Sonny bill has been on the bench for the all blacks plenty of times. And nonu and smith are out and out centres. So the whole thing about substitutes needing to be utility backs is nonsense

Rudiger – that’s pretty disingenuous. Of course it is important that, between the starting XV and the bench, every position has a back-up player who can cover.

SBW has played on the wing plenty of times for NZ, and very often the back up NZ 10 can also play at FB. So if SBW and, say Beauden Barrett were on the bench, that would be 10-15 covered.

A difference between SH and NH teams – especially NZ and, more than anyone, Australia – is that there is less positional rigidity in SH rugby, particularly in the backs. Look at guys like Giteau, Beale, O’Connor, Ben Smith, Colin Slade – they can all play most positions in the back line (aside from scrum half). Dan Carter spent that majority of 2015 playing at inside centre for the Crusaders because they wanted to get him and Slade into the team.

This trend is much less prevalent in NH rugby, but is starting to come in. Nowadays, full back and wing are becoming increasingly interchangeable: witness Zebo, Felix Jones, Nacewa, Anthony Watson, etc.. Likewise there is increased flexibility between 10 and 12 (Owen Farrell for England last week, Madigan, JJ, etc.), first and second centre (Henshaw, Fitzgerald, Cave), and 13 to wing (Earls, Fitzgerald, Bowe, Ringrose). Stuart Olding – very much a modern rugby player – is picked at 15 for Ulster here, but can play anywhere from 10-15.

We still have a legacy of “specialists” – RK has never played anywhere other than 15 for Ireland, for example. Invariably, the SH sets the trends and the NH catches up later. To my mind, that is what is happening here – coaches like Schmidt, Kiss, and Lam are demanding their backs be more adaptable.

Have too agree, lad should be on the field either way hes ridiculously talented. Not fair on Payne either he’s basically gonna be show horned as a 13 and never play his best in green. Kearney gets a free pass to play all the time unless injured. And we never get to see McCloskey step up to international level until hes 28 or 29. Wales would have played started this guy a year ago.

Rob Kearney has played plenty of times on the wing for ireland

I think the outside backs would be adequately covered with McCloskey on the bench. He’d obviously cover 12 directly, and 13 and 15 could be covered by Henshaw moving if McCloskey came on. I’m sure Henshaw could do a more than satisfactory job on the wing as well if Trimble or Kearney had to go off – he’s good in the air, has played in the back three, is reasonably quick and wing is probably easier to defend at than centre. I’d be way happier with McCloskey at 23 than I am with McFadden there

“Peter o’mahony, played on the wing of course against italy in 2013″ – Donal Lenihan (every match)

8 guys in the current Irish squad that are aged 24 or less, although only 2 in the match day squad this weekend.

One of the downsides of only having 4 pro teams in Ireland means that often there is a bottle neck between the academies and the first XV at provincial level. It is a hard problem to resolve.

We can’t have all of our players as 22 year olds though. Everyone refers to Nehe and the likes, but NZ also had a bunch of Centurions in their most recent RWC wining team. You need experience too.