Unused.

Ireland’s tour of Australia will no doubt go down as a very successful one for Joe Schmidt and his coaching team, all things considered.

Joey Carbery got a solid 55 minutes under his belt at Test level against one of the best teams in the world, no serious injuries were picked up, Tadhg Beirne debuted, Jordan Larmour got plenty of minutes, the reemergence of Niall Scannell and Rob Herring – the list goes on.

And to top it all off, they won the series 2-1, their first over Australia in almost forty years. It was the perfect way to finish a truly incredible season, that has seen Ireland not only wipe the floor with their opposition – but build incredible depth in the process.

Of the 32 players that travelled down under this month, 31 of them got game time under their belts, with a large portion of them getting at least one start. Only Leinster’s Ross Byrne failed to get on this month, with the outhalf still yet to make his Ireland debut.

But you can’t really blame Schmidt for not bringing him on in the final Test. He probably had planned on bringing the youngster on, but as we all know – things rarely pan out as planned in rugby.

Captain Peter O’Mahony left the field with just over 30 minutes gone, meaning Johnny Sexton had to step up as captain. Add in the fact that only a point separated the sides with just minutes to go, and you’re left in a situation where your talisman simply cannot come off.

Byrne will get his chance, and will have learned an awful lot while on tour. His first cap will come – he just has to wait a little longer.