Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt has named his 23-man squad for their opening Rugby World Cup game against Scotland on Sunday, but it has caused some concern.
Going into the first match Schmidt would have had plans for his team but surely starting with his two of his second-choice back-three options wasn’t one.
It is an exciting prospect having Andrew Conway and Jordan Larmour in the back-three alongside Jacob Stockdale. However, against Scotland, the team thought to be Ireland’s biggest contender for top spot in pool A, you can imagine the plan was to have Keith Earls and Rob Kearney or at least one in the starting XV.
The team is already missing a huge player in the midfield with Robbie Henshaw out due to a hamstring problem.
Kearney and Earls were suffering from calf and knee injuries earlier in the week and it was reported that they could have played on Sunday, but it seems unlikely that if they were both available that neither would be selected.
It raises the question of did Schmidt bring not only the right back-line players but did he bring enough?
Joey Carbery has been making his way back from an ankle injury picked up in Ireland’s warm-up game against Italy, but wasn’t ready for this weekend.
All of those things have led to Schmidt naming a back-line that although exciting, it appears to lack a certain stability and not only that, the bench is worrying.
Luke McGrath and Jack Carty are obvious choices for the 21 and 22 jerseys but Chris Farrell has been chosen at 23, covering the rest of the backs, which appears far from ideal.
It would seem as though Ireland’s hand has been forced with only nine of the 13 backs brought to Japan being fully fit, meaning the players that were picked, had to be picked!
If you think of a couple of possible situations, such as if Conway, Larmour or one of the centres get injured on Sunday, what would happen?
If Conway gets injured on the wing, does that force Farrell to come on in the centre and switching Garry Ringrose out to Conway’s position? Does a similar situation occur if Larmour picks up an injury?
That would leave Ireland’s only fully fit centres in Ringrose, Farrell and Bundee Aki all on the pitch with a game against Japan only six days after the clash against the Scots. If one of those were to suffer a blow or just simply lack form, where does that leave Ireland’s back-line?
Already you are looking at a stretched squad, a vulnerable squad. One can only wonder if Schmidt should have taken the versatile Will Addison to Japan, or Ross Byrne as a fly-half and Carbery as a cover in the back-line?
Ireland will hope to come through the game with no further concerns, but there is a chance that going into the second game of the tournament players could be rushing themselves back from injuries just to make up the numbers.
It is hard to predict what will happen, but it is something that fans should take note of, another injury and this squad could be in trouble.
Henshaw, Earls, Kearney and Carbery will be hoping for speedy returns to action, and it is vital in a tournament like this that the squad is managed and rotated correctly or things can turn into a crisis very quickly.
Let’s hope that all the players are back to full-fitness in the coming days, but no matter what way it is spun this is far from the ideal start to the campaign for Schmidt and co.
