Ireland hope to get off to a winning start against Australia in new Nations Championship 

Ireland face Australia in the opening fixture of the Nations Championship on Saturday morning in Sydney looking to get off to a winning start despite being missing a lot of key players.

The Nations Championship gives us a fresh rugby tournament to get our teeth into. 

It is effectively the rugby equivalent of the Nations League, which was designed to eliminate meaningless friendlies from the football calendar and to bring meaning and a sense of jeopardy to all international games.

Diehard Rugby fans might argue that the concept of a friendly does not exist in the sport and the summer Test Series and the Autumn Internationals were enough and should have been preserved. 

Ultimately, we will not know how successful this enterprise is until we have experienced ‘Finals Weekend’ on the last weekend of November in London when we get six northern hemisphere versus southern hemisphere clashes over three days to decide who are the first winners of this competition.

And this is what Ireland are playing for on Saturday, as this game is the first in their six fixtures against southern hemisphere competition to decide where they will lie in the northern hemisphere table for that finals weekend. 

Oh, and Japan are considered southern hemisphere for the purposes of this experiment. Confused yet?

With Ireland completing the summer leg of the competition against New Zealand at Eden Park in a fortnight, where the All Blacks have been unbeaten since 1994, you would imagine that if Ireland have not got two wins on the board over the Wallabies and Japan that the chances of them being ranked the top European side after six rounds will be slim, so Ireland must hit the ground running this weekend.

Australia impressively beat South Africa 22-38 in their first match after the Lions Series last year, but it proved to be a false dawn with them winning just two of their ten fixtures since, with those being narrow victories over Argentina and Japan. 

This run ended with four straight defeats in the November Internationals in Europe, with them shipping huge scores in their last two games against France and Ireland.

Ireland won that game 46-19, with Mack Hansen bagging a hat-trick in what was Ireland’s biggest ever win over Australia, but you would imagine they will be different proposition on home soil and fresh.

Munster fans will have reservations over the participation of Tadhg Beirne, as he ended the club campaign crocked and looked a player that would benefit from an extended off-season, but here he is being flogged again. 

Given his importance for club and country it might have been wiser to play the long game and try and get him to World Cup year healthy. For the record, Maro Itoje is giving England’s three matches a skip for this exact reason.

At least Jack Crowley is not going to get injured, as he already is on the injured list! 

He missed Munster’s season run-in with a troublesome leg blood vessel issue, which means he has to sit out these fixtures.

While Crowley’s unavailability is a blow to Ireland, it could be a blessing in disguise, as it forces others to step up in his absence. 

The Six Nation’s began with Sam Prendergast in the no. 10 shirt, but he struggled as Ireland were well beaten 36-14 by France, and the season ended with Ciaran Frawley backing Crowley up from the bench.

These three games give Frawley, Prendergast and Harry Byrne the opportunity to show what they can do at this level. 

While Crowley should be the first choice on his return other options are required, as Ireland cannot go into a World Cup year with just one live option at outhalf, as we have been down that road before.

Crowley is part of a sizeable injury list, which might explain why Farrell has been forced to go so strong here. 

Andrew Porter, Paddy McCarthy, Ryan Baird, Mack Hansen, Tommy O’Brien and captain Caelan Doris are also out.

With former Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt departing the main Aussie job after these three games the Wallabies will be keen to end his reign on a high note. 

A win over old friends would certainly fit the bill, so Ireland should expect a much stronger Australian challenge this time around.