Joe Schmidt’s first team, picked to deal with what will be a tough Samoa side on Saturday, looks to be more or less on message.  Usually in the November series there’s one game which allows the coach to use a raft of fringe players: think Kidney’s first game in charge against Canada, when he gave Keith Earls his first cap and Stephen Ferris announced himself as a blindside ready for test rugby, or Fiji last year when some Ulster players finally got a chance to show their ability.  That isn’t really the case this series, because Samoa have ascended to the ranks of the second tier, but nonetheless, Schmidt has taken the opportunity to give some matchtime to those around the fringes.

If it was the Kiwis, you can bet Sexton, O’Connell, Healy and O’Brien would all be playing, but instead we’ll be looking at Jackson, Toner, McGrath and Henry.  It’s a nice shake-up and, crucially, all the players brought in are in good form.

Jack McGrath has been excellent for Leinster this season, where the role of reserve loosehead is seen as a vital one, because they rarely play Healy for more than 55 minutes at a time.  He’s deservedly jumped ahead of David Kilcoyne in the queue – it’s a call that might aggrieve Munster fans, but Kilcoyne just hasn’t hit the form he had last season yet.  If he can get back to that level, he’ll undoubtedly be in the coach’s thinking.  When it comes to test rugby, if the call is between two inexperienced players, form should be the decider.

The tight five will have its work cut out for it, though, and outside McGrath’s dynamism and Best’s workrate, it isn’t the most mobile unit.  That said, Devin Toner is a richly deserved pick.  For a player who plays an honest, clean game, he has taken an awful lot of flak down the years, mostly, we think, becaue he doesn’t have ‘good face’.  It should be to the surprise of nobody that his progress has been incremental, but at 27 he now looks a test player, or a handy squad player at least.  Sure he’ll never have the sense of mania that Paul O’Connell can bring to a game, but for the crucial business of restart and lineout catching, he’s the next best thing, and his handling of the ball is surprisingly good.

The Mikes Ross and McCarthy can be considered fortunate starters.  Ross is struggling badly with the new scrum calls, which have thrown the understood scrummaging hierarchy on its head, and McCarthy has looked unfit for Leinster.  Dan Tuohy was a hard-luck story under the old coaching regime, and he’s entitled to feel hard done by again now, because his recent form has been sensational.  As for Ross, it seems an inevitability that his waning performance arc will cross over that of Marty Mooradze’s rising one at some point in the next twelve months; it’s not if, but when.  Probably just too soon though for this series.

Heaslip captains the side for this match, but Paul O’Connell has been announced as Ireland captain.  It’s a shrewd move by Schmidt. For a start, nobody in the land could argue O’Connell won’t do a great job.  It also puts to bed some of the ‘previous’ Schmidt has had with O’Connell, and should help to keep the group united in the event that – as seems likely – Munster don’t have a huge representation in the team.

Another positive call is Chris Henry, and it was nice to get some insight into why he’s been picked, with Schmidt citing his improved release-and-jackal technique, which has proved penalty-expensive if not at its best in the past.  How refreshing to have a coach who gives a little bit of technical detail to the public and show appreciation their understanding of the game, as opposed offering crumbs such as ‘fellas have put their hands up’. Henry looks a likely beneficiary of the new regime, because Schmidt appears to rate him highly, and has tended to see him as the key man to game-manage when he played in opposition to Leinster.

Madigan’s luckless start to the season continues, but Jackson is unarguably the right pick, for the same reasons as Jack McGrath is at loosehead.  The only contentious call in the backline is at first centre where Gordon D’arcy is preferred to Luke Marshall.  Egg isn’t happy about it, not one bit; we could go through the ins and outs of what each will bring, and mention D’arcy’s experience, but let’s face it, he’s in because of the beard.  How can you leave out a man with such a beard?

For once, this feels like an Irish game to look forward to, and probably is for the players too.  In recent years, it felt like the Leinster and Ulster players were happier in their provincial set-ups and that playing for the test side was an onerous experience for them.  In the last Six Nations the players looked like the weight of the world was on them.  The pendulum looks to have swung, for the Leinster players anyway.  They have hardly looked full of joy when playing O’Connor-ball over the last two months, and returning to Joe Schmidt’s methods will surely energise them, and should have the same effect on the rest of the panel who are experiencing his coaching for the first time.

And, finally, what of Schmidt’s no doubt very deliberately chosen words about having ‘lost control’ of Johnny Sexton?  Intriguing for sure, but were they aimed at his paymasters in the IRFU, who failed to contract the player when Schmidt was his coach at Leinster and was powerless to effect the situation?  Or was it a cautionary note to the likes of Sean O’Brien and Donnacha Ryan who are being courted by French clubs?  Probably a little of both.  The message is clear to all, though: we’re better off with our best players playing in Ireland.  Our own take is that with the size of French club squads, they don’t play that much more, but in the case of Johnny Sexton there has been something of a perfect storm; this being a Lions season combined with injuries to other fly-halves at his club has resulted in him having very little rest and playing an awful lot of matches.  For sure though, we’ll all be better off if O’Brien, Ryan and Murray are playing in Ireland next year.