Somewhat surprisingly, the Irish management have not ruled out Calvin Nash or Ciaran Frawley from next Saturday’s Guinness Six Nations finale against Scotland at the Aviva Stadium (kick-off 4.45pm).
Both players had to leave the field during Ireland’s 23-22 loss to England at Twickenham last Saturday to undergo HIAs and neither of them returned to the pitch.
However, following their Tuesday training session at the IRFU HPC in Sports Campus Ireland, defence coach Simon Easterby said: “No one is ruled out yet.”
He added: “Obviously Nashy and Frawls have to go through the process and make sure they don’t have symptoms, if they did that might put them back a day, but both are on track to play. No one else sat out training bar the two boys.”
This suggests both players may have passed their HIA 2s although Frawley is back with Leinster while undergoing return to play protocols, Nash has remained with the Irish squad.
Easterby also maintained that the expectations within the squad remain high as they remain firm favourites to retain the Championship title and will seek to do so ideally with a win.
“We just didn’t get on the front foot enough versus England. We let them come at us and get momentum,” he admitted. “And whatever the dynamics were around England losing to Scotland, at times we allowed them to play that game at the weekend when we were passive and allowed them to come at us. We weren’t at our best, but we could have won it.
“It’s important that we tidied that up, get over it and there’s plenty to play for this week. Like any team that loses and has high expectations of themselves, they’re disappointed in how they performed.
“They know there is more in us and it wasn’t the best version of ourselves but England had something to do with that as well, so credit to them. We could have won it, we didn’t, we need to take the learning from that, but we can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We need to pick ourselves up for Saturday.”
Ireland have won the last nine meetings with the Scots, and the enmity between the two sides has become plain for all to see in recent years. This adds to what Easterby called the “subplots” as Ireland seek silverware on the final Saturday at the Aviva for the second St Patrick’s weekend in a row.
“We also know that Scotland will be smarting after that defeat to Italy, who deserved that result, but we know their back three can create problems, Finn Russell pulling the strings and when he’s on form it’s difficult to stop their momentum.
“It heightens our awareness and feel of the game, we have a huge amount to play for and want to finish on a high, we want to put to bed what happened last weekend.
“We can’t change that but it’s the last game of the Six Nations and a title on the line.
“It’s such a difficult thing to do, history tells you it’s very rare that it happens. We haven’t won back-to-back championships very often either, so there’s a huge amount to be excited about.”
Easterby was also asked about Antoine Frisch being named and the potential for the Munster centre becoming a non-Irish player “if he gets capped”.
“I don’t know whether they’ve decided to cap him or to bring him in for training. I’m not sure what’s happening around selection for them. I worked with Frischy on the Emerging Ireland tour and he’s unfortunately in a position of real strength for us and might get into a few other teams if he had the opportunity.
“He’s a good guy, a good player, obviously it will change a few things [if France cap him]. I certainly haven’t been involved in any conversations with Antoine, [maybe] there will be a conversation with Munster, with Faz, around what his plans are and then find out more.
“We’ll probably wait to see what happens this week and then make a call on it.”
