Schmidt: Wholesale changes because of "challenging turn-around"

By Dan Pitcher

Ireland coach Joe Schmidt admits that he was always going to make changes in the middle game of the Guinness Test Series.

“The number of changes is probably a mix of the victory last week and the fact we’d always planned to make changes with a six-day turnaround to Australia." he said today at the team announcement.

Following on from last week’s ultra-physical triumph over the Springboks at the Aviva Stadium, Schmidt has made in total, 13 changes to his starting 15 for this weekend’s visit of Georgia to Dublin.

There are two new caps in the starting line-up with Leinster’s Dominic Ryan and Munster’s Dave Foley named.

Injury-wise, there wasn’t a whole lot to concern Irish management this week with Jared Payne the only real concern from the South African game.

However with Michael Cheika’s Australia providing the challenge next weekend, it was never going to be a surprise to see much change.

“We will have a six day turn-around to Australia and an eight day turn-around just doesn’t seem like enough after you have played South Africa.” Schmidt said.

“Squeezed into the two games is going to be an extremely physical battle and I think to be able to bounce back from if you play three in a row is going to be a challenge.”

“There’s a couple of guys we are backing up, who we hope will get through ok and for those guys getting their first run of the Series, it’s a fantastic opportunity.”

With all the talk last week on the centre partnership of Robbie Henshaw and Jared Payne, dominating headlines, Schmidt has gone for a little more of the untested this week.

In the backs Munster’s Felix Jones and Ulster’s Craig Gilroy will be at 15 and 14 respectively while Darren Cave and Gordan D’Arcy will play at centre and at outhalf Leinster team-mates Ian Madigan and Eoin Reddan link up.

Darren Cave

Picture: INPHO/Dan Sheridan

Ulster centre Cave spent last week on holiday in New York after not initially making Ireland’s 37 man autumn Test squad.

Former Leinster boss Schmidt backed Cave to take his chance against Georgia after being recalled.

“We just felt to put Robbie Henshaw out there might have been a bit much, in light of Jared Payne still recovering from his foot injury,” said Schmidt.

“Jared’s out of the boot and walking around.

“Darren has played for us before, he slots in really well.

“He probably hasn’t had a massive amount of rugby so we thought it was a great opportunity for him.

While in the forwards, there’s a new looking front row with Dave Kilcoyne, Richardt Strauss and Mike Ross packing down.

“We have tried to keep a little bit of combination, even if it hasn’t been for Ireland before, it’s players who at least know a little about each other.”

With his selections this week, the Irish head coach appears to be testing the waters ahead of next year’s Rugby World Cup.

Schmidt was again today insisting that isn’t the case.

“We got a little bit of confidence out of last week, the fact that if we work hard enough on and off the pitch in the week to prepare, hopefully we can get some continuity.”

“It’s going to be imperfect but it will be an opportunity that will include a lot of enthusiasm and hopefully that bit of continuity,” said Schmidt.