Sexton is primed to return for Scotland finale but Farrell has plenty of headaches
JOHNNY SEXTON is set to return to captain Ireland for their final match of 2020 against Scotland next week, but Andy Farrell is sweating on the fitness of a number of players after a bruising encounter against Georgia.
Sexton once again served as the team’s water-boy at the Aviva Stadium yesterday as Billy Burns ran the team from No 10 and James Ryan skippered the side.
Burns played despite injuring his groin in the warm-up and the Ulster out-half is now a doubt for Saturday’s third/fourth-place playoff against the Scots after coming off early in the second half.
He was joined in the treatment room by hooker Rob Herring, scrum-half Conor Murray, flanker Will Connors and winger Keith Earls by the end of the game.
“There’s quite a few,” Farrell said of the injuries. “Rob Herring has something he needs to be looked at regarding his ribs. Billy felt something in his groin in the warm-up. He said he was fine to play and played a nice first 40 I thought but he’s nursing a groin injury.
“Conor got a bang, a dead leg, so we have to look after him but he’ll be fine. Will Connors came off for a HIA so it’s a six-day turnaround, we’ll see how that goes. Keith Earls had a back spasm and had to come off as well, so quite a bit of disruption but that’s nothing to do with the second-half performance.”
Struggling
Sexton’s return offers some relief to a team still struggling. The shortened turnaround will limit Ireland’s time on the training pitch, while Scotland had a weekend off due to Fiji’s inability to field a team because of the coronavirus outbreak in their camp.
“Yes. He’s doing pretty well with his rehab,” Farrell said of Sexton. “There will be limited training. Fair play to the Georgians, some of the lads are pretty sore and they earned the right to slow the game down, especially at the breakdown. It was a war of attrition in there.
“We’ve not much time on the training field, but we’ll do plenty of talking off it.”
James Lowe is also set to miss the match after hurting his adductor in training, but Andrew Conway should be available.
Up front, Farrell is likely to restore Rónan Kelleher and Cian Healy to the front-row beside Andrew Porter who got a 40-minute rest in the second half, while Iain Henderson is likely to partner Ryan again.
Caelan Doris will come back in at No 8, but Farrell has big decisions on the flanks after Tadhg Beirne did well on the blindside against Georgia.
If Murray’s injury doesn’t clear, Jamison Gibson-Park will partner Sexton, while Robbie Henshaw’s fitness could see a change at centre after Chris Farrell struggled yesterday. Stuart McCloskey did well, but Bundee Aki may come back in.
In the back-three, Farrell may keep Jacob Stockdale, Hugo Keenan and Keith Earls for continuity.
Sexton could be facing Scotland’s new South African out-half Jaco van der Walt on Saturday. The Edinburgh playmaker is in line for his debut at the Aviva Stadium.