The serious stuff starts this weekend, with Our Old Friends Argentina™ in town for the first of the three Autumn Tests in Dublin. Having experimented somewhat in Chicago against the Italians, Schmidt has named a much more experienced line-up this time around, with Rory Best returning to captain the side and Sean O'Brien making his first Irish appearance in a year.
Jordan Larmour plays at full-back in the absence of Rob Kearney, and the old Connacht duo of Henshaw and Aki is reprised at centre as Garry Ringrose misses out through injury. Kieran Marmion gets the nod at scrum-half with Luke McGrath on the bench. Tadhg Beirne doesn't even make the bench with Devin Toner the second-row reserve for James Ryan and Iain Henderson. Dan Leavy is on the bench, too.
Irish team to face Argentina
#TeamOfUs
Here's the Ireland team for the #GuinnessSeries game against @lospumas in @AVIVAStadium on Saturday.#IREvARG #ShoulderToShoulder pic.twitter.com/B8gC6jmgP7— Irish Rugby (@IrishRugby) November 8, 2018
The game kicks off at 6.30pm on Saturday evening at the Aviva Stadium, and is live on RTE.
