Ireland’s third Test against South Africa will be their 17th on the 52nd week of their season.
How many players that started off in Ireland’s pre-World Cup camp, late last June, will still be standing by the end of their series against the Springboks?
Already missing from the 45 named to train by Joe Schmidt, on June 25th last year, are an alternative match-day squad – 23 men.
That figure stood at 22 on Monday but injuries to Rob and Dave Kearney and shoulder surgery for Johnny Sexton – out for three months – add to the casualties.
Injuries see Joe Schmidt call upon Connacht duo for Springbok tour https://t.co/WHlVR1bsHk
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) June 2, 2016
Ian Madigan and Craig Gilroy, who were named in the 45-man squad last year, come in, as do Tiernan O’Halloran and Matt Healy.
RETIRED: Felix Jones, Paul O’Connell, Gordon D’Arcy.
INJURED/RESTED: Rob Kearney, Dave Kearney, Johnny Sexton, Luke Fitzgerald, Tommy Bowe, Simon Zebo, Marty Moore, Cian Healy, Sean O’Brien, Tommy O’Donnell, Peter O’Mahony, Tommy O’Donnell, Sean O’Brien.
OUT OF FAVOUR: Darren Cave, Fergus McFadden, Noel Reid, Chris Henry, Dan Tuohy, Rob Herring, Isaac Boss, Michael Bent, Jack Conan.
Also out of the tour are Denis Buckley, Nathan White, Josh van der Flier, Stuart McCloskey and Andrew Conway. Make that 30 men missing from the series and that’s without the likes of Connacht’s Eoin McKeon, Niyi Adeolokun and more.
The load heaped upon the players’ shoulders is simply too much to bear.
Asked about heading into his 12th month of the 2015/16 season, Ireland vice captain Jamie Heaslip said:
“That’s the way it is. You know in a World Cup season it’s going to be long, it’s going to be hard. But they manage us. For the first time ever I had four weeks off without a game.
“Not long after the Six Nations, now that’s because we weren’t in Europe which wasn’t great, but I got a nice little booster. I had a week off and three weeks of good… not on the pitch, just training in the gym getting the body back healthy and ready to go.
“We knew it’d be a long year and it’s just exciting at this end of the season. It can be long, playing those games in the middle of winter can be tough going, but the sun in shining, you’re going to a great country like South Africa and it’s really easy, mentally, to be there.”
Here’s the kit-bag, here’s your tickets. One more tour, three more games.
22 men are gone from the training squad Schmidt named 11 months ago. How many more from that original list will make it to the final whistle of that third Test?
That’s the way it is.
