MOVING TIME FOR FURLONG
TADHG FURLONG’S deadpan delivery provided good news for Ireland supporters at Carton House yesterday.
After missing the victory over Wales with a hamstring injury, Furlong has declared himself fit for Saturday’s potential championship clincher against Scotland at the Aviva Stadium.
“I’d like to say I’m moving well but I never move well,” joked the world class prop (above yesterday). “I’m moving as well as I can.”
Iain Henderson, like Furlong, also trained fully in the morning as the players resumed work at Carton House.
Afterwards assistant coach Simon Easterby (left) declared a fully fit panel, with Joe Schmidt to announce the team tomorrow. “We’re having to keep players on a tight leash because guys who didn’t get the opportunity to play against
Wales are desperate to come back in,” remarked Easterby. “The guys who did play have ownership of that shirt. It’s a great place to be.”
Furlong, who was behind Henderson in terms of coming close to making it back for the Wales game, described the process of having to be patient in terms of a return to action.
“It’s out of your hands really,” said the Leinster star. “When you’re building up to that Wales games you know that you have to hit a lot of targets in that time.
“You’re trying to get your injury right and then you are trying to prep for a Test match.
“Then when you realise you’re not going to make it you can concentrate on getting fully right. “When I didn’t make that, I was really confident that I was going to be back ahead of Scotland. It’s been pretty straight sailing, bar a bit of snow that hampered training.”
Talk of a Grand Slam hasn’t been a distraction either, insists Furlong. “I wouldn’t say mention of it is banned, it’s just not talked about really,” he claimed. “It’s no different to any other week. It’s all taskorientated. Like, how do you eat an elephant? You eat it bite by bite, don’t you?
“It really is game on game for us and we’ve a massive one this weekend.” CONOR MURRAY’S kneesydoes-it approach to the Beast from the East has ensured he is ready to face Scotland’s bravehearts.
Murray was wrapped in cotton wool after suffering an injury scare (above) with just under 15 minutes remaining against Wales 11 days ago. Ireland’s world class scrum-half picked himself up gingerly but was still physically and mentally strong enough to kick a crucial 74th minute penalty to keep the hosts out of reach and still on track for the Grand Slam. “We just got counter-rucked and they managed to push a player back on top of me,” Murray explained.
“I got a bit of a fright but I’m ready to go now. It was kind of like what happened to England’s Ben Youngs when he did his ACL against Italy.
“I just managed to get my knee out of the ground in time so that it wasn’t too serious.
“I’ve strained it like that before. It’s sore at the time, obviously by the way I was rolling around, but it quickly comes right.
“I’ve been working hard with the physios and I feel pretty good. You can tell it’s a big week by the lads’ body language and the way they’re training. They want to put their best foot forward.” The extreme weather conditions saw Murray holed up at home from the middle of last week until it was time to return to Carton House on Sunday.
“Especially with my knee, I didn’t want to be out and about,” the 28-year-old said.
“So there was plenty of movies watched and time on the couch which was nice.
“It was good to get the feet up because we didn’t have much choice. There was a bit of cabin fever and it’s good to finally get out and run around a bit.”
Murray trained fully on Monday at Abbotstown and then back at Ireland’s Maynooth base yesterday.
He enjoyed the little break from the norm with the late diversion