Crucial decisions ahead for Joe Schmidt

Joe Schmidt faces many difficult decisions over the next few weeks when it comes to deciding on the best available teams to defend the RBS Six Nations Championship.

However, today’s announcement of the squad to go into camp for the tournament which starts next month will hardly tax him unduly. He will choose in excess of 30 players, with few if any of those involved in the highly successful autumn series and still available likely to be omitted. A number, however, are ruled out by injury.

As against that, several others who were ruled out in November have now worked their way back to fitness and, accordingly, providing Schmidt with the kind of selection headaches any coach is happy to deal with.