Payne unfazed by critics and ‘can’t wait to get out there’

For some, the sight of Jared Payne, Richardt Strauss and Rodney Ah You in an Irish shirt will never sit right, but all three will stand for the anthems tomorrow before Joe Schmidt’s side gets to grips with South Africa at Lansdowne Road.

In truth, Ireland are late enough to that particular party. Rugby’s residency rules have been widely used to varying degrees by most of the top nations and rarely more so than in 2011 when then England coach Martin Johnson named 13 ‘foreigners’ in his preliminary 45-man World Cup squad. Leading the line of the disgruntled at the time was Worcester-born back row Luke Narraway who lost out to Thomas Waldrom, the Kiwi who only discovered he had an English granny midway through the season with Leicester Tigers. “As for myself, still dreaming of a holiday,” Narraway tweeted. “Good luck to Thomas the tank and his English nan #notbittermuch.”

Payne knows his promotion will feed some critics, but he isn’t about to let it get to him.