Ireland v Georgia: What you need to know ahead of huge test for Ireland's prop idols

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a day ago

When you think of scrums, the Georgians immediately spring to mind. When it comes to the dark arts of the set piece, the Lelos are the masters.
Many Tier One forward units have packed down against Georgia and still bear the scars – both mental and physical – from the experience. The nation that straddles Europe and Asia has always produced giant forwards and hardy props who love to scrum.
A 2018 training session between England and Georgia on a school training pitch in West London still lives in infamy. Then England head coach Eddie Jones felt his forwards could do with a scrummaging session against the Georgians, and it proved a sobering afternoon for the hosts. 27 February 2016; Stuart McCloskey, Ireland, is tackled by Dylan Hartley, England. Pic: Stephen McCarthy / SPORTSFILE
'We got a hiding that day,' former England captain Dylan Hartley recalled years later. Joe Marler got through a gruelling shift on the loosehead side of the scrum and remembers that referee Wayne Barnes, who was bussed in to bring a bit of order to all the chaos, began to fear for the well-being of the English pack.
'We had a five metre scrum and it was under the sticks near one of the posts, and he said, 'wait, hang on a minute' and he moved the scrum 10 metres away from the posts because he was worried we were going to go back so fast that there would be an injury going into this post.'
This is what a young Irish pack will be facing this weekend. This rising rugby nation has long been banging on the door for further exposure. Pleas to be included in the Six Nations or at least a shot at gaining a seat at the championship table through a promotion bid have fallen on deaf ears for years, despite Georgia claiming recent wins against Wales and Italy. Caelan Doris. Pic: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
On Saturday, they will look to make a big statement against a Six Nations heavyweight. Ireland arrives in Tbilisi this week for a match at Mikheil Meskhi Stadium. The visitors are without 16 frontliners, who are on Lions duty in Australia, while key players such as Caelan Doris and Robbie Henshaw have been ruled out through injury.
Cian Healy, Peter O'Mahony and Conor Murray have all called it a day. So, this is a depleted Irish squad which, lest we forget, is shorn of head coach Andy Farrell and a host of assistant coaches and key backroom members.
But it would still be a huge scalp for the Georgians. They will be fired up for this meeting. Their home stadium will be packed to the rafters, and, despite the 9 pm local kick-off time, it is expected to be a sweltering night in their capital city. Pic: Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images)
This young and experimental Irish team is going to feel the heat all evening, especially at scrum time. It almost feels like this fixture was engineered to stress test the next generation of Irish props. Much has been made about the depth, or lack thereof, in the Irish front-row departments of late.
This is not a new development. John Hayes and his successor Mike Ross effectively propped up Irish scrums for the best part of two decades between them. It was only when Andrew Porter emerged on the scene to back up Tadhg Furlong that Ireland seemed to have genuine depth at tighthead. Porter was subsequently shifted over to the loosehead side.
The situation was so bad last year that the newly-appointed IRFU performance director, David Humphreys, announced that the provinces would need to adhere to a recruitment freeze on overseas front-rowers the following season. Humphreys has rowed back on that stance. Thomas Clarkson. Pic: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
The emergence of Jack Boyle and Thomas Clarkson in the Leinster system was seen as a positive development, while Michael Milne and Lee Barron moving to Munster was another encouraging move. And Ireland's next generation of young front-rowers are set to be put to the test this weekend.
Furlong, Finlay Bealham and Porter are on Lions duty, while Healy has hung up his boots. The Leinster stalwart was still going strong at 37 last season, but the fact that his province and country were still leaning so heavily on him as a back-up to Porter said everything about the lack of trust in the younger candidates.
Now, interim head coach Paul O'Connell is set to pit a front row of greenhorns against one of the fiercest scrummaging packs in the world. An all-Leinster front row of Boyle (23), Gus McCarthy (21) and Clarkson (25) are primed to start in Tbilisi. This could be a massive weekend in the burgeoning careers of three front-rowers with a combined total of 12 caps between them.
McCarthy was a breakout star of the autumn internationals series when the academy hooker was handed a Test debut against Fiji at Aviva Stadium. Now that Dan Sheehan and Ronan Kelleher are on Lions special ops, he has another brilliant opportunity to move further up the pecking order.
Boyle and Clarkson have both made massive strides in the past 12 months. The former made two impressive late cameos from the bench against Wales and Italy in the Six Nations. Clarkson's one and only Ireland start came against the Welsh in Cardiff.
The Leinster tighthead had a tough afternoon, but he has clearly learned from the experience. Clarkson has always been a mobile prop who gets through plenty of work around the park. His scrummaging has notably improved as well, however.
The URC final felt like a big day in his career. A giant Bulls pack – featuring monstrous Springbok tighthead Wilco Louw – was widely tipped to do a demolition job on a Leinster pack that was without the services of the injured Furlong.
But head coach Leo Cullen made a big show of faith in Clarkson, keeping renowned French tighthead Rabah Slimani in reserve and backing the young tighthead to lock out the Leinster scrum. And Clarkson excelled as the South Africans were put to the sword in Croke Park.
Another big shift against the Georgians and Clarkson can look forward to more exposure, with Leinster and Ireland, in the coming years. The same goes for Boyle. Because the Georgians are the ultimate test in this area. No better time to see if Ireland's fledgling props have the right stuff.