'It's not just a match' - Ireland XV head coach wants strong showing against Spain

Cullie Tucker is confident his matchday 23 of nine Ulstermen, five Connacht players, five Munstermen, and four from Leinster would be singing from the same hymn sheet by Saturday’s (4pm Irish time) kick-off.

STRONG SHOWING: Head coach Cullie Tucker during an Ireland XV Rugby media conference at the IRFU High Performance Centre. Pic: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile.

Ireland XV head coach Cullie Tucker is hoping the strides taken from his scratch squad on the training ground this week will bear fruit in Leganés on Saturday when the Irish Test hopefuls face Spain at Estadio Municipal de Butarque.

Tucker, on secondment from Connacht, where he is scrum coach, has named a side captained by hooker Tom Stewart, one of 10 Test-capped Ireland internationals and even a former England one-capper in Munster’s new signing Dan Kelly, a former Irish Under-20 now re-qualified to wear the green.

Yet while a strong performance is demanded of the Ireland XV team against a national side which has qualified for the 2027 World Cup, the preparation work undertaken in camp, both in Dublin and on the outskirts of Madrid, has already informed the management of the calibre of player in their group.

“It's not just a match. It's five days to prepare yourself for a game,” Tucker said. “It's pushing yourself out of your comfort zone to connect with other people from other provinces, both on and off the pitch.

“You learn a lot about them. As coaches, we learn so much about them during the week and then the proof of the pudding will be in the performance at the weekend.

"I think stretching players and pushing them out of our comfort zone as much as we can is where we need to put them so they can put their hand up to kick on and challenge the guys in the senior squad.”

So far so good for Tucker and his coaching group, with Munster’s Mossy Lawler in charge of attack, Leinster’s Sean O’Brien overseeing defence and Ulster’s Jimmy Duffy taking care of the forwards.

The head coach said he was confident his matchday 23 of nine Ulstermen, five Connacht players, five Munstermen, and four from Leinster would be singing from the same hymn sheet by Saturday’s (4pm Irish time) kick-off.

“It's a great honour in any player's life to be named in Irish squad. It's a special jersey, the opportunity to put it on. They understand that and they bought into what we're trying to do and I think the provincial bias has been out the window very, very quickly.”

SPAIN: JW Bell; M Cian, I Mateu, G Lopez Bontempo, A Carmona; G Vinuesa, E Bay; T Futeu, S Ovejero, J Zabala – captain ; M Foulds, I Piñeiro; M Ariceta, V Boronat, E Imaz.

Replacements: Á García, R Calzón, J Domínguez, I Urraza, M Triki, N Infer, Á Saleta, L Richardis.

IRELAND XV: M Lowry (Ulster); R Baloucoune (Ulster), J Postlethwaite (Ulster), D Kelly (Munster), S Bolton (Connacht); H Byrne (Leinster), B Murphy (Connacht); M Milne (Munster), T Stewart (Ulster) – captain, T O’Toole (Ulster); E O’Connell (Munster), D Murray (Connacht); A Soroka (Leinster), R Quinn (Munster), P Boyle (Connacht).

Replacements: L Barron (Munster), A Usanov (Leinster), S Wilson (Ulster), Diarmuid Mangan (Leinster), D McCann (Ulster), N Doak (Ulster), C Forde (Connacht), Z Ward (Ulster)