Ireland hopefuls: 16 young guns who could be stars in green at 2023 World Cup

As Joey Carbery and Jacob Stockdale lined up against each other at Ravenhill, it was noted that four years ago, at the time of the 2015 World Cup, neither had made their provincial debuts.

They weren’t alone. Of the 17 members of Joe Schmidt’s 32-man squad in Japan who earned Test debuts after the 2015 World Cup, five — Carbery, Stockdale, Andrew Porter, James Ryan and Jordan Larmour — had not represented their provinces at senior level in 2015.