By Grainne McGuinness and Shaun Cronin
Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt still has a lot to decide in terms of Ireland's World Cup squad, and the man renowned for his tactical nous admits he fully expects to make mistakes.
Most attention has been focused on the out-half dilemma, and that remained the case in Limerick last night even with two of the contenders absent.
With Ian Keatley preparing for Munster's PRO12 play-off final and Johnny Sexton in action with Racing Metro - Ian Madigan started at 10, before Paddy Jackson got his chance to shine from the bench.
Schmidt explained his reasoning behind starting Madigan.
"Paddy had a six day turnaround, Ian had a longer period of time to prepare," he said in his post-match interview, before adding, "Ian probably needed a little more time at 10".
"He hasn't played it a lot so we wanted to get him in there and slot him in and get him running and moving the team around."
Schmidt felt both players acquitted themselves well, despite the Irish defeat.
"I thought they both did pretty well to be honest, in pretty difficult conditions."
"I thought they both kicked into the touch really well. I guess, we'll have a look back over the footage and have a chat to the two lads and forge ahead from there."
It was suggested that three out-halves could make the tournament squad, particularly with Madigan's experience playing at inside centre with his province.
Schmidt didn’t rule it out, but his answer only serves to highlight the decision making difficulties ahead.
"Is it a 17/14 split? If it is can you take three out halves, and three scrum halves?" he asked in response. "That leaves you quite light elsewhere. We've got a lot of players who are quite versatile in that back five.
"Will that be able to suffice?"
Despite the long build-up to the Autumn tournament Schmidt said that ideally he would have liked more games before selecting his final squad.
"We get quite a good lead into the World Cup but we don't get a great lead into selection decisions for two months time," he said.
"As I say it's a learning experience for me as well.
"I haven't done this before and I know I'm going to get a few things wrong. It is a little inevitable when you first go into something."
"I'm sure you'll throw a few teams into the media over the next few weeks," he said to the assembled reporters, with his tongue firmly in his cheek.
"I'll try to get a look at them and get some guidance!"