Ireland head coach Andy Farrell may be forced to travel to Chicago for Saturday week’s Test match against New Zealand without a number of players originally selected following a bruising weekend for several members of his squad in United Rugby Championship matches.
He is already without Caelan Doris, Joe McCarthy, Hugo Keenan, Calvin Nash and Cormac Izuchukwu because of injury. The Ireland squad fly to the USA on Tuesday.
Mack Hansen left the Dexcom Stadium in a moon boot after suffering a leg injury while scoring a late try in Connacht’s defeat to the Bulls on Friday night. He looked in some discomfort at the time after requiring lengthy treatment and had to be assisted from the pitch.
Leinster captain and number eight Jack Conan (knee) and Tommy O’Brien (back) were late withdrawals ahead of the 31-14 defeat to Munster at Croke Park on Saturday, although head coach Leo Cullen was upbeat in his post-match appraisal of the issues.
READ MORE
“Tommy [O’Brien], it’s more from his back. He and Jordan [Larmour] swapped in [and out] a lot during the week because Tommy had flagged that [back issue] on the Monday. We thought he was going to train on the Tuesday. [On] Thursday, we made the decision, but he’s okay. Jack [Conan] twisted his knee, but I don’t think it’s anything too serious. He should be okay.”
Paddy McCarthy, the only uncapped member of the Irish squad, will follow the return to play protocols after failing to return from a head injury assessment after 16 minutes of the game against Munster, a fate that later befell Larmour. RG Snyman also limped off on a hugely disappointing night for the home side.
Munster number eight Brian Gleeson, who is due to travel to the USA as cover alongside team-mate Edwin Edogbo and Connacht wing Shayne Bolton, sustained an arm injury that forced him off against Leinster. Clayton McMillan’s side also lost Andrew Smith (hamstring) and try-scoring scrumhalf Ethan Coughlan (leg) to injury.
McMillan said afterwards: “There’s a couple of HIAs, two hamstrings, I think. So that put us under huge pressure too. We had exhausted our bench with 20-odd minutes to go. Hopefully we’re not going to see John Ryan on blindside flank too often this season, but even he just rolled up the sleeves and got on with it.
“But it’s not looking pretty, but we’ll get through next week and we can sort of reassess and take a bit of a break.”
The New Zealander was pleased with the win: “I thought we were pretty good across the board. We were under pressure early, particularly around our scrum, but we wanted to work hard for each other. We wanted to win all the little moments, and we did that.
“Our challenge as a team is to raise that floor so that the days between our bad performances and our good ones aren’t so big. The last couple of weeks have been tough. We haven’t been concerned looking at the points, the ladder and patting ourselves on the back.
“We wanted to be better in our performances, come off the field, look in the mirror and be proud of what we’re producing. And [this match] will be one of those days.”
Ulster, for whom flanker Sean Reffell went off with an arm injury, produced another brilliant display to beat the Sharks 34-26 in Durban, grabbing a bonus point in the process. Head coach Richie Murphy said: “We’re delighted to come over here and win and pick up five points. It’s a really big statement win for us.
“It feels like we’re going in the right direction. I think you can see how much the players want to play for each other and the commitment they have to Ulster, which is huge.”
