Ireland against Australia was, of course, the World Cup semi-final we never had. Oh well.
In any case, just over a year later, the Wallabies come calling to the Aviva Stadium and it is a measure of the task facing Ireland that Australia’s starting team tomorrow will feature no less than ten of their World Cup final XV.
That is the net effect of Michael Cheika recalling nine players who were rested from last week's starting XV, six of whom were not even in the match-day squad for a 25-23 win over France in Paris which has set up this penultimate leg of a putative Grand Slam tour.
Cheika and co have clearly targeted this game after the defeat at the Aviva two Novembers ago, and to all intents and purposes this is a first-choice, full-strength team save for the injured lock Adam Coleman, although the Wallabies head coach would not admit as much.
“No, I just think for this game there’s still a bit of the tour to go. I suppose there’s a bit of continuity around what we’ve played before. A small change.
“But for us, no matter what the selection, we’ve got to keep working on the things we need to improve. No matter who is playing in the jersey, there’s some things we’ve been trying to work on to get better since the start of the season. This match is going to be another step in the way for that experience.”
After his five-year reign at Leinster, when the province reached the Holy Grail of their first Heineken Cup, Cheika admitted that a win would have additional resonance for him.
Big game
“Obviously it would be very enjoyable for me. I’ve spent so many good years here. I was very disappointed to lose here in 2014. But that’s not what it’s really about, at the end of the day. There’s a lot of things that I suppose are on the line, but we’re not going to start changing our tune.”
“Our thing is we’ve come here with a third of a new squad from when we came to Europe last year for the World Cup. A lot of those guys haven’t played in Europe before so the atmosphere of playing at Lansdowne Road and that challenge, it’s really difficult to win in Europe. For a lot of our guys who haven’t had those experiences, this will be a big game.”
“We [Leinster] started off there in Donnybrook and moved here, it was a brilliant venue – it still is. I can see that. You can see the pride they’ve got in there and what’s happened in the province here. It’s been nice for me to come back down here – always plenty of good memories.”
Joe Schmidt subsequently succeeded Cheika at Leinster and guided them to two more Heineken Cups as well as League and Challenge Cup double, and asked how he rated the Irish head coach, Cheika said: "Very highly."
“It’s been seen first of all in what he did with Leinster and when you speak to players and how they refer to him, the type of language and tone they use when they talk about him. And now what he’s done with Ireland – he’s stepped up from being a number two in Clermont, he came here and has done a great job.
“He’s made that change. Not everyone makes that jump. I don’t know him a lot personally, just bits and pieces, but he seems like a very good person. And he’s obviously done a great job.”
