Two more players have been put on stand-by after Sean O’Brien and Jared Payne sat out Ireland’s Captain’s Run at the Aviva Stadium this afternoon.
The Leinster flanker and Ulster centre were excused from active duty just 24 hours out from Ireland’s match against Australia.
Ireland defence coach Andy Farrell attempted to assuage any fears the duo would miss the Wallabies clash but the fact that two Munster players have been kept from Guinness PRO12 duty would suggest these are more than minor issues.
Peter O’Mahony and, as yet uncapped, Rory Scannell will miss Munster’s league clash with Treviso as they remain in Dublin on stand-by for the two men. Also on stand-by are Donnacha Ryan and Craig Gilroy.
Farrell tried his best to make it seem like this stack of barely fit bodies was the norm. He said:
“We’ve a couple of guys that have a couple of niggles. The captain’s run is normally just a stretch-your-legs type session, so we made a couple of decisions this morning to rest Jared and Sean O’Brien.
“We’ll give them an extra 24 hours and just assess how they are in the morning.”
Both men, as well as Simon Zebo, CJ Stander and Rob Kearney, will all get their final assessments in the morning. Farrell continued:
“[It’s] just tweaks, just tweaks. Just lower limb tweaks. That’s what normally happens during a week, you pick things up along the way and are still recovering from the game, etc.
“The main session was yesterday and we decided just to give a couple of players a rest today and asses them throughout the day. We’ll have a discussion in the morning to give them that extra little bit of time to regenerate themselves.”
Irish fans will be hoping both men will regenerate well over the next 24 hours. O’Mahony would be ample cover for O’Brien but a Payne injury would see Scannell play 12 and two-cap newcomer Garry Ringrose shift to 13.
It begs the question though – where is Stuart Olding?
Dick Clerkin makes his GAA Hour debut to talk about a wonderful career and argue passionately with Colm Parkinson over Sky Sports GAA. Subscribe here on iTunes.
