Stephen Ferris is not surprised that Joe Schmidt has reverted to type with his Ireland team selection for the World Cup quarter-final with New Zealand, but says something new must be brought to the table.
The experienced pair of Peter O'Mahony and Rob Kearney – who boast 157 appearances for their country between them – are joined by Garry Ringrose as the three changes in starting personnel to take on the reigning world champions this Saturday in Tokyo Stadium..
While O’Mahony and Larmour were fending off strong competition from Tadhg Beirne and Jordan Larmour – who must be content among the replacements – it has been a feature of the highly successful Schmidt tenure that when it comes to close selection calls, experience often wins out.
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It is something RTÉ rugby analyst Ferris believes has served the Kiwi well in his time as Ireland head coach.
"Typical Joe Schmidt, he has reverted back to type," he said in response to his thoughts on the match-day 23 to take on the All Blacks.
"He puts faith in players like Rob Kearney delivering in the big games. Who can say that he hasn't over the last number of years?
"Jordan Larmour finds himself on the bench, maybe Andrew Conway will feel a little bit aggrieved that he hasn’t been selected in the match-day 23, but it’s a strong Ireland selection and anybody who has watched Ireland over the years, in the big games, they really come up trumps.
"That’s what everybody is hoping for Saturday."
Despite two wins over Steve Hansen’s side in their last three visits – the last less than 12 months ago – Ireland are very much the underdogs.
Indifferent 2019 form has carried through to the World Cup and despite book-ending the pool stages with comprehensive wins over Scotland and Samoa, the defeat to Japan and uninspiring performance against Russia has led many to conclude that Saturday will be the end of the Schmidt reign.
Ferris believes criticism of the team has been fair, and insists that unless the men in green offer up something new this weekend, they will have little chance of upsetting the All Blacks.
"There has been a bit of negativity and I think rightly so. We haven’t seen the lads hit their straps at all. They have been sluggish in some of their games.
"Everybody was expecting a lot more after the Scottish performance and it seemed to go the other way.
"We all feel there are a few plays up his (Schmidt's) sleeve, some plays that are going to break this New Zealand defence down and get us some points on the board.
"In the last three weeks, we haven’t seen a different Ireland than everybody was expecting; it has still been attritional, one-out runners and trying to break teams down physically.
"Against the All Blacks, it’s a lot more difficult to do."
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Follow Ireland v New Zealand on Saturday 19 October (kick-off 11.15am) via the live blog on RTÉ.ie/Sport and the News Now App, watch live on RTÉ2 or listen to live match commentary on RTÉ Radio 1
