Ireland have two Six Nations campaigns left before the World Cup and Joe Schmidt says that they can’t be treated as experiments for the "Johnny-come-lately" competition in Japan.
Ireland’s record at the World Cup is infamous. Not once in eight appearances have the team managed to get into a semi-final.
The last attempt ended at the hands of Argentina when a battered and bruised selection, missing a host of injured and suspended frontline players, were blown away by Los Pumas in Cardiff.
The lack of strength in depth was exposed badly.
The 'learning' was that Ireland must stock up on experience before travelling east to face a pool that contains the hosts and the ever-improving Scotland.
Ensure that if any of the world-class players that wear the numbers between 6 and 10 get injured, then the back-ups must be able to cope.
It’s one of the reasons why Munster’s Simon Zebo was cut from the international panel as soon as his move to France was announced.
Zebo could have won eight caps, possibly 11 if you count the summer tour, but now those caps and minutes will go to someone who will be in the frame for Japan.
Schmidt has previously spoken about the lack of opportunity to see new players in pressure environments.
Is he tempted, as France and England have tried in the past, to almost sacrifice a Six Nations campaign to build up the experience in the ranks.
"I would pay the utmost respect to the Six Nations. That’s our tournament. That’s what we play," he told RTÉ Sport.
"It’s got a lot longer history than the World Cup, which is really Johnny-come-lately.
"And while it takes the overall precedence, the Six Nations is such a phenomenal title to get and it’s so tough.
"You saw some of the teams in the Six Nations: Scotland [who thrashed Australia], they are in our pool in the World Cup anyway. Whatever way you look at it they are really taking off at the moment.
"England [Six Nations champs], we know how tough they are.
"There are teams in the Six Nations who you are obliged to go as hard as you can.
"Because you still need your top selection, they need to build their fluidity together and you need to keep building confidence."
So while the New Zealander, who saw his team record their third win from three November Tests over Los Pumas yesterday, says he won’t sacrifice a chance at the European title by handing out caps to younger players intentionally, it’s something that may happen out of necessity.
"We took some risks this autumn," he said.
"I’d like to say all of them were calculated but some of them were per chance.
"One of the risks we took was with Chris Farrell.
"I thought he had a really super game.
"Robbie Henshaw was probably going to play until he got a slight hamstring twinge on Tuesday so that’s part of what will happen in the Six Nations.
"It almost happens organically because it’s so combative that you will need to factor in a few changes week to week so I don’t foresee there being 36 players necessarily given opportunities.
"But the 36 players who had opportunities in this window plus a number of players - Dan Leavy, Josh van der Flier, Keith Earls, Garry Ringrose - they come back into the mix.
"They are those sort of players who will challenge us and each other with selection."
That’s how Joe Schmidt says it stands. But if you offered any Irish rugby fan two last-place finishes in the next two Six Nations for a World Cup final appearance, they’d probably take it.
Ireland have won the Six Nations three times in recent years, it's great, but they can be big in Japan if they use the next two years to prepare for it.
