Stricken Carbery in race to make Six Nations

JOEY CARBERY is facing a race against time to be fit for Ireland’s 2018 Six Nations campaign. The IRFU yesterday confirmed that the 22-year-old suffered a fractured left wrist during Saturday’s 23-20 win over Fiji. The Leinster man will at the very least be out of action until the new year, leaving him with just the month of January to get the necessary match fitness ahead of Ireland’s Six Nations opener against France in Paris on February 3. However, as one Leinster star comes to terms with an injury setback, Carbery’s team-mate Garry Ringrose could make his first appearance of the season at the RDS on Friday when the Blues take on the Dragons in the Pro14. Ringrose is expected to train fully this week after recovering from surgery on a shoulder problem during the summer. Aside from Carbery, Schmidt has no fresh injury concerns as Ireland look to complete a clean sweep of November series victories when they take on Argentina on Saturday. The remaining players who featured in the win over Fiji are all expected to train fully at Carton House this

week, while John Ryan has rejoined the squad after successfully rehabbing a calf injury in Munster last week. A second-string Ireland came in for some heavy criticism after an errorridden performance against the Fijians, but speaking yesterday, CJ Stander claimed that Schmidt wasn’t particularly disappointed when addressing his players in the Aviva Stadium dressing room after the game. ‘It was pretty similar to what he normally says, he goes straight in and tells you what you did wrong and what you did well,’ Stander (right) said. ‘And he tells us to be switched on going into next week. We did a lot of great stuff and congratulated the new caps. That was it. ‘Look, there was a lot of great stuff in the game and also stuff we can work on. I think for a lot of guys it was their first opportunity and a lot of guys got another chance to put up their hand. Sometimes games go your way and sometimes they don’t. ‘I think what we did well, we controlled and the stuff we didn’t control, we could have maybe kept the ball [more]... But it shows we have good depth.’ The Munster man