Sexton on track for French return
The sight of Jonathan Sexton and Joey Carbery watching from the sidelines while their Ireland colleagues went full throttle with the U20s in Belfast yesterday prompted mixed emotions.
Reports earlier this week had claimed that Carbery’s hamstring injury could threaten his participation in the rest of the Six Nations, and maybe beyond in terms of his province, so his presence in a wardrobe of boots, shorts and training top was a welcome one.
Sexton joining him for a light workout countered that. Thankfully, there was no mention of any injury holding him back afterwards.
The handful of late, high-profile hits and general physical punishment suffered by the starting out-half was ultimately declared as being responsible for yesterday’s approach.
Safety first, basically.
“They’re both on track,” said Joe Schmidt. “Johnny is certainly ahead of Joey. Johnny is going to be fine, he’ll train next week. We’re hoping that Joey will be fit to train, potentially on Wednesday. If he can train Wednesday and do so on Friday then that’s sufficient lead-in that he can be in contention (for the France game). So we’ll just have to wait and see, moreso on Joey, but we’d be very confident about Johnny.”
Robbie Henshaw and Dan Leavy both trained earlier in the day with Schmidt revealing that they are “on a slightly different programme”.
All going well, the plan for that Leinster pair is a midweek return to the paddock.
Leavy has not played yet in this Six Nations because of a calf injury but his re-appearance here suggests a role is within the realms of possibility, even if he hasn’t had a game of rugby since Leinster’s defeat of Connacht on December 22.
Garry Ringrose, Jordan Larmour and Tadhg Beirne were other faces among the 21 senior players who engaged in a full-on run through, but there was no sign of Sean Cronin, Jack McGrath or Sean O’Brien.
On the last of those, Schmidt said that it was a decision based on the volume of work being done over their three-day stay in Belfast, the line being that they did not want the flanker to overdo it having only recently returned from injury.
“He’s been in with us a lot, where we try to have a reasonably tight number at camp with us. With Seán, he was back with Leinster doing a conditioning week and he’ll be back with us on Tuesday.”
Still, O’Brien’s absence must call into question his participation against the French while the fact that Cronin was another not required either hardly bodes well given the lineout’s difficulties against Italy when the hooker was making his first Six Nations start.
“We know that he can throw,” said Schmidt. “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.”
Other squad members are on provincial duties this weekend: Adam Byrne with Leinster, John Ryan from the bench with Munster, John Cooney and Jordi Murphy from the off with Ulster and Ultan Dillane and Quinn Roux in Connacht’s second row.
