Joe Schmidt Explains The Reasoning Behind His Ireland Team Selection For All Blacks Chicago Clash

Joe Schmidt named his Ireland team yesterday evening for their mammoth clash with New Zealand on Saturday.

Many have viewed his selection as a rather conservative one with the Jared Payne back in the centre and Rob Kearney restored to fullback, despite a recent run of poor form. The other big surprise in the squad was Jordi Murphy getting the nod over in-form Josh Van Der Flier.

Schmidt spoke with the media following the announcement of the team and admitted that he felt Ireland needed the experience tomorrow and perhaps it wasn’t the right situation to launch Ringrose the starting line-up.

“It’s daunting but exciting for them (Ringrose & Carberry)… those two youngsters can run all day; hopefully they are not chasing shadows.”

“We tried to go with a little bit of experience because of the quality of the side and the magnitude of the game, to be honest.”

He did however say, depending on how the game plays out, he hopes to give both players some decent game time from the bench.

When asked about the strange decision to leave Peter O’Mahony and Sean O’Brien at home, he had this to say.

“We feel the pace of the game will be very, very quick,”

“We tried to select the guys [such as Jordi Murphy and Josh van der Flier] who we felt were match-fit and ready to go.”

What do you think? Has Schmidt selected the right side to take on the All Blacks?