RUGBY:IN A scenario heavy with irony, Geordan Murphy is set to be named in Ireland's 30-man squad today after Felix Jones was yesterday ruled out of the tournament due to an ankle ligament injury sustained when he landed awkwardly during Saturday's 26-22 defeat to France.
Eight years ago, Murphy was sidelined from the 2003 World Cup due to the broken leg he suffered the day before the squad was announced in Murrayfield. Now, in a cruel twist of fate for the desperately unlucky Jones, Murphy is set to be called into the squad.
As with Murphy then, the fervent hope must be that the 24-year-old Jones will yet have a couple of World Cups in him as well. Everyone in the Aviva groaned at each of the repeated viewings as his left leg crumpled on landing when attempting to field a high ball (his first of the game) in the 68th minute.
An MRI scan yesterday confirmed that Jones sustained an injury to one of the stabilising ligaments in his foot. An IRFU statement read: “The injury will be further reviewed by a specialist to rule out the need for surgery, but it will require a six week period of immobilisation”, thereby ruling him out of the squad to be announced at 1pm today.
“The squad and management are bitterly disappointed for Felix to suffer an injury at such a vital time in terms of selection for the final touring party,” said manager Paul McNaughton.
“He had certainly put himself into contention over pre-season and the games in the last three weeks. We all wish him a speedy recovery and that he is back playing as soon as possible.”
From Sandycove and a product of Seapoint, bad neck and knee have limited him to just 16 starts for Munster in two seasons there. Such was end-of-season form that he was undoubtedly set to be included in the squad for New Zealand until his latest injury misfortune.
However, Ireland are fortunate to be able to call upon the 69-times capped Murphy, whose timing into the line, support trailers, distribution, kicking game, basic full-back skills, experience and on-field leadership will give them another string to their bow after his own recovery from a fractured foot and damaged ankle ligaments last January.
Thus there is unlikely to be any ‘bolter’ when the squad is announced today as Jones’ Munster team-mate, Conor Murray, is liable to miss out in the ultra-competitive scrumhalf area, with Declan Kidney already having begun to “do the rounds” in notifying some of those who have missed out.
“It’s the guys who lose out who are the important ones this time, aren’t they?” said Kidney after Saturday’s defeat in confirming that “we’ll do our best” to inform the players individually. “I’m not going to advertise how we go about our business, but you have the bones of it there: we’ll sit down, decide, finalise and work our way through it.”
Beyond that, the Irish coach gave very little away, even as to whether there will be a 16-14 or 17-13 split, for fear of revealing anything prior to speaking to the players first. Nonetheless, he did hint that no-one had really played themselves in or out of the squad in last Thursday’s win over Connacht or last Saturday, and confirmed that David Wallace’s hamstring tweak would not influence the selection.
“The nature of it was a cramping you can get sometimes at the start of a season. I’d be happy enough it’s not like a hamstring injury, where you think ‘I’m going out with a player who is half-injured’. I believe once it sorts itself out, he’ll be fully okay.”
It would also appear that Marcus Horan, John Hayes and Peter Stringer are amongst those who may have heard the bad news, with Tom Court and Tony Buckley backing up Cian Healy and Mike Ross.
Kidney also admitted that the Ronan O’Gara-Jonathan Sexton dual playmaker role “an option further down the line,”, which could open up more elbow room to include a utility outside back on the bench.
Next up are England in the Aviva Stadium on Saturday, and Ireland’s pressing need for a win after an 11th defeat in a dozen meetings with the French, whose coach Marc Lièvremont yesterday culled Sylvain Marconnet and Thomas Domingo from his 32-man squad. Despite Ireland’s third preparatory defeat in a row, this isn’t 2007 revisited, but it’s not good either.
“The one good thing is that I know we need all these games,” said Kidney.
I’m delighted we have another one next week. I wouldn’t be afraid of it. You can organize games just to get you over the line, but when it comes down to it, we know now where we stand. Isn’t that much better now than before we travel?”
Possible Irish World Cup squad:
Forwards: Rory Best, Jerry Flannery, Seán Cronin, Cian Healy, Mike Ross, Tom Court, Tony Buckley, Paul O’Connell, Donncha O’Callaghan, Leo Cullen, Donncha Ryan, Seán O’Brien, Jamie Heaslip, David Wallace, Denis Leamy, Stephen Ferris. Backs: Tomás O’Leary, Eoin Reddan, Isaac Boss, Jonathan Sexton, Ronan O’Gara, Gordon D’Arcy, Brian O’Driscoll, Paddy Wallace, Keith Earls, Tommy Bowe, Andrew Trimble, Luke Fitzgerald, Rob Kearney, Geordan Murphy.
