Joe Schmidt strongly considering Ultan Dillane for Italian job

The Ireland coach will retain the bulk of his senior stars but wants to see more of Ultan Dillane in Test action.

Word from Carton House is that Dillane is pushing Donnacha Ryan extremely hard for a place in Ireland's second row this weekend. The Connacht lock offered Irish fans an exciting glimpse of his talents, during the loss to England, when he produced a stunning line break minutes into his debut. Devin Toner did not have the best of games at Twickenham but has enough credit in the bank to keep the No.5 jersey. Ireland Under 20 coach Nigel Carolan has worked with Dillane at Connacht for the past three years and was impressed with his first international outing. He says:

"I think his cameo the last day in the 15 minutes went particularly well for him. It didn’t look like it was his first cap, it looked like a guy who had played 30 or 40 caps, he looked that comfortable. "I hope that his time is coming and that he can reproduce because I think his stock certainly went up on the back of his 15 minutes the last day but again, he’s very humble and he knows that he’s got a lot to do. If he wasn’t starting, I don’t think he’ll be too disappointed."

Carolan has been impressed with how quickly Dillane as adapted to the step-up in level and praised his hard work on, and away, from the training field.

Ireland winger Andrew Trimble believes Dillane and Ireland's other recent debutants - Josh van der Flier and Stuart McCloskey - all gave a good account of themselves.

It’s a good buzz to have a combination of a few experienced players with one or two young fellas coming in... All of a sudden we have three new internationals there who are really going hard at it. All at the top of their game.

"It just creates more camaraderie, competition for places and that’s a healthy environment to be in."