Bernard Jackman believes the middling form of the Irish provinces could strangely be of benefit to the national team as they embark on their summer tour.

It’s hard to believe, but Irish rugby is already back this weekend, as Andy Farrell’s side prepare for Saturday’s Nations Championship opener against Australia.

Much like Mitchell and Webb’s beloved sketch about football, it does feel as though the rugby is going on forever, with a relentless schedule for the world’s top players.

That is no different for the Irish squad, many of whom played a pivotal role in Leinster’s URC final victory over the Bulls less than a fortnight ago.

For those Leinster players who went on last summer’s Lions tour, the rugby has been almost non-stop for multiple calendar years now, with a Champions Cup final against UBB lengthening their season even further.

However, for most of the other figures in this Ireland squad, it has been a far quieter few months.

Though they have secured a place in next season’s Champions Cup, the end of the season for Connacht came to an end over a month ago, as they were dispatched by Glasgow Warriors in the URC quarter-finals. A day later, Munster, too, saw their season end as they were hammered by the Bulls in South Africa. Munster’s failure to progress in Europe meant the back end of their season was extremely sparse.

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Ulster enjoyed more continental success, but their failure to progress to the URC playoffs meant their season ended with the Challenge Cup final defeat to Montpellier.

Many in Irish rugby have expressed concerns about the growing chasm between Leinster and their provincial rivals, but Bernard Jackman strangely thinks it could play into Ireland’s hands down under this summer.

Jackman hints at strange Irish provincial advantage

Speaking on the RTÉ Rugby podcast, Bernard Jackman argued that the earlier end to the season for Connacht, Munster, and Ulster, had opened up some “brilliant” preparation for their opening Nations Championship game against Australia.

“It’s going to be interesting how Ireland are physically for the first game,” Jackman said.

The provinces, three of the provinces were knocked out quite early. I mean, they had a little bit of rest and they were doing some training in the province.

Then they’re coming up to the high performance centre to get some sessions in. So theoretically they should be pretty fresh, maybe lacking a bit of game time, if anything.

So they’ve had effectively a week and a half in Australia to acclimatise, to get some sessions in, which is brilliant prep for the first game in Sydney.

Ireland’s first game sees them come up against the Wallabies on Saturday, with many of the Australian squad still in action in Super Rugby until early June.

Several of Ireland’s biggest hitters are ruled out for the game, with the likes of Mack Hansen, Andrew Porter, Tommy O’Brien and captain Caelan Doris – all of whom would likely have started if fit – sidelined through injury.

Not only will some of the more fringe players in the Irish squad by fresher due to their shorter provincial season, but this could be their biggest chance to make an impression on the national team.

Ireland face Australia in the Nations Championship on Saturday at 11:10am Irish time.