‘Ireland should leave Conor Murray and Johnny Sexton at home this summer’

Kieran Marmion, Luke McGrath, John Cooney, Joey Carbery and Ian Keatley, your time to shine could be close on the horizon.

Ireland have been indebted to Conor Murray and Johnny Sexton for the best part of eight seasons now but Joe Schmidt may have a big call on his hands. The halfback pairing helped Ireland to a Six Nations Grand Slam and, for Munster and Leinster, were instrumental in their province's Champions Cup victories over Toulon and Saracens. Both men have stated their readiness to tour with Ireland to Australia this summer but former Munster centre James Downey told The Hard Yards, from 43:00 below, that Schmidt would be better off resting them up. Downey is confident that the supporting scrum- and out-halves in Ireland's wider squad would stand up to the challenge of Michael Cheika's Wallabies side. Downey commented:

"I'd like to see some fresh 9 and 10s. We rely heavily on Sexton and Murray. I know I've beat the drum heavily on this but I'd like to see Marmion play a good bit more and for Carbery to play a bit more 10. He's not playing enough there for Leinster, purely from an Irish perspective. "The rest of the young lads are getting enough game-time across the backline but not 9 and 10."

When the point was brought up that Ireland, sans Sexton and Murray, may not win a three-Test series against Australia, Downey did not agree. He feels Ireland are now good enough, and confident enough, to rest up their star half-backs and still claim a series win Down Under.

"The Aussies aren't great and we have to give the credit, to Ireland, where it us due. We have to change the mind-set. We're the second best team in the world and we have to go over there against an Australian team [placed fifth in the rankings] and expect to beat them. "They've done nothing really. There's the Cheika factor but we should be better and we should be beating them down there."

The compromise, with Ireland looking to keep up that winning momentum, may be to include both Murray and Sexton in the travelling squad but place them on the replacements' bench against the hosts. Perhaps the two lads can be given an extra few weeks off but kindly requested to plan their summer break for the east coast of Australia in June.