Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

It would be very harsh to drop Henshaw. I think it’ll come down to if a 6-2 split is used or not.

The talk was a return for the England game time wise. Maybe cardiff will be too early.

Not to be going to far ahead but i think the Scotland game a week later will actually be a much tougher test. They will be gunning for us and could have a mathematical chance of winning the comp.

Dont underestimate how terrible France are.

Scotland will beat Italy with a BP.

I never said they would beat us though, just that they will give us a tougher game at home than England will in Twickenham.

What odds can I get for Ringrose scoring a try on a chip through from Crowley, over the top of a completely mis-timed blitz by the English D?

OTBAM just alluded to Kennan being out for remainder of 6 nations, they didnt categorically say it but definitely dropped a big hint.

Didn't realise we were going for 5 in a row against England, they really don't have a Plan B, our defence against them has been really good the last few years

Hugo Keenan trains as Ireland declare clean bill of health for England clash

Rúaidhrí O'Connor

March 05 2024 01:42 PM

Ireland say they have a clean bill of health ahead of their trip to Twickenham this weekend after the entire squad trained at Abbotstown this morning.

Hugo Keenan, Garry Ringrose, Iain Henderson and Oli Jager took a full part in the session.

Keenan, whose left knee was heavily strapped, missed the win over Wales with a knee injury, while Iain Henderson was ruled out with a toe issue.

Jager missed training last week with a knee injury, while Ringrose has yet to feature in the Six Nations after damaging his shoulder in January.

Andy Farrell names his team on Thursday and the players will need to come through a more physically intense session tomorrow, but scrum coach John Fogarty says all four are available and the availability of both world class backs poses a selection conundrum.

Ringrose faces a huge battle to dislodge RobbIe Henshaw in the outside centre slot, but Keenan would likely come in for Ciarán Frawley if declared fit.

The dilemma then extends to the bench, where Ireland have selected a six/two split of forwards and backs to great effect in the recent games.

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Frawley covers more positions than Ringrose or Henshaw, but the midfielders are established operators while combination of James Ryan, Ryan Baird and Jack Conan have been excellent off the bench.

“Garry and Hugo, Hendy all trained today, Oli as well,” Fogarty said.

“It’s such an important day for us to be on the field. A healthy squad training today is important for selection and it was great they were all on the field.

“Hugo trained today. Again ,they are on the road to recovery and training on the field today live was important for them.

“We’ll see how they got through the session. We’ve another session tomorrow, which is the most physical session of the week where we’ll properly test our plan and the players so we’ll see how he gets through tomorrow and then Andy will select his side.”

Fogarty was asked about the intensity level of today’s training session.

“It’s full speed, there’s no huge contact in it, it’s kind of a coaching day,” he said.

“Monday is forming a plan, Tuesday we put it on the field and we’ll see the timings of our launch plays and how our defence work and tomorrow we’ll test that.”

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