Andy Farrell has confirmed that Johnny Sexton will be fully fit for next week's build-up towards Ireland's third round Six Nations game against Italy on Sunday week at the Aviva Stadium.
“He joined in training yesterday. He is going through the end stages of rehab and we expect him to be fully fit next week,” said the Irish head coach with regard to Sexton after a 25-man squad completed a two-day get-together at their High Performance Centre.
Farrell thus has to weigh up whether he restores his captain to the starting line-up or affords Joey Carbery some more game time after the latter made his Six Nations debut in last weekend's 30-24 defeat by France in Paris.
“Well, we’ll see. What would you expect me to say, who’s going to start and who’s not? We will leave that to see how things unfold,” said Farrell when asked if Carbery might even start in Twickenham in round four or in Ireland’s concluding game at home to Scotland.
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“But the experience was great for him. The feedback from that experience has been great for him. Today we trained against the Under-20s and he put a few of those bits that we talked about onto the field. It stands him in good stead doesn’t it, to push on with his career,” said Farrell in relation to Carbery’s performance in the Stade de France.
There are liable to be changes against Italy, one of which will certainly be at hooker in light of the shoulder injury Rónan Kelleher suffered against France and which has ruled him out of the remainder of the tournament, just as the 24-year-old was establishing himself at Test level after a run of seven successive starts.
“It’s disappointing for Rónan and for us,” admitted Farrell. “He has kicked off his international career with a bang. The more experience he keeps getting at this level, the better he’s going to become.
“But injuries are part of our sport and how we deal with that, and how Rónan deals with that injury as a young professional is going to help him down the track as well. Obviously him being out of the Six Nations will give other lads an opportunity to step forward.”
Emergence
Kelleher's loss is offset at least partially by the emergence of fellow Leinster hooker Dan Sheehan, who had his longest stint in four Tests off the bench with an eye-catching 55 minute performance in Paris, while Rob Herring and Dave Heffernan are also in the mix. In the post-Rory Best years, hooker has become a position of relative strength.
“There is obviously some inexperience, but there is some talent that we are trying to give experience to. Rónan is obviously part of that and Dan is doing really well. It was a fantastic occasion for him going to Paris and playing so long there. There’s competition for places and that’s exactly what we want.”
The defeat in Paris ended Ireland’s nine-game winning run and the review provided plenty of food for thought for Farrell and his coaching ticket.
“Quite a bit actually, as you would imagine. Regarding an occasion like that there’s quite a lot of learnings. I’ll be here all day if we started going through them all really. But I think the learning for us is that we make sure we put our game out there on the pitch under trying circumstances.
“I thought France played outstandingly well but I think certainly in the first-half, even in the first 20 minutes, I thought we could have been more accurate, more disciplined with how we played out the game and I’m not just talking about discipline with the referee, I’m talking about inaccuracies which led to indiscipline.
“So some good learnings there but I stand by what I said after the game in regard to the fight and want and the spirit to come back into the game and give ourselves a chance. That was obviously in the review as well.”
Atmosphere
For several of last week’s Irish team, a full capacity Stade de France would have been their first experience of such an occasion away from home at Test level, and although relatively experienced, even Robbie Henshaw admitted that the atmosphere was exceptional.
“Yeah, electric is probably the word I’d use to describe it. Even from the warm-up, the stadium was bouncing. We knew that was going to happen, we prepared well all week for that cauldron effect, going into the heat of battle.
“It can affect your decision making and your communication, because you can’t hear as much compared to the last couple of years, playing in empty stadiums it’s a lot easier to communicate. But we feel that didn’t really have an effect on us as such. We definitely had our opportunities there to go ahead and win the game.”
And therein lay the rub.
“We’ve all looked back through it a good few times now, both together and individually. We had a good meeting yesterday and it was tough to watch, because we definitely felt we had them. The most frustrating thing was probably just not executing and taking those opportunities, but again, to spin it on a positive it’s probably just another step on the journey, so it’s how we learn from it and how we kick on and turn it into a positive.”
In that regard, Henshaw believes last Saturday will be a particularly valuable experience for Ireland’s game away to England.
“A couple of weeks after Italy we travel to Twickenham and it’s another really intense environment. Some guys might not have played there before with a full stadium, and it’s up there with Stade de France. We’ll definitely learn from it and roll our sleeves up for Italy next week, who we always know are a really physical challenge. They’ll definitely test us physically.”
Despite a much lauded 2021, during which he was one of the Lions’ stand-out players and an ever-present in the Test series, this has been a frustrating season for Henshaw. Injuries have restricted him to just three games for Leinster and one for Ireland, the Autumn Series finale against Argentina prior to last Saturday’s cameo off the bench after an adductor strain during the squad’s camp led to the Bundee Aki-Garry Ringrose partnership being renewed in the two Six Nations starts to date.
“It’s been a bit of a rocky one for me this year. I feel fresh, to be honest, so I’m ready to go. I’ve been training away the last couple of weeks and I’m ready to step forward now. Obviously the stop-start season for me hasn’t been ideal, but I’m hoping for a stronger finish to the second half of the season.”
