At every squad and team announcement, provincial rugby fans always complain about not having enough of their players in the national side. There's always a perceived bias from a coach. This is claimed now, was claimed in the past, and will be said in the future.
So for the sake of argument, what would happen if the IRFU were to introduce provincial quotas. That is, every province has to have at least three players in the starting XV, and no more than four. The replacements bench would be two players from each province. Nice and fair right?
But how different would that team or 23 be from the team that put Italy to the sword yesterday? Here's a potential team that I've come up with, giving preference to players in the 23 where possible:
Provincial Quotas Ireland Team:
15. Simon Zebo (Munster)
14. Andrew Trimble (Ulster)
13. Jared Payne (Ulster)
12. Robbie Henshaw (Connacht)
11. Keith Earls (Munster)
10. Johnny Sexton (Leinster)
9. Conor Murray (Munster)
1. Jack McGrath (Leinster)
2. Rory Best (Ulster)
3. Nathan White (Connacht)
4. Iain Henderson (Ulster)
5. Ultan Dillane (Connacht)
6. CJ Stander (Munster)
7. Sean O'Brien (Leinster)
8. Jamie Heaslip (Leinster)
Replacements:
16. Sean Cronin (Leinster)
17. James Cronin (Munster)
18. Finlay Bealham (Connacht)
19. Donnacha Ryan (Munster)
20. Chris Henry (Ulster)
21. Kieran Marmion (Connacht)
22. Ian Madigan (Leinster)
23. Craig Gilroy (Ulster)
The backline is the exact same at the one that lined out in the Aviva Stadium against Italy - and both the front row and the back row have played together during the 2016 Six Nations.
The biggest difference comes in the second row, where Ulster and Connacht needs mean that Iain Henderson comes in - where he should be - and Ultan Dillane gets an early promotion to start.
Naturally, we could have chosen so many different combinations - with the likes of Devin Toner, Paddy Jackson, Denis Buckley, and Tommy O'Donnell all not included but they could be.
For all that provincial bias, there wouldn't be too much change with provincial quotas.
