Gerry Thornley: Ireland set for hard work as tough calls made

Having burned the midnight oil on Saturday night analysing the defeat to Wales, Joe Schmidt rose early on Sunday to analyse Ulster's game in Edinburgh on Friday night, before the coaches assembled at 11am for their final selection meeting. That lasted six hours, whereupon Schmidt began phoning the 15 who didn't make the cut, finishing his round of calls at about 9.40pm, before the chosen 31 were then emailed to notify them of their inclusion.

In keeping with the entire nine-week process, it had been an exhaustive and not particularly pleasant day. Schmidt's calls to Andrew Trimble, David Kilcoyne, Marty Moore and Felix Jones must have been particularly awkward and, though they probably had more of an inkling, to Gordon D'Arcy and Fergus McFadden too.

Experience and youth

The net result is a mix of experience and youth, ranging from the 35-year-old captain Paul O’Connell to the one bolter, 22-year-old Tadhg Furlong, and with 14 players who have played in World Cups before.

For the sake of argument, Leinster have 16, Ulster seven, Munster six (including O’Connell) and Connacht two, compared to 14 from Leinster, six from Ulster, nine from Munster (initially 10 including the stricken David Wallace) and none from Connacht four years ago.

In any case, Schmidt is excited by the squad’s potential. “I like the fact that they’re all quality contributors. I like the fact that I do think we can pose a threat to opposition teams across the board. I think we can play with width. We can play narrow if the conditions determine that we need to,” he said, clearly still irked by Warren Gatland’s observations.

“I think we can mix-up our game sufficiently with the personnel we’ve got and hopefully we’ll get the opportunity to do all of that.

“I like the fact that we’ve got some really good experience and we’ve got some really good eagerness of youth. I like the mix of experience the players bring from the different provinces. The competitiveness within the squad is also very good.”

The biggest gamble, as Schmidt conceded, is to go with just two specialist scrumhalves in Conor Murray and Eoin Reddan, while asking Ian Madigan to cover there as well as outhalf, rather than centre. This has resulted in Darren Cave being perhaps the most surprising inclusion along with Furlong.

If Murray or Reddan suffered a short-term injury, the coaches would be reluctant to call in a replacement at the stipulated 48 hours’ notice and thus jettison a player as influential as Murray. But that runs the risk of having Madigan providing cover for one or even two games.

Biggest risk

“That is the biggest risk in not having the three scrumhalves,” said Schmidt. “If someone gets a grade-one calf and they are out for two weeks, you have got to balance up whether you persist and take the chance of covering the position with Ian or whether you make the choice straightaway.”

There is also a calculated gamble in picking two looseheads, given Cian Healy’s recovery from a neck surgery, and the choice of an inexperienced tighthead, Furlong, as potential cover on both sides of the scrum.

Describing Michael Bent as “very unlucky” to miss out, Schmidt admitted Marty Moore was even unluckier, after playing in every one of Ireland’s Six Nations games over the last two years.

The foot injury that compounded Moore’s return from shoulder surgery was the main reason, with Schmidt citing the ensuing “two to six weeks” recovery, which also suggests Moore’s rumoured stress fracture may require surgery.

“He has had a massive role in the last two Six Nations and he was obviously a guy that was uppermost in our thinking.

“But we didn’t have the clearance on him. The foot was still annoying him and therefore if you can’t do that, you can’t scrum and you can’t get around the pitch.”

Moore could, at a push, come into consideration as cover in the event of injuries. There is no definitive list of standby players, but Bent and the unlucky David Kilcoyne could well come into the picture.

Nathan White and Furlong, with just three caps and one start between them, go in Moore’s stead, and Furlong will also cover loosehead given he is more adaptable than the 35-year-old Ross and White, who turns 34 on Friday.

Such has been Healy’s startling progress that there is “a chance” he could feature on the bench against England at Twickenham this Saturday. If not, presumably Furlong will provide cover for Jack McGrath. “I don’t know how anyone can call that a ‘warm-up’ game,” noted Schmidt of Saturday’s final preparatory game.

But asked for his expectations at the World Cup, the Irish coach said: "I don't have any expectations of achievement. I have lots of hopes.

Banana skins

“I probably have an expectation we can work as hard as we can, an expectation we will take it one game at a time because there are banana skins early on in our pool,” he said, citing a Canadian team led by one of his former Clermont players, Jamie Cudmore.

“I have said that for us, we want to try to get to that last four, if we can. That’s probably my hope. My expectation is a bit more pragmatic and a little more short-term focused.”

IRELAND WORLD CUP SQUAD

FORWARDS (17)
Hookers
Rory Best (Ulster)
Seán Cronin (Leinster)
Richardt Strauss (Leinster)

Props
Cian Healy (Leinster)
Jack McGrath (Leinster)
Mike Ross (Leinster)
Nathan White (Connacht)
Tadhg Furlong (Leinster)

Secondrow
Paul O'Connell (Toulon, capt)
Devin Toner (Leinster)
Iain Henderson (Ulster)
Donnacha Ryan (Munster)

Backrow
Seán O'Brien (Leinster)
Peter O'Mahony (Munster)
Jamie Heaslip (Leinster)
Chris Henry (Ulster)
Jordi Murphy (Leinster)

BACKS (14)

Scrumhalves
Conor Murray (Munster)
Eoin Reddan (Leinster)

Outhalves
Jonathan Sexton (Leinster)
Ian Madigan (Leinster)
Paddy Jackson (Ulster)

Centres
Robbie Henshaw (Connacht)
Jared Payne (Ulster)
Darren Cave (Ulster)

Outside backs
Keith Earls (Munster)
Luke Fitzgerald (Leinster)
Tommy Bowe (Ulster)
Dave Kearney (Leinster)
Rob Kearney (Leinster)
Simon Zebo (Munster)