Rob Kearney did not have his finest game for Ireland, in their 19-9 victory over France, but he will be hoping he has enough credit in the bank.
He will also be hoping that a hip injury sustained during the game will not rule him out of the championship’s final two games.
Kearney was below par against Les Bleus as his carries failed to gain much ground and he failed to stick most of his tackles. He looked uncomfortable on a couple of big screen replays and he was hauled ashore after 50 minutes, not long after he had been stepped far too easily by Camille Lopez.
A post-match update from Joe Schmidt may explain why Kearney seemed off-colour. The Ireland coach explained that Kearney’s foot ‘slipped away’ from him in the slick conditions and he had suffered an adductor [hip] injury in the process.
The squad will have an open training session at the Aviva Stadium on Monday but Kearney may well be excused from that to go for his second medical scan in two weeks – the previous one was form a damaged tendon below his bicep.
The one thing going for the fullback right now is that he has time on his side. It is 13 days until we face Wales in Cardiff.
If Kearney is ruled out, Schmidt may well go with the back three that saw out the game against France – Andrew Trimble and Keith Earls on the wings with Simon Zebo at fullback.
There are two other fullback options, though. Tiernan O’Halloran continues to tear it up for Connacht.
Jared Payne is back in the Ulster squad. He is on the bench for the PRO12 game against Zebre. If he gets 20 or 30 minutes, he could find himself back into the Irish squad for the final two games.
Speaking to SportsJOE on Thursday, Garry Ringrose stressed how important Payne is to the Irish team. He said:
“If I could be half the player he is I’d be over the moon…Â Jared is incredible defensively. I’ve learned as much as I could off him training with him and watching him on TV. To describe him as the defensive captain is very true.”
Big tests await, against Wales and England, and Payne could easily slot in as fullback for them both.
Big days ahead, and big decisions too.
