Sitting in the team hotel in New Jersey, a few miles southwest of Broadway, Simon Easterby told Ireland’s first-time tourists this three-game tour to the United States and Japan may be their one and only audition for a role in the 2019 Rugby World Cup.
With a testing November series against South Africa, Fiji and Argentina, followed by next year’s Six Nations and a summer tour to Australia in 2018, Schmidt has already warned players that chances are limited.
In this respect, this month’s three Tests against the US, on Saturday in Red Bull Arena, and the two Tests against Japan in Shizuoka and Tokyo on June 17 and 24, assume even greater importance, and Easterby, the forwards coach, wants the players to embrace the challenge.
“This is their chance to shine and promote themselves,” Easterby said.
“The dynamics of a World Cup squad is vital and we will see on this tour, not just what they do on the pitch in terms of their match time, but also how the prepare themselves and go about their business.”
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John Cooney, Dave Heffernan, Rory O’Loughlin, Andrew Porter, James Ryan, Rory Scannell, Jacob Stockdale and Kieran Treadwell are the uncapped players on tour, while a majority of the squad have not yet reached ten caps, and while there may be two years to go to the World Cup, Easterby is keen to impress upon the players to make an impact.
“I remember before the World Cup in 2003, a number of us went to Tonga and Samoa,” he said. “We learnt a lot about ourselves in that environment. That stood us in good stead.”