There will be an updated Irish squad announced this morning, with the relatively low-key events of the weekend neither strengthening nor weakening Joe Schmidt’s hand in advance of Saturday’s pivotal Six Nations meeting with England at Twickenham.
The best news of the weekend was that Johnny Sexton and Donnacha Ryan came through relatively unscathed, the former after a 24-minute cameo off the bench for Racing Metro in their 18-8 home win over Bayonne, and the latter after his 67th-minute return to action in Munster’s win over Zebre following a two-month absence with a knee injury.
Ryan may thus be added to the squad this morning given Dan Tuohy's misfortune in fracturing his forearm as a second-half replacement in the win over Wales ensures at least one change on the bench against England. Unhelpfully, perhaps, Iain Henderson's scheduled run-out didn't materialise given the postponement of Ulster's game at home to the Scarlets last Friday, and ditto Luke Marshall.
Pecking order
However, Henderson and possibly also Mike McCarthy, who played the first hour of Leinster's 31-19 win over the Dragons on Friday night, are probably still ahead of Ryan in the pecking order given the latter's relative lack of rugby. Perhaps significantly, Henderson along with Jackson, Jack McGrath and Robbie Henderson were the only additions to the starting XV minus Sexton which came together for Ireland's two-day camp in Clonmel last week.
Schmidt’s scope for change is limited by how well the squad, and particularly the starting XV, performed against Wales, with the performances of Andrew Trimble and Dave Kearney making them very hard to dislodge.
Given his big-game experience and qualities as a strike runner, one ventures Tommy Bowe might have been best equipped to make the most compelling case for inclusion at Twickenham had he been able to do so, but the Lions winger wasn’t even named in Ulster’s match-day squad against the Scarlets in any case. Likewise, Luke Fitzgerald’s similar abductor muscle problem is evidently taking longer to heel than hoped, as he, too, was ruled out of Leinster’s game on Friday night.
The one other area which might yet see a change in the make-up of the squad at Twickenham could be as back-up scrumhalf, bearing in mind Eoin Reddan returned to action when playing the first 48 minutes at the RDS on Friday night without any setbacks.
Furthermore, Isaac Boss was on the receiving end of the tip tackle by the Dragon's Argentinian prop Francisco Chaparro which saw him red-carded. The Leinster forwards coach Jonno Gibbes appeared relatively positive about Boss' well-being yesterday when commenting: "Bossy's being reviewed and they're looking further into his situation. It looks positive initially but obviously there's a precautionary issue when the head is involved. The signs are reasonably positive."
High hit
Schmidt would, by all accounts, have winced as much as Sexton himself and the Racing supporters by a high hit from Bayonne's New Zealand prop Neemia Tialata before picking himself up and landing two penalties to complete their win.
Sexton will be renewing acquaintances with his fellow outhalf on the Lions tour, Owen Farrell, next Sunday and the latter has been talking about his fellow tourist and opponent next week.
“He’s a fantastic player. I got on with him really well – I enjoyed being around him. We spent a lot of time together and just seeing how players like that work is the most important thing; seeing what they bring day-in, day-out,” said Farrell.
“He demands stuff off people. He demands that people know their jobs and get it right. When that’s the case, he’s alright, because he has to stand there and know everyone else’s jobs, so for them not to know their own.”
Farrell accepted that the two are similarly intense and demanding characters who ‘clicked’ on tour. “Yeah, I think so. I had massive respect for him before we even started and to get to know him as a bloke, I only have more respect for him now. It will be good to – hopefully – play against him next week.”
The English outhalf also revealed how his respect for Brian O’Driscoll and Paul O’Connell had been magnified in Australia, particularly by O’Driscoll’s response to being dropped for the third Test.
“That could have happened to anybody else and they could have gone into a massive sulk. It just showed his experience in the fact that the team was first for him. No matter how he was feeling, he made sure he didn’t affect anyone else and he made sure he still added to the group. That was a massive thing that struck home for me watching him as a person and a player.”
