The fringe candidates worth Andy Farrell's first preference against Australia

There were many positives from Ireland's comfortable win against the ill-disciplined Fijians, mainly the comfort with which the Leinster duo of Gus McCarthy and Sam Prendergast took to their first starts in green.

Both players had errors throughout, such is life when playing against a less structured and highly physical team like Fiji. However, both dominated proceedings enough for all negative moments to fall into the background. The pool of Irish players ready for top level action has potentially increased by two.

Ireland will now take on Joe Schmidt's Australia, whose form was more accurately assessed against Scotland on Sunday afternoon. Although they are on an upward trajectory, there’s still scope for Ireland to give opportunities in their selection.

Tadhg Furlong is expected to return, and so he should, with Andrew Porter and Ronan Kelleher in the front row alongside him. However, if we’re going to get the full answer on whether Gus McCarthy should be involved at Six Nations level then I’d love if Andy Farrell stuck with him for another go.

Although Australia are only one place above Fiji in the rankings, they will be more structured, far more disciplined and their position in the world rankings is where top tier opposition begins. One game against Fiji won’t show us where McCarthy could be by the next Six Nations. One more involvement in this November series could really accelerate his growth.

If Ireland are to go full tilt against Australia, which is expected, then why not put a younger guy into a key position, with the greatest influences around him, just weakening that full selection a fraction. It’s still a team that should expect to beat Australia.

You’re taking a start away from Kelleher or Rob Herring and both