Expect just two scrum-halves to make Joe Schmidt's final Ireland 31 for RWC
That’s now five down, nine more to go as Joe Schmidt edges towards the magic number of 31 players he can take with him to the World Cup in Japan.
Wednesday’s update before Ireland flew out to Portugal for their week-long warm-weather camp in Portugal was a sharp reminder of how ruthless a business Test rugby is.
There was Mike Haley, for instance, as proud as punch only last Saturday after making his international debut. Just four days later, the pep had been brutally robbed from his step with Schmidt confirming the Munster full-back was now surplus to requirement along with John Cooney and Finlay Bealham.
Failing to make the cut after appearing in the opening warm-up match is nothing new on the Irish scene. In 2015, eight of the 23 Schmidt rolled out for the pre-season opener away to Wales never made it to England 2015.
Felix Jones, Andrew Trimble, Fergus McFadden and the cruelly injured Tommy O’Donnell has been starters in that 35-21 win in Cardiff but were nowhere to be seen when the World Cup finals came around.
Similarly, a quartet of first-day subs from four years ago – Dave Kilcoyne, Michael Bent, Dan Tuohy and Kieran Marmion – were all given the elbow when the registration deadline day came to pass.
Given that high attrition rate, you can be sure that other players who featured in last weekend’s scratchy win over Italy will still be the recipients of some very bad news regarding the eventual squad for Japan.
Having already last week cut loose second row Ultan Dillane and midfielder Rory Scannell, Schmidt’s latest cull at prop, scrum-half and back three will now sharpen the contest to get into the 31.
Ireland squad update. @JoeyCarbery will rehab his ankle injury with the national squad and is expected to be available for selection in 4-6 weeks#ShoulderToShoulderhttps://t.co/iMp7x5kAPn
— Irish Rugby (@IrishRugby) August 14, 2019
Cooney’s removal strongly indicates that Schmidt is again leaning towards bringing just two scrum-halves with him, as was the case in 2015.
That was a gamble which resulted in Conor Murray having to strip as a sub for the gimme pool match versus Romania. The star No9 could yet wind up having to fill a similar role in the expected easy ride versus Russia in Kobe now that it is likely that only one of Kieran Marmion or Luke McGrath – not both – will travel to Japan as the health of Joey Carbery will require a third out-half, probably Jack Carty, to be selected.
Carbery’s situation is most important as if Ireland only travel with two specialist No9s, the Munster man would be the player expected to fill in if an emergency arose. This was the same back-up situation that Ian Madigan was placed in at the 2015 finals.
Exclusive – Update on Carbery's injury means Schmidt and Ireland facing a tough decision. https://t.co/OE88EZHfKi
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) August 12, 2019
At front row, Kilcoyne, having lost out disappointingly in the 2015 shake-up, will be the player whose nerves have giddied following last weekend’s opener. The Munster loosehead had jumped ahead of 2017 Lion Jack McGrath during the recent Six Nations as the back-up to first-choice Cian Healy.
But McGrath was back in vogue as a starter for the fixture against the Italians and even worse for Kilcoyne, tighthead Andrew Porter, who is behind Tadhg Furlong but ahead of John Ryan in the No3 pecking order, had the second half on Saturday to acquaint himself with the demands of Test level loosehead propping.
That has generated speculation that Porter could now additionally provide No1 cover behind Healy and McGrath at Kilcoyne’s expense rather than Schmidt committing to bringing three looseheads to the World Cup.
No amount of social media abuse will make Rory Best sing the Irish national anthemhttps://t.co/TCT32im0Wz
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) August 13, 2019
Last time, the coach favoured two looseheads (Healy and McGrath) and three tightheads (Mike Ross, Nathan White and Furlong, who was pencilled in for loosehead duty in an emergency). No wonder Kilcoyne will be feeling edgy.
As it stands, Ireland will play two further warm-up matches – away to England and Wales – before the RWC die is eventually cast prior to their fourth and final early September run-out in Dublin against the Welsh.
Nine more names need to join the five already excluded so far. Little by little, Schmidt is getting there.
WATCH: Joe Schmidt’s media conference after last weekend’s win by Ireland over Italy
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
27 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments