O’Brien facing axe for France and Wales
SEÁN O’BRIEN looks set to be the highest-profile victim of Ireland’s poor showing in Rome as Joe Schmidt prepares to wield his axe once again for the remaining Six Nations fixtures against France and Wales.
With a six-day turnaround between the Dublin and Cardiff clashes, the head coach has billed this window as the perfect dry run for the opening week of the World Cup when Ireland face Scotland and hosts Japan in the same time-frame.
The team repaired to Belfast this week to prepare for the key games, but O’Brien was one of five starters from the Stadio Olimpico not among the 26 players who headed north where the team let off some steam with a squad dinner and by taking the ‘black cab’ tour of the city.
Seán Cronin also missed out on the camp having endured a difficult afternoon against Italy last weekend, with Niall Scannell retained along with captain Rory Best who was rested for the Rome excursion.
Despite their return to the Leinster squad, Leo Cullen opted not to include O’Brien, Cronin or Jack McGrath in the team to face Cheetahs last night which won’t help their chances of selection next week.
As well as Cronin, starting second-rows Quinn Roux and Ultan Dillane look set to pay the price for a malfunctioning lineout as Iain Henderson, James Ryan and Tadhg Beirne trained at Queen’s University.
However, Schmidt said one off-day won’t shake his faith in the hooker’s ability.
“You’re never going to write a player off for one performance that didn’t go his way,” he said of Cronin.
“We know that he’s a really good player. We know that he’s got acceleration that most hookers don’t have.
“We know that he can throw. You know, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a hooker who hasn’t had an off-day throwing at some stage but do they get written off because of it? I think you’d be crazy to do that after the good work that he has done.
“It’s important that Seán keeps his confidence and keeps going forward.”
Roux and Dillane were released to start for Connacht against Ospreys today, while Jordi Murphy plays for Ulster against Dragons tomorrow. John Cooney will also play for the northern province, while fellow sub John Ryan has been released to play for Munster against Scarlets.
Andrew Conway was released to play for Munster, but appears to have picked up an injury and was not selected for the province.
Jack Carty ran at out-half in yesterday’s session as Johnny Sexton and Joey Carbery did non-contact running behind one of the goals. Schmidt said Sexton would be fit to train next week but, while he was upbeat on Carbery, he remains highly unlikely to recover from his hamstring injury in time.
Dan Leavy looks set to return to the fold next week having done an intensive fitness session with Robbie Henshaw before the main training run, while CJ Stander, Garry Ringrose, Jordan Larmour and Beirne were all on the pitch as the senior team were put through their paces by the U-20s.
France coach Jacques Brunel keeps the majority of his squad out of Top 14 action this weekend, with Wesley Fofana one of seven players who didn’t face Scotland released for club duty.
SCHMIDT’S 21-MAN TRAINING SQUAD: R Kearney, J Larmour, K Earls, J Stockdale, B Aki, G Ringrose, C Farrell, J Carty, C Murray; C Healy, D Kilcoyne, R Best, N Scannell, T Furlong, James Ryan, I Henderson, T Beirne, P O’Mahony, CJ Stander, J van der Flier, J Conan. Included but not training fully: J Sexton, J Carbery, R Henshaw, D Leavy.