Southern Hemisphere ballast helps steady Ireland’s ship

Jared Payne would be close enough to this All Black squad, maybe not the starting XV, but in and around the frame had he not taken up the opportunity to play international rugby via residency in Belfast.

That alone brings the three-year residency rule into sharp focus at Soldier Field – because two of Ireland’s officer corps were created by it.

"It's obviously Jared's first time to face some of the players he played with and against when he was younger in Super Rugby," said midfield partner Robbie Henshaw. "In terms of asking him how they play, that's where he's vital for us and vital for our team."

It was no coincidence the IRFU allowed Ulster to offer Payne a contract in 2011 – here was a fullback by trade but one who had spent enough time at outside centre. It coincided nicely with the retirement, three years later, of an outside centre down the road in Dublin.

O'Driscoll's 133-cap intellect couldn't be allowed disappear with nothing even remotely similar left to cover the massive pothole he left in his wake. Luke Fitzgerald, as much through injury than anything else, had cemented into a winger.

Robbie Henshaw was only a cub, the rumour of which so rarely becomes reality. Garry Ringrose was 16.

Payne was needed. Much like Jamison Gibson Park was needed by Leinster this season.

From 2008 the Irish Rugby Football Union started doing their business in a manner that hugely assisted their ability to stay with the elite nations.

It's called Regulation 8. Richardt Strauss was the first to be capped on completion of the three-year residency in 2012. CJ Stander landed in Munster a year after Payne joined Ulster.

"Bundee Aki is not far away either. He'll be another one," quipped Steve Hansen this week.

Good old “You get all your options off the opposition” Steve. Straight-shooting Hansen added: “so long as people aren’t taking advantage of young athletes and putting them in a situation where they are promising stuff and don’t actually give it to them, I think that would be wrong”.

But the real value of Stander, an inch shy of becoming a Springbok, and Payne, a Conrad Smith shy of being draped in black, are their brains.

Sure, Stander’s rhinoceros charges and Payne’s gliding strides will prove useful on Saturday night but they were recruited as much for their deeply ingrained knowledge. For being of the lands they come from.

Stander is a quality interviewee, especially given his searingly honest post-match words after a crushing defeat, Payne not so much. But then those gatherings rarely provide genuine insight into what kind of men they really are.

Sky Sports mic-ing both men up for recent Pro 12 matches did a lot better.

“Leave it! Leave it! JOHN! John! I’m gone. I’m gone there, leave it, I told you.”

Stander was admonishing John Ryan after a scrum. But it was the way he did it. There was a smile. He was smart enough to keep his tighthead’s confidence afloat.

Or to Jack O’Donoghue: “That seven, he’s got nothing. He doesn’t want to tackle. He just wants to go for the ball. Run at him, ya?”

Potential Irish internationals learning off the big man from South Africa.

Payne was less vocal but the roar he gave Paddy Jackson whenever there was a hint of space provided enough information.

"I knew Jared when he played for the Cursaders, going back a few years now, he was a good lad, bit of a joker but a fierce competitor," said Ryan Crotty, the New Zealand second five eight who broke Irish hearts with that 2013 try. "I expect a wee bit of banter on the field. I wouldn't be surprised if he fired a few our way."

Good business

Such a recruitment policy can only be seen as seriously good business.

“I think it’s wrong,” said Fitzgerald recently. “It’s no reflection on those guys, they’re doing everything within the rules, but I’d like to see Irish guys in there. Are we not good enough to fill the spots? I don’t know if there’s a big enough gap between Irish guys and those guys to really justify it?”

Joe Schmidt, today anyway, still thinks Payne is better at 31 and 16 caps than Ringrose at 21 and not two seasons in the senior game.

“Garry looks an awesome player to me,” Fitzgerald added. “Robbie [Henshaw] is a brilliant player, Stuart Olding, Luke Marshall, Johnny Sexton’s still our best player.

“I don’t know if being born in a different part of the world makes you a better player. I think they’re probably better than us, but if they’re not making those international teams, why would we be taking them? Is that an admission we’re not as good as them, I’m sure it is.”

Crucially, Ireland have both options training together, for the time being.

Last summer World Rugby chief executive Brett Gosper assured us everyone at the top table was very happy with the three-year residency rule. A few minutes later his vice president Agustin Pichot – newly arrived from downstairs – called bullshit on it all.

“Somebody will kill me but we need to change it. I think it is wrong.

“I think it is very important to keep the identity of our national teams. As a cultural thing, as an inspiration to new kids, I think having on your team players who have not lived in the country they are [representing] I think it’s not right.

“There are special cases where players moved when they were ten or 12 years old. But just moving to a country, being taken from an academy, like they are doing in Tonga, and put in to play, say, in an Ireland shirt, I’m against it. I think it is not right.”

About face

Cue their latest gathering, in Argentina, last month – "The executive committee approved the immediate establishment of a working group to review regulation 8 in its totality to determine whether the current regulation is fit for purpose".

About face, march the other way. Five years living in a country is getting a lot of air time.

Joe Schmidt did his usual when a subject he doesn’t like was broached: change the point of attack, confuse the opposition until they crack.

“The average professional rugby career would be, I don’t know, five years probably,” said Schmidt. “The best players go a lot longer than that but there are a lot of players who have glimpses of professional careers and they are finished; so for a player to commit three years and qualify somewhere is a pretty big commitment. At the same time in our current squad of 34 what number are we talking about? It’s still massively indigenous players that dominate.”

Correct. There are only two. Centre and blindside. Key figures. Organisers. Ball carriers, defensive linchpin.

One of them has a deeply ingrained knowledge of the next opposition.

Because he is one of them, will always be one of them and will probably return to them at some stage.

“It’s great,” Henshaw added.

“He would have played with and against some of the guys. I was slagging him during the week, asking if he’d been getting texts from the other side.

Potential flaws

“He’s grown up there, he knows how they play so we get all the info off him.”

That, more than anything, is why he wears the number 13 shirt this time. If there are potential flaws to be exploited in George Moala at centre, Payne will see them. Or Moala might just plough over him. Maybe the thinking is ‘better Jared than Garry’.

Probably not.

Anyway, right now, it means a Kiwi is facing a Kiwi while Ringrose waits on the bench. Until he almost certainly comes in, possibly at the same time fellow 21-year -old Joey Carbery wins his first cap.

“Hopefully they are not chasing shadows,” said Schmidt.

Shadows like New Zealand options Aaron Cruden and Malakai Fekitoa. It is the opposition that give them to you.

All the IRFU have done is expertly make use of the rule to ensure the progress of an international squad that just lost its greatest ever players to old age.

Jared and CJ may not sound very Irish but in sporting terms they are.

“By and large it has been happening for a long time,” said Hansen.

Jared and CJ are the type of men brought north to keep Ireland in a fight like tonight.

“We’re going out here with nothing to lose,” said steely-eyed Henshaw.

“We have to go and throw a shot and we need to really have a go. Let’s give it the best lash we can and see what happens.”