Joe Schmidt has named the oldest starting line-up in World Cup history for Ireland’s second Pool D match against Romania, with the coach making 12 changes from the side that beat Canada 50-7 last Saturday.
Robbie Henshaw has failed to recover from hamstring trouble and Schmidt believes pitching the 21-year-old into action against Romania on Sunday could have risked the centre’s entire World Cup, but he is confident Henshaw will be ready to face Italy in Ireland’s third Pool D match, at the Olympic Stadium next month. Darren Cave slots in at 12 in his stead with Cian Healy also recalled at loosehead prop.
“At the start of the week we felt we had to take it a little bit easier than we first thought with Robbie,” said Schmidt, whose line-up has an average age of 29 years and 245 days. “He is fully running now and we just felt we’d rather not push ahead. Soft tissue injuries can be quite complicated.
“If you get a re-injury on the same site then you are in a situation where his World Cup could be in doubt. So we’ve taken no risk. There are times to take risks but this is a great opportunity for Darren Cave.”
Romania lost out 38-11 to France at the Olympic Stadium on Thursday and will be pressed into action only four days later against Ireland. Uneven rest periods have once again become a World Cup bugbear, with Japan suffering 45-10 defeat to Scotland just four days after stunning South Africa 34-32 in Brighton.
Johnny Sexton, Peter O’Mahony and Iain Henderson all returned to full training for Ireland on Friday after light knocks, but will not be considered for Sunday’s match.
Surprised to learn Ireland had set a new record for the World Cup’s oldest starting XV, Schmidt joked that the 34-year-old scrum-half Eoin Reddan may have skewed the stats. “Well Eoin Reddan has probably contributed to that. Is it really?” said a bemused Schmidt. “Hopefully the team won’t show its age.”
Schmidt has named four World Cup debutants in his side: Richardt Strauss, Devin Toner, Jordi Murphy and Cave. Henshaw will remain the only man of Ireland’s squad not to feature in the competition should Schmidt empty his full bench at Wembley.
The versatile playmaker Ian Madigan will start at fly-half but Schmidt admitted the Leinster player could move to scrum-half during the course of the match. Madigan is Ireland’s third and emergency scrum-half, covering for Conor Murray and Reddan, with Schmidt keen to hand him a first Test run at scrum-half this weekend.
“We want Ian and Paddy [Jackson] both to have some time at No10,” said Schmidt. “But if the game’s going in a direction where we feel Ian would benefit from 15 minutes at No9, then that’s possible.”
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