Mixed news for Schmidt
BEIRNE BACK BUT LOCK IS CITED
IRELAND name an extended squad today for Sunday’s showdown with Italy in Rome and there was mixed news yesterday for head coach Joe Schmidt.
Iain Henderson faces a disciplinary hearing today after being cited for a neck-roll tackle on Ospreys flanker Sam Cross during Ulster’s 8-0 win in Bridgend last Friday.
‘A Disciplinary Committee will meet in Edinburgh on Tuesday, February 19 to consider the Citing Complaint made against Iain Henderson (No 5) of Ulster Rugby for an alleged incident which occurred against Ospreys Rugby on Friday, February 15, 2019,’ said a Pro14 statement.
Henderson’s case will be heard by video conference, allowing him to remain in Carton House with the Ireland squad rather than have to travel to Edinburgh.
The second row’s return to fitness against Ospreys was a welcome boost for Schmidt but Henderson is now a major doubt for Sunday’s Six Nations clash against Italy in Rome with a one-match ban, at least, expected to come out of today’s hearing.
However, to counterbalance doubts over Henderson, Ireland have been boosted by the return to fitness of Munster second row Tadhg Beirne after his recovery from the knee issues that ruled him out of the opening two rounds of the championship.
While Beirne’s match fitness may not be up to starting against Italy, even if Henderson joins Devin Toner (ruled out of the rest of the championship) on the sidelines again, Ireland have decent options in the second row after Connacht duo Ultan Dillane and Quinn Roux performed well in Murrayfield.
Beirne joined up with the Ireland squad yesterday together with his Munster colleague Chris Farrell.
After impressing on his return to the Ireland team in the win over Scotland, centre Farrell was withdrawn early from Munster’s comfortable win over the Southern Kings last Friday after picking up a bang on his knee.
While his knee issue will continue to be monitored, Farrell has not been ruled out of contention for the trip to Rome.
There was less encouraging news in the backrow where Leinster pair Rhys Ruddock and Dan Leavy were ruled out of contention for Italy with hamstring and calf problems respectively.
Ruddock picked up his hamstring injury training with Leinster last week and was forced to withdraw from the squad that beat Zebre in the Pro14 on Saturday.
With the Italy game the perfect opportunity to rest frontline flanker Peter O’Mahony, Ruddock would have been ideally placed as a natural stand-in and could also have taken on captaincy duties (as he did in November) if 36-year-old hooker Rory Best is also given a break.
As it is, the options for the No6 jersey if O’Mahony is rested would be Ulster’s Jordi Murphy or possibly Sean O’Brien switching over from the openside flank with Josh van der Flier restored to the No7 jersey.
After his superb contributions to Ireland’s Grand Slam and Leinster’s double last year, Leavy has endured a torrid time of it this season and there is no clear indication on when he is expected to return to fitness.
Schmidt had suggested the flanker could feature before the end of the championship in the middle of March but that is looking increasingly unlikely now and he is falling behind in the intense competition for backrow places on the World Cup plane to Japan this autumn.
Munster trio Andrew Conway, John Ryan and Niall Scannell are all back in Ireland camp after contributing to the win over Kings and all three could feature in the match squad for Rome next Sunday.
Billy Holland, who won his solitary Ireland cap against Canada in 2016, has remained with the Munster squad ahead of this Friday’s Pro14 match in Wales against Ospreys.
He had been called into national camp when Toner was ruled out and Henderson and Beirne were unavailable.
After naming his extended squad today, Schmidt will announce his match-day 23 for the Rome assignment at lunchtime on Friday.