Andy Farrell has made only one change to the Ireland starting XV for this Friday’s Autumn Nations Series encounter against Argentina at the Aviva Stadium (kick-off 8.10pm) by recalling Robbie Henshaw to midfield. But there are four changes on the bench, including two prospective debutants in Thomas Clarkson and Sam Prendergast, as well as recalls for Ryan Baird and Craig Casey.
Henshaw is reunited with his Leinster midfield partner Garry Ringrose in place of Bundee Aki, who misses out on the matchday squad altogether, as Farrell reverts to the combination he employed for the second Test victory over South Africa in Durban last July.
The rest of the starting XV from last Friday’s 23-13 defeat by the All Blacks has been retained, with Farrell also opting for the pack which started in Kings Park when Tadhg Beirne shifted from the secondrow to blindside, save for the injured Tadhg Furlong.
Not surprisingly, the latter has not been risked after aggravating a hamstring injury in Ireland’s preparatory camp in Portugal. And with Tom O’Toole obliged to undergo the 12-day return to play protocols after suffering a head injury within two minutes of his introduction against New Zealand, it means Clarkson is set to make his debut from the bench.
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The 24-year-old from Wicklow came through Blackrock College and was an ever-present on the Ireland Under-20 Grand Slam-winning side in 2019. Although officially named as one of the additional ‘training panellists’ when the squad was announced, he is now in line for his Test debut after winning 47 caps for Leinster.
By contrast, Prendergast is only 21 yet his coronation as a Test player has been inevitable since he provided the stardust as outhalf on the 2023 Ireland Under-20 Grand Slam-winning team which also reached the Junior World Cup final.
Such has been Farrell’s evident admiration for Prendergast’s repertoire of passing and kicking skills that he was called in as a training panellist for last year’s Six Nations, was brought on the tour to South Africa and started all three games on this season’s Emerging Ireland tour to the same country.
His promotion comes at the expense of Ciarán Frawley, who has experienced the fickle nature of sport after his match-winning heroics in Durban, while Baird and Casey are preferred to Iain Henderson and Conor Murray.
Farrell said that the selection was with “the balance of the right team to play this game” in mind, as in “achieving a performance and keeping the squad ticking over at the same time”.
The head coach admitted he could have made more changes based solely on the evidence of last week, but reasoned that it was better to give players such as Jack Crowley another chance.
“Jack, along with quite a few of our players, would have been hoping for better performance. Some of them are lucky enough to get another chance to do that others are coming in and some of them played pretty well themselves, but there were too many people not right at their best last week and we’re hoping for everyone to improve, not just Jack.
“Obviously, the control of the game is something that Jack would be open and honest about of wanting to step up a little bit this weekend but we’ve certainly seen that in training this week.”
As for his new understudy, Farrell said of Prendergast: “He’s ready. For a young fellah that’s not had much game-time provincially, he’s obviously had more of late, but in an ironic way he’s probably been patient enough.
“Because, in his own mind he’d probably thought he’s been ready for quite some time because he’s that kind of kid, a confident kid. The experience that he’s got from being around the squad, he’s comfortable in his own skin.
“The reason for taking him on the Emerging tour was to make sure that he understood what it was to grab hold of his team and show that he is in charge. He showed that in abundance, we’ve seen the knock-on effect from that in the squad in the last couple of weeks.
“In his own mind he’s ready. He’s a young kid that’s in a pressurised-type position obviously. He’s going to make his mistakes, but that’s the nature of anyone coming through.”
Improvement was needed in every area, Farrell admitted, but he maintained that being an honest group made it easier to find solutions and he welcomed the additional pressure now on this team to perform after coming up short.
“Pressure’s good. It’s what concentrates the mind, you see where your character’s at. We want to win all our games, but the opposition is always going to have a say in that. I think this is perfect because we’ve got another top, top drawer opposition coming and we want to test ourselves because we feel like we let a few people down last week.
“It’s the best medicine for you actually, to get back on the horse, I’m sure there’s a bit of disappointment with a few of the lads that they don’t get to do that but they understand as well that it’s about the team, it’s about the squad but, yeah, and that’s why I said it’s the perfect game because it’s very similar insofar as the quality of the opposition and where you need to be to draw out that performance from yourselves.”
IRELAND (v Argentina): Hugo Keenan (Leinster); Mack Hansen (Connacht), Garry Ringrose (Leinster), Robbie Henshaw (Leinster), James Lowe (Leinster); Jack Crowley (Munster), Jamison Gibson-Park (Leinster); Andrew Porter (Leinster), Rónan Kelleher (Leinster), Finlay Bealham (Connacht); Joe McCarthy (Leinster), James Ryan (Leinster); Tadhg Beirne (Munster); Josh van der Flier (Leinster), Caelan Doris (Leinster, capt).
Replacements: Rob Herring (Ulster), Cian Healy (Leinster), Thomas Clarkson (Leinster)*, Ryan Baird (Leinster); Peter O’Mahony (Munster), Craig Casey (Munster), Sam Prendergast (Leinster)*, Jamie Osborne (Leinster).
* denotes uncapped player.
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