Ireland will take Scotland on this Sunday at 3pm in Murrayfield after their 27-22 win over England. Simon Easterby has called Shayne Bolton and Tom Ahern in to the squad to prepare for the round 2 clash.
Shayne Bolton gets a first call up, he is South African born but has served the recommended time period necessary to allow him to be called up. He was on the radar back in November only for injury to rule him out of contention at that time.
Tom Ahern will come in and try and make an impact to see can he come into contention with Joe Mc Carthy being monitored along with Finlay Bealham. Ahern has played well for Munster in recent times and would have felt hard done by when the initial squad was named but now opportunity knocks for him if Joe Mc Carthy is again ruled out.
There will be talk I am sure again in some quarters about the decision to bring Shayne Bolton in as he is South African born and with men like Jamie Osbourne and Calvin Nash already involved there may be a feeling like it might not work out in Bolton’s favour on this occasion.
Ireland will play an “A” international vs England in Bristol in a few weeks’ time and one gets the feeling Bolton will get a run out there alongside other men like John Hodnett, Gavin Coombes to name two possible inclusions for that particular fixture. The coaching team for that game will see Mike Prendergast as head coach along with Sean O Brien and Mark Sexton.
Ireland will be happy how the set piece functioned on Saturday and with Dan Sheehan making a try scoring return from the bench, Ireland are back in the strong position of having the two strongest options in the hooking department back on board as we go to Murrayfield.
The make-up of the 23 on Saturday has also caused a number of varying opinions in the last few days, with 16 of the 23 coming from Leinster on Saturday. It may be an issue in the long term but people cannot argue that the cohesion seen in the final 20 minutes in particular helped see Ireland home.
The talk of the long term issues this over reliance in picking players from one province over another will have to wait but is something that the people will have to keep an eye on over the next season or so.
Like everything with squad selections, they are objective calls, well most of the time they are. Of course you will always have one or two tight call every time. Nobody will always agree with every selection and that is the wonderful thing about squad selections.
Scotland will come into the game on Sunday after a 31-19 win over Italy and will feel they have shaken off the cobwebs and any rustiness that may have been there before the Italy game. Scotland will be waiting with baited breathe to see can they beat Ireland which hasn’t been an easy thing to do either home or away for them since the win on home soil in 2017.
For Ireland, the win over England has started the campaign on the right foot and they can now build towards another away trip and will know they will need to make a better fist of defending after the concession of two late tries saw a comfortable 27-10 lead whittled down to a 27-22 final score in the last few minutes.
This particular fact will help focus Irish minds heading into the week ahead. I will now pick the 23 I think will do a job to defeat Scotland.
15 Hugo Keenan
14 Calvin Nash
13 Garry Ringrose
12 Bundee Aki
11 James Lowe
10 Sam Prendergast
9 Jamison Gibson Park
8 Caelan Doris
7 Josh Van Der Flier
6 Ryan Baird
5 Tadgh Beirne
4 James Ryan
3 Thomas Clarkson
2 Ronan Kelleher
1 Andrew Porter
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16 Dan Sheehan
17 Cian Healy
18 Jack Auniger ( If Bealham is out)
19 Cormac Izuchukwu
20 Jack Conan
21 Conor Murray
22 Jack Crowley
23 Robbie Henshaw