Robbie Henshaw's hamstring injury will not be risked in Ireland's second World Cup match against Romania at Wembley on Sunday with Joe Schmidt moving the injury update goal posts, again, by stating the 21-year-old will be available for Italy on October 4th.
“Robbie I think is fit to play,” said Schmidt. “He missed the early part of the week therefore I think there is a couple of them that we left out partly as precaution and partly because they hadn’t the time with the team.”
Schmidt was asked what changed with the Henshaw prognosis from Thursday when all 31 players were deemed available for selection.
“At the start of the week we felt (Robbie) had to take it a little bit easier than we first thought.
“He is fully running now. We just felt we would rather not push ahead. Soft tissue injuries can be quite complicated and if you get a reinjury on the same side then you are really in a situation where his World Cup is in doubt. This way we feel we are taking no risk.
"There are times to take a risk...it's a great opportunity for Darren Cave. "
Schmidt recently expressed disappointment, via his communications manager, at the media reporting team news in advance of his press conference to do just that. He would prefer not to have to release his Ireland team to the public at all.
"We prefer that people didn't know our starting line-up but one of the things the Rugby World Cup demands is an equitable playing field - albeit not with turnarounds - so everyone knows each other's team."
Johnny Sexton, Peter O'Mahony and Iain Henderson "all trained fully today" but are not included in the 23-man squad that shows 12 changes from the 50-7 win over Canada.
Heaslip takes over the captaincy, Keith Earls remains on the left wing and, most surprising of all, Jared Payne partners Darren Cave in the centre.
Another perhaps telling selection sees Ian Madigan preferred at number 10 over Paddy Jackson (with Johnny Sexton rested).
Cian Healy is at loosehead, having replaced Jack McGrath off the bench last weekend, for a first start since surgery on a prolapsed disc in his neck last May.
There is a strong bench, in case of emergency against a Romania side that lost 38-11 to France on Wednesday, with Paul O’Connell, Seán O’Brien, Seán Cronin (who interestingly loses out to Richardt Strauss), Conor Murray and Rob Kearney.
Ireland: Simon Zebo; Tommy Bowe, Jared Payne, Darren Cave, Keith Earls; Ian Madigan, Eoin Reddan; Cian Healy, Richardt Strauss, Nathan White; Donnacha Ryan, Devin Toner; Jordi Murphy, Chris Henry, Jamie Heaslip.
Replacements: Sean Cronin, Jack McGrath, Tadhg Furlong, Paul O'Connell, Sean O'Brien, Conor Murray, Paddy Jackson, Rob Kearney.
