Injuries, and in a couple of instances retirements, has left Andy Farrell and his assistant coaches with more selection decisions than might normally be the case ahead of announcing the Ireland team to face the All Blacks in their opening November assignment on Thursday (1pm Irish time).
Rustiness abounds, nowhere more so than in the case of Caelan Doris. The captain hasn’t played in six months having undergone shoulder surgery for an injury suffered in Leinster’s defeat by Northampton last May.
Doris has been in full training with the Ireland squad since their arrival in Chicago on Tuesday last week, but then again with player welfare in mind, full contact training is not what it used be.
Forwards coach Paul O’Connell said they had not been protecting Doris and that he has had a strong return to training, while indicating that the captain will be in the match day 23 but potentially among the replacements.
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Another source of deep debate, if perhaps more so outside the squad, is the identity of the number 10. Jack Crowley started in Rome and Lisbon, although Sam Prendergast was preferred in Tbilisi. Crowley seems in slightly sharper, more confident form, and had the better of the Croke Park audition, but it would be no surprise if Prendergast was restored.
As with the Lions, Farrell has a ready-made alternative to Doris in the shape of Jack Conan. Granted, he hasn’t played since being an ever-present at number eight for a second successive Lions series three months ago, but he sounded bullish about hitting the ground running against the All Blacks.
Conan could also start at six alongside Doris, à la Ireland’s last Six Nations game away to Italy, when Tadhg Beirne was at lock alongside James Ryan. After Beirne’s tour de force when leading Munster against Leinster in Croke Park, he is sure to start, but where?
He did play in the secondrow for the Lions against Argentina and the Invitational AU/NZ XV but he was at blindside in two other tour games, as well as all three Tests, after which he was chosen as player of the series. With the retirement of Peter O’Mahony, perhaps significantly Beirne also started at six against Leinster.
Ryan Baird and Cian Prendergast are other options at blindside but if Beirne is chosen there, this would probably mean Iain Henderson being recalled as more of a like-for-like starter in the absence of Joe McCarthy, who was on the bench in Rome.
So too was Tadhg Furlong, who is likely to be restored as the starting tighthead for the first time since the Tests in South Africa in the summer of 2024 after an injury-plagued season.
In the enforced absence of Hugo Keenan and Mack Hansen, opportunity is set to knock for Jamie Osborne and, finally, Tommy O’Brien. The usual toss-up between Robbie Henshaw and Bundee Aki may be influenced by the slight knocks they took into this window, and by extension the completion of the bench given Farrell’s liking for a centre there.
Rónan Kelleher is likely to return in place of Gus McCarthy on the bench, and likewise Craig Casey, in place of the retired Conor Murray, after missing last season’s Six Nations before leading Ireland in Georgia and Portugal.
IRELAND v New Zealand (possible): J Osborne; T O’Brien, G Ringrose, B Aki, J Lowe; J Crowley, J Gibson-Park; A Porter, D Sheehan (capt), T Furlong; J Ryan, T Beirne; R Baird, J van der Flier, J Conan.
Replacements: R Kelleher, J Boyle, F Bealham, I Henderson, C Doris, C Casey, S Prendergast, R Henshaw.
