The Irish provinces made a brilliant start in Europe last week with Leinster, Ulster and Connacht all edging out wins at home while Munster fought bravely in Exeter to snatch a draw against the Premiership leaders.
Leinster led the line with a dominant 52-3 win over Wasps last Friday and Leo Cullen’s side look poised to defend both their Champions Cup and PRO14 titles this season in what should be another excellent campaign for the four-time European champions.
The eastern province are enjoying tremendous success and their achievements on the pitch have been reflected in Joe Schmidt’s Ireland team with 17 Leinster players selected on the 32-man tour of Australia during the summer.
With the 2019 Rugby World Cup just under a year away, the Autumn internationals could be the last window that Schmidt has to really assess his squad depth with the trip to Chicago to play Italy and the visit of the United States to Dublin both brilliant opportunities to bring in and trial new players in his squad.
Here we look at the players that should be certainties for his squad and the players that will be pushing for places.
Certainties
Ireland’s incredible Grand Slam winning campaign last season has carved out a number of positions in Joe Schmidt’s side that would be as close to permanent as you can get in international rugby.
Tadhg Furlong, Conor Murray and Johnny Sexton are the three names that immediately spring to mind when thinking of the nailed on starters in any of Schmidt’s Irish teams but how many others belong in the same bracket?
Here’s our guaranteed starters (11):
Cian Healy
Rory Best
Tadhg Furlong
James Ryan
CJ Stander
Conor Murray
Johnny Sexton
Robbie Henshaw
Jacob Stockdale
Keith Earls
Rob Kearney
The success of last season had a lot of reoccurring characters and the names listed above were at the centre of a lot of the progress. Best as captain will naturally be the cornerstone but then players like Furlong, Ryan, Murray, Sexton and Kearney have essentially established themselves as the pillars of this Irish team.
Then you have the likes of Cian Healy that has ousted Jack McGrath at loosehead prop, Jacob Stockdale who set a Six Nations try scoring record and Keith Earls who was voted by his peers last season as the best player in the country.
Meanwhile both CJ Stander and Robbie Henshaw have seemingly always found a path into Schmidt’s sides, and while they face great competition at their respective positions, they’ve generally been automatic selections during the New Zealander’s tenure and there’s no reason to assume that that will change heading into next month.
Guaranteed squad players (14):
Bundee Aki
Joey Carbery
Andrew Conway
Jordan Larmour
Garry Ringrose
Tadhg Beirne
Jack Conan
Iain Henderson
Dan Leavy
Jack McGrath
Sean O’Brien
Peter O’Mahony
Andrew Porter
Devin Toner
The guaranteed squad players are those that regularly feature in the Ireland squad but cannot exactly be assured of their place in the starting team given the relative competition surrounding them, although Peter O’Mahony could probably make a strong case for his spot on the blindside.
Garry Ringrose has to compete with Bundee Aki for a place in the centres, Devin Toner, Iain Henderson and Tadhg Beirne are all essentially vying for one spot alongside James Ryan in the second-row while Dan Leavy, Josh van der Flier, Peter O’Mahony and Sean O’Brien should all compete for places on the side of the scrum.
O’Mahony, Ringrose, Beirne and Leavy would probably be at the top of this bracket given that they will likely start next month while just below them you’d have players like Joey Carbery, Jordan Larmour and Andrew Porter that would be seen as constant fixtures on the bench.
Players that should make the cut (10)
Finlay Bealham
Sean Cronin
Niall Scannell
Rhys Ruddock
Josh van der Flier
Jordi Murphy
John Cooney
Luke McGrath
Ross Byrne
Fergus McFadden
Schmidt named a 38-man squad for last year’s November internationals and with games against USA, Italy and Argentina lined up next month there’s no reason to expect this number to drop.
Of the 25 players selected in the first two groups, there are four props, one hooker, four second-rows, five back-rows, one scrum-half, two fly-halves, three centres, three wingers and two full-backs.
The back-rows and second-rows have a lot of strong contenders that would be hard to leave off any November squad while in positions like hooker and scrum-half there are essentially three players vying for two positions behind the incumbent starter.
Niall Scannell, Sean Cronin and Rob Herring are the three candidates that have pushed to deputise behind Best at hooker while John Cooney, Kieran Marmion and Luke McGrath have all fought for the right to back up Conor Murray at half-back.
Finlay Bealham and David Kilcoyne could be the third-choice props outside of the Leinster quartet of Healy, Furlong, McGrath and Porter while Rhys Ruddock has captained Ireland in the past and looked sensational against Wasps last week.
Ross Byrne is generally considered as the third-choice fly-half and should make his Ireland debut next month after failing to see any game time during the summer tour of Australia while Schmidt named five wingers in last year’s squad so you figure McFadden will be one of them given his level of involvement in the Six Nations.
Players that could make the squad (14)
David Kilcoyne
Rob Herring
James Tracy
Quinn Roux
Ultan Dillane
Tommy O’Donnell
Kieran Marmion
Tom Farrell
Will Addison
Craig Gilroy
Darren Sweetnam
Tiernan O’Halloran
If the 35 players listed above all earn selection, that should leave three more players for Schmidt to pick assuming he once again assembles a 38-man squad.
Marmion, if healthy, could quite easily gain selection ahead of Cooney and McGrath given Schmidt’s tendency to rotate in this position, while similarly at hooker both Tracy and Herring could oust Scannell and Cronin with the latter omitted from the summer tour down under.
Elsewhere Roux and Dillane might be able to join the quartet of Henderson, Ryan, Beirne and Toner after showing some good form with Connacht while Schmidt has been tracking Ulster’s Will Addison for sometime and he could potentially be a bolter after training with the Ireland squad in August.
Outsiders
Denis Buckley
John Ryan
Sean O’Brien
Nick Timoney
Paul Boyle
Jack Carty
Billy Burns
Stuart McCloskey
Rory Scannell
Rory O’Loughlin
Sam Arnold
Dan Goggin
Cian Kelleher
Niyi Adeolokun
This part could list all of the remaining players in Ireland but those listed above have either featured for Ireland before or have made very promising starts to this season and could be outside shots to make the squad.
Rory Scannell and John Ryan would headline this group given their previous involvements while the likes of Timoney, Boyle and O’Loughlin have been excellent for their provinces and Schmidt may want to bring them into camp to get a closer look at them ahead of next year’s Rugby World Cup.
Irish Rugby is in a very strong place ahead of next month’s internationals, and while the visit of New Zealand will undoubtedly be the headline attraction, the series is a great opportunity for Schmidt to test his depth at a time when Ireland are producing capable players in just about every position.
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