RUGBY/IRELAND v AUSTRALIA:AS EXPECTED, Declan Kidney and his Irish think tank have pretty much stuck to a winning formula, regardless of the intervening seven months – or, perhaps, even because of them.
Without a match in that time, Ireland will at least have a degree of familiarity when they start their new campaign against Australia at Croke Park on Sunday.
There are only two changes from the team which started the epic, Grand Slam-winning finale to the Six Nations, one enforced and one by choice. Cian Healy, predictably, comes in for his debut at loosehead, while Paddy Wallace, who started the first three legs of the Slam, regains his place at inside centre ahead of Gordon D’Arcy.
Indeed, the team features 10 players who were ever-present in last season’s Six Nations, and eight of them also started the three autumn Tests a year ago.
All of which is a remarkable testament to the well being of the squad and the IRFU’s player management, especially when set against their English counterparts.
Of the selection of Healy, the Ireland coach said: “I think he has been going well with Leinster. The fact that he was willing to be patient last year and fight his way into it. There are loads of things to learn over the next eight years. Hopefully his career will go on and on once injury allows it. If he can just play the way he has been playing, that’s all we want him to do.
“He’s very young for a prop. That’s why I’d say eight, 10 years. You don’t usually say that about a player, but he’s just at the infancy of the whole thing, I think. I’m looking forward to him playing.”
“It’s a dream come true,” said Healy, of what should be the first of many caps. “This is what I’ve wanted since I was a child. To be going into such an experienced team, it’s unbelievable. I can’t get my head around it.”
Ideally, a debutant should come into a successful and settled side, which certainly applies in this case, though, admittedly, alongside Healy, John Hayes will be playing his first match in six weeks, while Jerry Flannery will be making only his second start of the season and his first in five weeks.
“Like everything else in life, you can either moan about it or you can get on with it,” shrugged Kidney. “That’s the truth of it. One of the great ironies of sporting life is that John took a sabbatical for a few weeks, and now he’s in to mind Cian.
“There are ironies all over the place. But you just get on with it. I read someone say that if we spend the present lamenting the past, the future will pass us by.”
Aside from his good form, Wallace’s selection perhaps indicates the importance of having a varied kicking game.
His inclusion gives Ireland two play-making kickers, at 10 and 12, and with Brian O’Driscoll alongside them, the booming left boot of Rob Kearney at fullback and two converted full-backs on the wings, Ireland shouldn’t lack in that department.
D’Arcy loses out on the match-day 22, as Keith Earls’ versatility earns him the nod in the absence of the injured Geordan Murphy on the bench, where there is one mild surprise in the preference of Connacht’s uncapped Seán Cronin ahead of the more experienced John Fogarty.
Tom Court and a resurgent Denis Leamy retain their places from the Six Nations in the 22, while Leo Cullen, Eoin Reddan and Jonathan Sexton have forced their way in.
“You don’t like leaving a fella like Gordon out of it,” admitted Kidney. “That’s a big call to have a player of his ability not in the 22. I never like doing that, but I suppose that’s one that stands out for me now.”
The Wallabies, who have played 13 matches since Ireland last ran out onto the field, may be facing rusty opponents in the second leg of their first attempt at a Grand Slam tour of the Home unions since the Mark Ella vintage of 1984, but they are nothing like as injury ravaged or unsettled as England were last Saturday.
Australia not only come into this game more match-hardened, but on the back of that confidence-boosting win over England at Twickenham – which is always particularly pleasing to the Aussie psyche.
“Well, I think they’ve been knocking on the door in their Tri-Nations matches over the last while, and I think they were a little more patient this time when it came to picking off scores,” said Kidney. “They stayed patient up close to the line and got the penalty decision that put them in front, and then managed to finish the game out pretty well – something that they had been talking about that they hadn’t been doing to date.
“Any side that goes to Twickenham and comes away with a win, it’s bound to give you a bucketful of confidence. That’s part of the challenge for Sunday.”
O’Driscoll, who will captain the side for a 53rd time in what is his 100th Test match, including six games for the Lions, has always been an admirer of the Wallabies since he made his debut against them in Brisbane in 1999. Yesterday he described them as probably the smartest team in world rugby.
“They think about how to break defences, they have the personnel to do that and they are able to adapt on the pitch, that’s their big feature. They might go in with Plan A, but they can change it throughout the game. That makes them dangerous and also a great challenge.”
