world’s 15th-ranked team, is an ideal chance to blood youngsters.

Defence coach Les Kiss said: “We probably have more missing than we would have had anticipated between the Heineken Cup final and the Lions, but this is the perfect opportunity for us to start preparing a panel for the World Cup and developing the depth that we need.

“The real nuts and bolts of the World Cup preparations start here.

“The truth is these guys have done the work, they have worked hard in their position and the circumstances have given them this chance to make the Irish jersey their own and play regular Test football.”

Peter Stringer will knit together a back line with an average age of 25. Uncapped out-half Ian Keatley and new centres Darren Cave and Ian Whitten offer a youthful spine, with Keatley and Cave both members of Ireland’s 2007 Under-20 Grand Slam-winning team.

Stringer’s Munster colleague Ian Dowling gets a long-awaited first cap, becoming the eighth Kilkenny man to play at this level, while there are two more debutants in the pack in flankers John Muldoon and Niall Ronan.

The chosen front eight is surely one of the beefiest Ireland have fielded for some time.

Props Tom Court and Tony Buckley tip the scales at 19 and 21 stone respectively, with Court set for his first start in green and Buckley the only surviving member from Kidney’s side that beat Canada 55-0 in Limerick in November.

London Irish captain Bob Casey, making his first senior appearance for Ireland since June 2000, joins Mick O’Driscoll in a 36-stone second row, and the back row of Muldoon, Ronan and Denis Leamy all stand in and around 6ft 2in and weigh 16 stone-plus.

While the performance will be key, the Irish management will still want a comfortable win and something a world away from the nervy 27-27 draw earned in Markham nine years ago on Ireland’s last visit to Canada, when Warren Gatland was coach.