Chris Farrell has been ruled out for the remainder of the Six Nations.
One man’s pain is another man’s gain. With news that Ireland centre Chris Farrell will miss the rest of the Six Nations campaign after picking up a knee injury, Joe Schmidt looks set to turn to Garry Ringrose.
With Robbie Henshaw also unavailable, Ringrose is expected to be the man to partner Bundee Aki in the centre for Ireland’s crunch showdown with the Scots at Murrayfield on March 10.
Ringrose has been training with the Ireland camp this week and it is yet to be decided whether he will be released for Leinster’s Pro14 clash with Scarlets this weekend.
While there is slight concern over Ringrose’s lack of competitive action – his 55 minutes for Leinster against Southern Kings on Friday was his first game since injuring his ankle at the start of the year – Schmidt is running out of options as injuries take their toll on his side.
Massive blow for Ireland https://t.co/t5fpkaKxmf
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) February 27, 2018
While Keith Earls is capable of playing as a centre, the Munster man has been in scintillating form on the wing.
Meanwhile, Schmidt issued a positive update on Tadhg Furlong and Iain Henderson, after the pair missed the win over Wales with hamstring injuries.
“What pulling them out of last weekend meant for us, particularly Iain who was very close to being available and could have played, is we decided to go backwards rather than forwards and take our time a little bit more with that recovery process,” Schmidt said.
“We’d expect Tadhg and Iain to train fully on the Tuesday, Thursday. Maybe we might manage them a bit on the Monday.”
Schmidt also offered updates on Conor Murray and Johnny Sexton, who picked up injuries in the win over Wales.
“Conor ran really well today. Johnny was doing some conditioning – one of his favourite things! They both got through their work really well. It’s one of those weeks where you can be a little bit varied in how you deliver what needs to be done by different players.
“One of the really good things about this week is that it allows guys like Joey Carbery and Kieran Marmion to get in and boss the team because in a match week by the time you have done three trainings on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday there’s not that many windows where the younger players can get in and take charge of the team.”
