Ireland v Australia: Andy Farrell and Joe Schmidt go head to head in ...
Autumn Nations Series: Ireland v Australia
Venue: Aviva Stadium, Dublin Date: Saturday, 30 November Kick-off: 15:10 GMT
Coverage: Listen on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra and BBC Sounds, live text and commentary on the BBC Sport website and app
There has been a lot of talk about legacy this week as Ireland and Australia prepare for a storyline-packed final Test match of 2024.
Much of that has centred on Joe Schmidt. While his time with Ireland may have ended sourly against his native New Zealand at the 2019 World Cup, he is still lauded as one of modern Irish rugby's most important figures.
After a hugely successful spell with Leinster, he took over a struggling Ireland team that had finished fifth in the 2013 Six Nations and turned them into winners.
Cutting a crestfallen figure during his haunting swansong in Tokyo, retirement was not far from Schmidt's thoughts.
But now, five years on, he is back in Ireland with his improving Wallabies side and plotting a difficult afternoon for his successor Andy Farrell.
Schmidt's return as a Test-level head coach plunged him into the wreckage of Australia's disastrous 2023 World Cup campaign under Eddie Jones.
It was viewed as possibly the most daunting assignment of the 59-year-old's career. And as he aims to close out an up-and-down first year at the helm, he catches his former assistant Farrell at an interesting juncture.
Saturday will be the Englishman's last game in charge of Ireland before his secondment to the British and Irish Lions, with the ultimate goal taking down Schmidt's Australia in next summer's Test series.
It is a deeply intriguing storyline in a fixture full of them, from the pageantry of the Irish Rugby Football Union's 150th anniversary to record-breaker-in-waiting Cian Healy and the ongoing debate around Ireland's number 10 jersey.
While always an intense and calculating student of the game, Schmidt earned a reputation as a terse, stony-faced figure in his media engagements during the final months of his time with Ireland.
But after naming his Australia team on Thursday, he appeared in remarkably chipper form with reporters as he spoke about the "emotion" of his Dublin return, battling snowy conditions in Scotland and the progress of his Wallabies project.
Schmidt has reasons to be cheerful. When he took over in March, Australia were at a low ebb. The Jones experiment had backfired spectacularly, leading to the former England boss' departure after the Wallabies failed to reach the World Cup knockout stages for the first time at last year's tournament in France.
Tasked with picking up the pieces, Schmidt assembled a strong backroom team and handed out debuts to 18 players - including the wonderfully talented rugby league convert Joseph Suaalii - to shape the squad in his image.
The road to Dublin, however, has not been without its bumps. The Rugby Championship yielded five defeats. Against Argentina in La Plata, they conceded 67 points, their most in a Test match.
But the autumn tour has proved a fruitful venture. Against England, they played some exhilarating rugby to win 42-37 and backed that up by thumping Wales in Cardiff.
Last weekend's defeat by Scotland was a setback, but claiming Ireland's scalp on Saturday will strengthen Schmidt's assertion that his side are on the right track eight months out from the opening Lions Test in Brisbane.
On Saturday, there will be big numbers everywhere you look, from the IRFU's big 150 to Healy's 134, should the prop be summoned from the bench to surpass Brian O'Driscoll as Ireland's most capped player.
But Irish rugby fans will have their eyes trained on a much small number after Farrell's decision to keep the number 10 jersey on 21-year-old Sam Prendergast's back.
Like Schmidt, Farrell has never shied away from headline-grabbing selection calls and keeping Prendergast in ahead of Jack Crowley has attracted much debate this week, especially after the latter was put up before the media earlier in the week.
Prendergast made his full debut against Fiji last week. He was perhaps fortunate to escape a red card but managed to shake off his early indiscretion and do enough to convince Farrell he is the man to lead the Irish attack against the Wallabies.
As it happens, Ireland's last game against Australia, in 2022, was also dominated by fly-half discussion a week on from a win over Fiji. With Johnny Sexton pulling out injured minutes before kick-off, Crowley was bumped into the 10 role for his first start.
While he kicked five points, it was his replacement, Ross Byrne, who stole the headlines by nailing a difficult match-winning penalty.
Perhaps the show-stopping cameo awaits Crowley on Saturday, but if Farrell's demonstration of faith in Prendergast results in defeat, it will spell two autumn defeats for Ireland.
Farrell said he expects Simon Easterby's transition to interim head coach to be "seamless". Lose on Saturday and it will immediately turn up the heat on Easterby with England first up in the Six Nations in eight weeks' time.
