Despite being light in the out-half department, Joe Schmidt is adamant that the IRFU's policy of favouring home-based players is for the best.
Paddy Jackson was named to start for Ireland against Scotland on Saturday in today’s team announcement.
With Schmidt having to plan without Johnny Sexton and Joey Carbery, Ian Keatley, who has just four caps, is on the bench as cover for the Ulster playmaker.
Otherwise, Rory Scannell, the Munster centre, was touted as a stand-in.
Meanwhile, Ian Madigan, an erstwhile regular panellist with 30 caps, was not considered for a call-up as he is based in France, a fact which means he cannot partake in full training camps due to the Top 14 schedule.
“Ian couldn’t train with us last week,” Schmidt told reporters.
“We only trained on the Tuesday and then [on] Thursday, Friday he was preparing to come off the bench for Bordeaux-Begles against Clermont.
“We are incredibly keen to support the provinces.
“If we demonstrate to the players that we are happy to pick players from outside of Ireland then potentially one of the big draw cards for keeping them here will be lifted and players will more likely go overseas.
“One of the things that keeps them here is the player-management [policy] and another thing that keeps them here is that they know they are going to get closer to the top of the queue in the competition to play for the national team.”
Schmidt, however, was not shutting the door on Madigan completely. The New Zealander rates Sexton as only an “outside chance” of being fit to face Italy in nine days’ time.
He won’t be risked in Rome and should anything happen to Jackson, Madigan is on call.
Here's your @IrishRugby team v @Scotlandteam for #RBS6Nations #TeamOfUs #ShoulderToShoulder pic.twitter.com/5oZgsINPhJ
— Irish Rugby (@IrishRugby) February 2, 2017
“I’ve had some good conversations with Ian recently,” he said.
“It’s not like he’s disappeared and he’s off the radar.
"We know we can whistle him in but we also know during the Six Nations period that we play two matches, then he’d have to go back, we’d play one match, he’d have to go back, then we’d get to play the last two matches, so it’s not like you get a continuity of work space with the actual player.
"That’s a real frustration for us and it’s the same with Marty [Moore, the former Leinster prop now at Wasps].
“Marty was probably ahead of Tadhg Furlong in the Leinster hierarchy of tightheads when Marty left and Tadhg has come through.
“John Ryan is working his way through, Finlay Bealham has played a lot, including coming off the bench against the All Blacks. It’s probably allowed an opportunity for other people.
“This time last year nobody was talking about Joey Carbery.
“Now unfortunately Joey has picked up an injury but at the same time he launched himself into the limelight. I very much doubt that would have happened if Ian Madigan was there.
“I agree there’s flip-sides either way and it’s not an ideal situation not to have every player who’s Irish-qualified and immediately available.
“The ones who are playing overseas, they are available but it’s a fluctuating availability and that’s a little bit frustrating in the preparation you’re trying to have.”
Asked about Sexton’s luckless injury run, Schmidt was more hopeful that he could be involved in the crunch fixtures - France, Wales and England.
“[There’s] no greater frustration than for Johnny himself, he was incredibly motivated for this Six Nations.
“He’s probably frustrated that he did the injury in the first place against Castres and that’s hungover until now.
"For us he’s probably played about 82 minutes in the last eight Test matches.
“For us it is a real frustration and no different for him.
“In the three Six Nations that I’ve been involved in in Johnny has dominated the number ten position so we’re still hopeful he can come back in potentially do that for us.
“Paddy has trained really well, he played all three Tests in South Africa, he played the Test against Australia from the start, against Canada, came off the bench reasonably early on against the All Blacks for Johnny, so it’s not like he hasn’t had some really good experience in recent times at a very high level.
“I don’t think there are many players that don’t go through a period of injury and a little bit of bad luck.
“He had a very minor injury going into the Castres match and it just probably triggered an extension of that injury.
“For us it’s just about getting him 100% fit before he goes out there.
“Things tend to ebb and flow a little bit and hopefully they’ll flow a little bit better in the second half of the championship.”
Flanker Peter O’Mahony will certainly miss the Italy tie with a hamstring injury, while Schmidt is “pretty confident” that wing Andrew Trimble will be okay to face Conor O'Shea's side.
“[Peter has] a strain, it’s not bad but if we push him back too soon we [might] cause further damage so we will probably progress him a little bit slower which will mean the turnaround for Italy will be too tight,” he added.
We need your consent to load this SoundCloud contentWe use SoundCloud to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
Live Six Nations coverage of Scotland versus Ireland on RTÉ Two from 1.30pm on Saturday (KO 2.25pm) and live radio commentary on RTÉ Radio 1’s Saturday Sport programme from 2pm.
Live coverage of Scotland v Ireland in the Women’s Six Nations on RTÉ Two from 6.30pm (KO 6.35pm) on RTÉ 2, with live radio updates and reaction on an extended 2FM Game On programme at 7pm.
Live coverage of Scotland v Ireland in the U20's Six Nations on RTÉ Two from 8.15pm (KO 8.30pm)
