Paddy McCarthy has been selected to make his first start at international level, with Mack Hansen recalled at full-back and Sam Prendergast at outhalf, for Saturday night’s meeting with Australia at the Aviva Stadium (kick-off 8.10pm, live on RTE 2 and TNT Sports). In all, Andy Farrell makes nine changes to the Ireland starting line-up from last week’s 41-10 win over Japan.
Stuart McCloskey, James Lowe, Jamison Gibson-Park, Dan Sheehan, Tadhg Furlong and Jack Conan also return to the starting XV. In addition, with Garry Ringrose and Josh van der Flier ruled out due to hamstring injuries, there are two positional switches, with Robbie Henshaw reverting to outside centre and the captain Caelan Doris shifting to openside.
Last week’s starting front-row of Andrew Porter, Ronan Kelleher and Thomas Clarkson are named on the bench, as is Cian Prendergast, who made a big impact in the last half-hour against Japan, and Nick Timoney, who scored his fifth try in five Tests against the Cherry Blossoms.
Craig Casey and Jack Crowley also revert to the replacements, where they are joined by Bundee Aki, who wore the number 23 jersey in Chicago against the All Blacks a fortnight ago. His ability to enliven the crowd and teammates is proven in this role, not least when scoring a crucial try against Australia at the Aviva three years ago when Ireland’s 13-10 win was secured thanks to Ross Byrne returning from the wilderness to land a long-range 76th minute penalty.
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Farrell and his assistants have wasted little time in promoting the aforementioned McCarthy. The 22-year-old, a teammate of Sam Prendergast when Ireland won the Grand Slam and reached the Under-20 World Cup final in 2023, was included in the Ireland squad for the summer Tests against Georgia and Portugal but didn’t feature in either match.
However, on the back of being promoted from the Leinster academy to his first senior contract ahead of this campaign and then making his first three starts for the province in the URC this season, McCarthy was retained in Ireland’s squad for this November window.
He then made his debut off the bench against the All Blacks before marking his second cap, as a replacement against Japan, with his first Test try.
Forwards with the exceptional power and dynamism of the McCarthy brothers are a rare breed in Irish rugby and Farrell was also quick to fast-track Paddy’s older sibling Joe into the Irish set-up. The Irish coach handed the elder McCarthy, then only 21, his Test debut as a replacement in the aforementioned 13-10 win over Australia three years ago.
Similarly, Farrell wasted little time in adding Hansen to the Irish squad in the November window four years ago on the back of just five eye-catching games for Connacht soon after his arrival from the Brumbies.
In what looks an exciting, attack-minded team, Hansen’s X-factor will now be employed at fullback for the first time after winning all his 28 caps on the wing. But his playmaking has always been afforded a roving commission from the wing anyhow and he has played at full-back nine times for Connacht.
In his only outing of the season Hansen suffered a recurrence of the foot issues which dogged him on the Lions tour when scoring a late try against the Bulls, but he has trained fully this week. With Jamie Osborne joining Hugo Keenan on the injury list, Farrell has now boldly turned to the Australian-born Hansen ahead of Jimmy O’Brien or Jacob Stockdale.
Ireland (v Australia): 15 M Hansen; 14 T O’Brien, 13 R Henshaw, 12 S McCloskey, 11 J Lowe; 10 S Prendergast, 9 J Gibson-Park; 1 P McCarthy, 2 D Sheehan, 3 T Furlong; 4 J Ryan, 5 T Beirne; 6 R Baird, 7 C Doris (capt), 8 J Conan. Replacements: 16 R Kelleher, 17 A Porter, 18 T Clarkson, 19 N Timoney, 20 C Prendergast, 21 C Casey, 22 J Crowley, 23 B Aki.
