As Ireland’s go-to left-winger for much of the last six seasons is no longer part of the squad moving forward, Jamie Osborne has been afforded the first opportunity to stake a claim for the position by Andy Farrell, who has again scarcely concealed his admiration for the versatile 24-year-old Kildareman, and indeed two other sons of Kildare in the Prendergast brothers, Cian and Sam.Farrell has named Osborne on the left wing for only the second time – having previously made 11 of his 13 starts at full-back and the other at outside centre – in the team to face Australia this coming Saturday at the Allianz Stadium (kick-off 11.10am Irish time) and evidently sees him as the most like-for-like replacement for Lowe.“Obviously, there are a few reasons as to why you settle on something in the end. One, he’s been playing, and playing really well, and two, he’s a bloody good rugby player in whatever position he’s playing in.[ Jamie Osborne gets the nod to fill James Lowe’s boots for Ireland against AustraliaOpens in new window ]“Obviously, with how we want to play the game with our wingers to make sure that they’re involved and stuff like that, he’s a smart rugby player, so he gets that straight away,” added Farrell. “He’s pretty good in the air, a good left boot and all that type of stuff, so it all comes into the pot.”Farrell likes his wingers to also be roving playmakers as well to such an extent that they can even fill in as a quasi-first receiver and the head coach confirmed that Osborne has filled in at outhalf in training.“Well he does, yeah. The way that we like to do things, whoever’s playing fullback, sometimes they would step up and do that because we don’t just want our 10s to be just a solid linchpin in the middle of the field that everything goes through the whole time. We want to beinterchangeable with how we do things. “So he steps up and does that constantly within training, as does Hugo, as does Frawls, etc. But he’s certainly well capable of being able to do that.” Osborne deserved to retain his place in the team after making an impressive fist of filling the 15 jersey in Hugo Keenan’s absence as an ever-present in the Six Nations, and his inclusion on the left wing ahead of Jacob Stockdale and Jimmy O’Brien is the most eye-catching selection.The others are the anticipated recall of Sam Prendergast after his strong response to losing his place in both the Ireland and Leinster match-day squads when guiding his province to their URC title retention. A little more surprising was the selection of older brother Cian, the Connacht captain, who has been recalled as the Prendergasts start an Irish game together for only the second time, and this will hopefully go better than last season’s Six Nations opener in Paris. “Cian has come a long way within his development over the last 12 months,” said Farrell from the squad’s base near The Rocks and Sydney Opera House.“The learnings that he’s took from the autumn into the start of the Six Nations and how that progressed, and continued to progress. We always talk about how that type of experience stands to them when they go back to the province. I think he’s been outstanding for Connacht, so he deserves this start.“Sam, the way that he’s handled the last month is a credit to him in regards to taking responsibility for the shirt and his chance to build through those last few games and finish it off with a top performance in a big game in the final there.“So he’s earned the right to do that.”Farrell said he would pay little heed to Ireland’s 46-19 win over Australia last November in Dublin.“Not much at all, really. I think that they would see the start of the international season as a clean slate and a chance to keep pushing forward now. We’re all on a bit of a journey up to the World Cup, so I’m sure that they’re excited for that. “The side that they’ve picked shows that they’ve certainly got the personnel to be able to start their season particularly well. They’ve got some good athletes all over the field. Both teams have changed a little bit and we’ll see how that develops on Saturday night.”