Ireland are going to experiment on Australia this summer

Joe Schmidt is treating Ireland’s tour of Australia as a rare opportunity for the Six Nations champions to “trial things” before 2019.

Playing their first Test matches since winning the Grand Slam earlier this year, Ireland have arrived in Australia to take on the Wallabies.

And with next year’s Six Nations already on the agenda, along with the subsequent World Cup, Schmidt acknowledges he will not have many further opportunities to test new combinations and tactics.

“We want to make sure this tour is another building block for what comes in the future,” the coach said before travelling.

“We’re going to have a big target on our forehead for [the Six Nations] next year and then obviously, beyond that, the really big tournament which follows in September and October is the World Cup.

Early start for the lads this morning. Airport bound for tour. #TeamOfUs #TeamOfBus pic.twitter.com/cBuVK5298z

— Irish Rugby (@IrishRugby) June 1, 2018

“We don’t have too many options to trial things between now and then. This will be an opportunity to do some of that. It’s going to be incredibly tough and that’s when you find out about players in those situations

“How do they cope? What growth can we get out of this tour to make sure that we’re on a slightly stronger footing when it comes to playing Italy in Chicago [in November]?”

IRELAND squad for 2018 Summer Tour of Australia

FORWARDS (18)
Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster) c 111 caps
Tadhg Beirne (Scarlets) uncapped
Jack Conan (Old Belvedere/Leinster) 7 caps
Sean Cronin (St Mary’s College/Leinster) 61 caps
Tadhg Furlong (Clontarf/Leinster) 23 caps
Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster) 78 caps
Iain Henderson (Ballynahinch/Ulster) 38 caps
Rob Herring (Ballynahinch/Ulster) 3 caps
Dan Leavy (UCD/Leinster) 9 caps
Jack McGrath (St Mary’s College/Leinster) 47 caps
Jordi Murphy (Lansdowne/Leinster) 20 caps
Peter O’Mahony (Cork Constitution/Munster) 47 caps
Andrew Porter (UCD/Leinster) 7 caps
Quinn Roux (Galwegians/Connacht) 5 caps
James Ryan (UCD/Leinster) 8 caps
John Ryan (Cork Constitution/Munster) 13 caps
CJ Stander (Shannon/Munster) 23 caps
Devin Toner (Lansdowne/Leinster) 58 caps

BACKS (14)
Bundee Aki (Galwegians/Connacht) 7 caps
Ross Byrne (UCD/Leinster) uncapped
Joey Carbery (Clontarf/Leinster) 10 caps
Andrew Conway (Garryowen/Munster) 6 caps
John Cooney (Terenure College/Ulster) 1 cap
Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster) 67 caps
Robbie Henshaw (Buccaneers/Leinster) 33 caps
Rob Kearney (UCD/Leinster) 83 caps
Jordan Larmour (St Mary’s College/Leinster) 3 caps
Kieran Marmion (Corinthians/Connacht) 21 caps
Conor Murray (Garryowen/Munster) 64 caps
Garry Ringrose (UCD/Leinster) 13 caps
Johnny Sexton (St Mary’s College/Leinster) 73 caps
Jacob Stockdale (Ballynahinch/Ulster) 9 caps

IRELAND SUMMER TOUR 2018 FIXTURES

Saturday 9th June, 2018
Australia v IRELAND
Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane, KO 20.05 local (11.05 IRL)

Saturday 16th June, 2018
Australia v IRELAND
AAMI Park, Melbourne, KO 20.05 local (11.05 IRL)

Saturday 23rd June, 2018
Australia v Ireland
Allianz Park, Sydney KO 20.05 local (11.05 IRL)