Leinster bolter Caelan Doris has rightly stolen the headlines on a day where Ireland announced their squad to face Scotland in the Guinness Six Nations. The No.8’s potential debut is huge news, as is the call to select Conor Murray at scrum-half and hooker Ronan Kelleher on the bench. The 23 provides Ireland supporters with a first real glimpse at how selection in the Andy Farrell era will work – we take a look at what can be read into the new head coach’s picks. A balanced selection Farrell, a rugby league great and former England and Ireland defence coach, is an unknown quantity in a lead role and plenty have mulled over whether he will be a gambler or a safety-first man. For anyone requiring a definitive answer the bad news is they’ll have to wait a while longer to find out, with this first 23 a healthy mixture of handbrake and full throttle. There are five personnel changes to the team that fell to quarter-final defeat to New Zealand in the World Cup, with the unavailability of Rory Best representing one of those changes as Rob Herring comes in. Wing Keith Earls and full-back Rob Kearney don’t make it, Peter O’Mahony moves to the bench and Bundee Aki comes in for Robbie Henshaw at centre. On the safe calls side, Murray holds his place against the in-form John Cooney and Herring takes over at hooker when Kelleher would have been the more left-field pick. But on the full throttle side – we’re now in the age of Jordan Larmour with Kearney dispensed, and Doris’s debut at the hands of O’Mahony is the boldest pick of all. https://twitter.com/PRO14Official/status/1212063480980869120?s=20 Back-row progression Looking at that back row in particular and for several years we’ve been used to the common Joe Schmidt selection of CJ Stander at No.8, a rangy openside (often Josh van der Flier or Dan Leavy) and O’Mahony at blindside. No more. Van der flier is confirmed as the No.7 holding the shirt but will now find Stander at blindside, shifted across to accommodate 21-year-old big hitter Doris. The former Ireland U20s skipper is in superb form for Leinster, scoring three tries in 13 appearances across the season, where he’s been sharing the No.8 job with the also-impressive Max Deegan – who misses out. His selection ahead of the experienced O’Mahony, not an old man at 30, should be a real confidence boost and if Doris goes well against Scotland we could see him in the shirt for many a year to come. Murray for the 2023 World Cup? Conor Murray, at one stage one of the best two scrum-halves in the world, is 30 – does his selection mean Farrell is considering running him to the 2023 World Cup in France? You would have to err on the side of ‘probably not’ at this stage, 34 would be old for a scrum-half at the highest level, particularly when Ireland have the younger Luke McGrath, Kieran Marmion and Caolin Blade waiting in the wings to name a few. Murray is also picked alongside Johnny Sexton in the half-backs, who at 34 has much less chance of another World Cup, phasing out in the four-year-cycle is clearly seen as a good option. Sexton and Murray are the tried and tested combo, together for the 57th time, which looks to have counted against Cooney, the producer of a huge number of match-winning moments for fast-climbing Ulster. Ireland: 15 Jordan Larmour, 14 Andrew Conway, 13 Garry Ringrose, 12 Bundee Aki, 11 Jacob Stockdale, 10 Jonathan Sexton ©, 9 Conor Murray, 8 Caelan Doris, 7 Josh van der Flier, 6 CJ Stander, 5 James Ryan, 4 Iain Henderson, 3 Tadhg Furlong, 2 Rob Herring, 1 Cian Healy Replacements: 16 Ronan Kelleher, 17 Dave Kilcoyne, 18 Andrew Porter, 19 Devin Toner, 20 Peter O’Mahony, 21 John Cooney, 22 Ross Byrne, 23 Robbie Henshaw Date: Saturday, February 1 Venue: Aviva Stadium Kick-off: 16:45 GMT
