Ireland will be without their captain Caelan Doris when they meet Wales in the Principality Stadium on Saturday. Number eight Doris along with hooker Ronán Kelleher and prop Tadhg Furlong also failed their fitness tests leaving Ireland without three frontline forwards for their third game of the Six Nations championship.
“All unavailable for this week,” confirmed Ireland assistant coach Andrew Goodman. “We are hoping they will be available for France. They are just going through their processes with the physio but they are all making good progress.
Who has been added to Ireland’s Six Nations squad and why?
“We have got great cover at eight and I’m sure the guy that fills that jersey will do a great job.”
Goodman declined to say who the captain would be as Ireland seek the third win of the championship. Players such as Peter O’Mahony, Tadhg Beirne and Jack Conan have all held captaincy roles at provincial and Ireland level.
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“There are some good leaders in the squad,” said Goodman. “We are going through that process. Obviously, the leadership group has been growing well over the last couple of years and there’s a number of guys who have captained their provinces. So, we have got some good options to choose from.
“I am sure you guys can probably pick a few names out. Guys like Pete O’Mahony and Jack Conan that have captained their provinces. Dan Sheehan has, Ringer [Garry Ringrose], JR [James Ryan], Cian Prendergast – there are a number of guys with leadership experience, so a few possibilities there.”
Goodman added there would be no complacency in the Irish squad despite the disruption in the Welsh camp with the departure of Warren Gatland and the arrival of Cardiff’s Matt Sherratt, who has taken up a caretaker role.
“Aw to be honest, no chance in this group,” said Goodman of complacency. “The way the preparations have been from the playing group is as good as any other week, and when you look at the history of Ireland-Wales over the last 10 years over there, it hasn’t been a nice place for us to go on a number of occasions.
“So, we know they’re back at home and there will be a bit of a natural bounce with a new coach coming in. And so I don’t think there’s any chance of any complacency from this group going over there.”
Goodman is hoping that the team will start in the same way they did against Scotland. Disappointed with the first quarter of the opening game against England, a repeat of the performance in Murrayfield is what the group are aiming to achieve.
“The consistency through games both sides of the ball, there’s been some good patches when we’ve managed to get on top of teams in attack and defence but if you look at the start of the England, we felt we didn’t start well in that game, and then in the Scotland game we thought our first 20 minutes was pretty good,” said Goodman.
“So, we’ve got to go away from home and target that first 20 minutes with a strong start to take out a passionate crowd, get our game flowing.”
