Joe Schmidt promises game-time for ‘new’ faces

Ireland’s faded Six Nations title ambitions appear to have opened the door for a round of player auditions, with Joe Schmidt revealing that less familiar faces will be afforded game time over the remaining fixtures with England, Italy and Scotland.

“I think you will see guys over the next three games that you probably haven’t seen in the tournament so far,” Schmidt explained yesterday. “I don’t know which of the games, or which number of the games, but the last two Six Nations we have been hanging in tooth and nail fighting for the wins that we needed or the differential that we needed.

“We haven’t been in this position — where mathematically we are in a chance, but realistically the chance is a long shot — where we actually get a window of opportunity to maybe blood a few new guys and chase results at the same time. I don’t think it is going to change our outlook in what we want to achieve, but it is going to give us an opportunity to maybe look at a few guys.”

The Ireland head coach was responding to a question on Ulster centre Stuart McCloskey who seems certain to get a run at some stage, but it may be that the other ‘new’ faces are pulled from the ranks who have played Test rugby before.

Paddy Jackson is surely deserving of a stint at out-half while his fellow Ulstermen Luke Marshall and Craig Gilroy would be strong candidates on provincial form. Munster prop James Cronin will likely start at some point while Josh van der Flier could possibly make the bench.

Even the Leinster back row would be a leap of faith at this point, however, given Schmidt’s regular assertions that the Six Nations is no place for players like van der Flier or Garry Ringrose.

Schmidt’s calls will be dictated in large part by an already damaging injury list that has lengthened further since Paris with the Kiwi yesterday revealing that Sean O’Brien (hamstring) and Dave Kearney (shoulder) are now out for the tournament.

Mike McCarthy, who succumbed to a concussion last week in Paris, has been stood down for the entire season after consulting a specialist. That leaves Donnacha Ryan primed to start against England and Connacht’s Ultan Dillane edging closer to a first cap.

Jonathan Sexton “rolled an ankle” and sat out most of yesterday’s session in Mullingar though he is said to be on track to train fully on Monday while Cian Healy, Mike Ross, Simon Zebo and Keith Earls are also on track to vie for a squad place for the trip to Twickenham next Saturday.

Eddie Jones got the pre-match bluster underway earlier this week with his tongue-in-cheek reference to Ireland’s supposed reliance on a kicking game which he likened to Australian Rules, but Schmidt was restrained in his response to that.

“Yeah, look, I was down in Melbourne a couple of times last year, so I actually sat in a coaches’ box for Carlton versus Richmond. There were 24 TV screens in that coaches’ box so, whatever they do down there, it is well beyond my ability to cope with all that information overload.

“But seeing all the line coaches interact and trying to get all of that organised, I’ve no doubt that I picked up a couple of tips on kicking. But I think we’ve kicked less than a quarter of the possession we’ve had, which probably doesn’t correspond with the statistics that have been reported.”