Irish coach Joe Schmidt has selected some big guns for Ireland’s return match against Argentina this Saturday!
Rob Kearney returns at fullback, with Fergus McFadden replacing the injured Luke Marshall at centre, with Darren Cave switching to inside centre.
In the forwards; Jaimie Heaslip comes in at no.8, with Rhys Ruddock at blindside flanker. Ruddock replaces Robbie Diack, who made his debut in last week’s Test. Devin Toner resumes his second-row partnership with Paul O’Connell.
Ireland managed to beat Argentina in the first Test, 29-17, but it was a somewhat underwhelming performance. The less experienced Argentina team ran the Six Nations’ champions ragged last week and also managed to score the try of the match.
While Ireland’s set-pieces did the job, the backs at times were left muddled. Schmidt has decided to bring in some experience for the second Test.
It would have been an opportune time to try out some new players and new combinations before the much more difficult November Series, but the coach has obviously decided to go with the best team he has available.
Most of the players selected are experienced campaigners (Trimble, Sexton, Heaslip, O’Connell, Best) and won’t offer any new insights. Ireland should be using this opportunity to try out some new players and look to the future (ie the 2015 World Cup).
Giving promising players a chance to excel would prove more useful than a somewhat meaningless victory in a friendly, in my opinion.
The teams:
Argentina: 15 Joaquín Tuculet, 14 Lucas González Amorosino, 13 Jerónimo De la Fuente, 12 Gabriel Ascárate, 11 Manuel Montero, 10 Nicolás Sánchez, 9 Martín Landajo (captain), 8 Antonio Ahualli de Chazal, 7 Tomás De la Vega, 6 Rodrigo Báez, 5 Tomas Lavanini, 4 Manuel Carizza, 3 Ramiro Herrera, 2 Matías Cortese, 1 Lucas Noguera Paz.
Replacements: 16 Santiago Iglesias Valdez, 17 Bruno Postiglioni, 18 Matías Díaz, 19 Matías Alemanno, 20 Javier Ortega Desio, 21 Tomás Cubelli, 22 Santiago González Iglesias, 23 Matías Orlando.
Ireland: 15 Rob Kearney, 14 Andrew Trimble, 13 Fergus McFadden, 12 Darren Cave, 11 Simon Zebo, 10 Jonathan Sexton, 9 Eoin Reddan, 8 Jamie Heaslip, 7 Chris Henry, 6 Rhys Ruddock, 5 Paul O’Connell, 4 Devin Toner, 3 Mike Ross, 2 Rory Best , 1 Dave Kilcoyne
Replacements:16 Rob Herring, 17 James Cronin, 18 Jack McGrath, 19 Iain Henderson, 20 Jordi Murphy, 21 Conor Murray, 22 Ian Madigan, 23 Noel Reid
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