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.”