It was always going to be a stretch but Joe Schmidt is not panicking to get his star flanker back.
Ireland were given a decent going over by the Under 20s at Buccaneers RFC this morning and are now on leave until Sunday.
21 players were brought down to Athlone and even if James Ryan, Iain Henderson and Tadhg Furlong did not train, they at least made the days of several fans by posing for pictures and signing autographs. Here are the senior Ireland players that did take part in the Buccaneers session:
- Cian Healy and Jack McGrath (looseheads)
- Rory Best and Niall Scannell (hookers)
- Andrew Porter (tighthead)
- Devin Toner (lock)
- Peter O’Mahony, Jordi Murphy, Jack Conan, CJ Stander and Dan Leavy (back row)
- Conor Murray (scrumhalf)
- Johnny Sexton and Joey Carbery (outhalves)
- Bundee Aki and Chris Farrell (midfield)
- Keith Earls, Jacob Stockdale, Rob Kearney and Fergus McFadden (back three)
Schmidt is unlikely to make his call-ups for the Wales game until the Irish provinces conclude their PRO14 matches. From a selfish point of view, he will be hoping that scrum-halves Kieran Marmion and Luke McGrath, the versatile Jordan Larmour and Munster tighthead John Ryan all come through their games unscathed.
Two players Ireland fans had been hoping would be included were Sean O’Brien and Garry Ringrose. Comments from Schmidt suggest that the Wales game on February 24 will come too soon.
Schmidt was asked the odds on Ringrose were of returning to the Ireland set-up if he faced Scarlets at the weekend.
“I don’t think Garry is going to play this weekend at this stage,” he began.
“I haven’t spoken to [Leinster head coach] Leo Cullen since Sunday. That may have changed as he was making really good progress.
“He was on the cusp of being involved, probably a week ahead of where Sean O’Brien is at the moment. Garry for us, if he doesn’t play [for Leinster] it wouldn’t necessarily rule him out. He was outstanding in the Six Nations so he would be an option.
“He may spend a couple of days next week with us and that will allow us to make a decision. If it’s not us, I’m pretty sure it will be Leinster [v Kings] because he is due back.”
The Kings was always the likely return game and it will take something miraculous, or disastrous, for Ringrose to be rushed back.
Schmidt was then asked about the size of Ireland’s task, now that Robbie Henshaw has been ruled out of the championship.
“It’s a huge test,” he replied. “I think people have gone past Jared Payne, who the last time we won the Six Nations played the whole time at 13 and was unbelievably good for us. He was one of the guys we lost in the World Cup.”
“Now we’re down a third centre so if you look at the strength in depth, we’re down to our fourth centre. It’s a great test for us.
“There has been a lot of focus on players other teams didn’t have but we’re always excited about who we do have and focus on who we do have. It was a lot of glossing over the 12 guys we had unavailable but at the same time there was a lot of excitement about people saying we were in really good shape.”
Schmidt concluded, “If we can keep people positive despite losing Josh van der Flier on top of not having Jamie Heaslip, Sean O’Brien and Tommy O’Donnell, I think we’re in a pretty good place. I think we’ll all be watching against Wales and find out a little bit.”
