With just over six weeks to go until the start of the Guinness Series, the debate about who will form Ireland’s new centre partnership continues to rumble.

The possibility of Gordon D’Arcy moving to 13 from his customary inside centre position has been mooted, while the likes of Tommy Bowe, Jared Payne and Robbie Henshaw have also gained support in some quarters.

Speaking on Saturday in St Mary’s College RFC, where he helped to announce the club’s new sponsorship deal with SoftCo, Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt revealed he hasn’t yet decided on a permanent replacement for Brian O’Driscoll, but was impressed with Henshaw’s performance in Connacht’s surprise success over Leinster last Friday.

“I thought there were some really good things that happened last night with Robbie Henshaw. I thought he defended really well on a couple of instances, where he made good reads,” Schmidt commented.

With the 2015 Six Nations also on the horizon, Schmidt is aware it is a results-driven business for the IRFU.

However, although he has a number of midfield combinations in mind for the upcoming encounters, Schmidt knows how important the club scene is in terms of player development.

“Certainly, at the tip of the iceberg is that the IRFU are focused on those end results. But one of the reasons I’m here today is because there’s club rugby and AIL rugby [Mary’s faced Terenure College in a top-flight clash]. I’m not saying that I’m looking for players here necessarily, but Darragh Fanning played here two years ago, and he’s playing for Leinster now. Craig Ronaldson last night, Dave McSharry. Matt Healy was super as well. All those guys are evolved having come out of club.

“When you get to the tip of the iceberg, you have very little time with players. Yes, we’re looking at all those combinations [Henshaw, Payne, Bowe, D’Arcy], and at least two others.

“I think we will be looking at some different combinations and how they might best work for us.”

Filling the void that was vacated by O’Driscoll was never going to be a simple task, but ahead of next September’s World Cup, the return of first-choice out-half Johnny Sexton to Leinster for a second spell is certainly a major boost for Schmidt.

While the New Zealand native was quick to stress that it was very much the player’s decision to return home for the 2015/16 season, he will still be pleased to see Sexton bringing his two-year stint with Racing Metro to an end.

“I think Johnny is a big boy, he made his own decision but from our point of viewwe think it’s a good decision. For himself, he thinks it’s a good decision because last year for the autumn series he came in after 13 matches in 12 weeks.

“Now, this time he has an injury so that won’t happen again, fine, but it is hard for a player to perform at Test level after playing 13 times in 12 weeks. There are a few things that have been in the media as well about what some of those big club owners have said about international release, so that’s probably going to influence the decision making of players as well.”