With the policy of generally picking players based in the Irish provinces, it was always going to be interesting to see whether Joe Schmidt made an exception for Simon Zebo who will Munster at the end of the season for a club abroad.
And we got our answer this afternoon as a cursory glance at the 38-man squad named today for the Guinness Series did not include any surnames starting with 'Z'.
Last night, former Ireland captain Keith Wood and ex-Leinster player Andy Dunne joined us in studio for Wednesday Night Rugby and the case of Zebo's international future was among the topics discussed, given that unlike Jonathan Sexton, other players who went abroad like Ian Madigan saw their international careers halted.
Given the development that occurred today, interestingly Keith noted last night: "I would say that he's a frontline player and Ian Madigan wasn't."
After backing Zebo's right to try his hand abroad, he continued: "Andy [Dunne]'s right. We can't afford not to pick players like this. I don't know that it has to lead to a flood overseas but equally well, there's no way in the world that we can afford to pay and no way should we pay what some of the clubs in France and England are paying because in England in particular they're losing fortunes. It's almost like a race to the bottom. It's the last guy standing to see whether they're going to end up with proper rugby clubs in time, so we can't ever do that."
Andy Dunne questions the need for a strict international selection policy:
He also felt that "it's make common sense that you don't back yourself into a corner".
On the basic fact that Zebo will be departing these shores, Keith lamented that outcome due to the importance of the player for both Munster and Ireland.
"I'm really disappointed. He's become an integral within the Irish setup, not just the Munster setup. I just think he's shown a level of maturity in the last period of time and is and has been delivering," he said last night of the Cork man, before musing about the international issue which was addressed by way of the squad announcement today.
"For us not to see him on these shores for a number of years is very disappointing as a Munster fan and as an Ireland fan. Of course it's disappointing. Hopefully, I don't know how this figures out, but whether he will be involved or can be involved, I don't know, maybe it might be a little bit to easy to discard a player of his quality."
Download the brand new OffTheBall App in the Play Store & App Store right now! We've got you covered!
Subscribe to OffTheBall's YouTube channel for more videos, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for the latest sporting news and content.
