Ireland have a clean bill of health ahead of Canada Test

Ireland forwards coach Simon Easterby confirmed that all 39-players will train on Tuesday afternoon ahead of Saturday's game against Canada at the Aviva stadium (7.15pm).

Jonathan Sexton, who came off with a cramp in the 40-29 victory over the All Blacks, will take part. Easterby spoke about the fact that the Irish outhalf had enjoyed limited game time recently, getting just 40-minutes on a very heavy surface in Montpellier as a contributory factor.

"He probably got it a little bit earlier than he expected. Obviously Joey Carbery did reasonably well when he came on and took over from where Johnny had left off. Everyone is available to train and assist the team that gets picked. Yes (we have) a clean bill of health."

Ulster's Paddy Jackson returns to the outhalf mix for this weekend having not travelled to Chicago. Easterby explained: "Paddy's good. What he showed in the summer in South Africa was what we all expected of him.

“He stood up and really led the team in South Africa under really difficult circumstances at times. He was assured, he was controlled and he’s on good form. He’s obviously dealing with other things outside of the environment, which we’ll leave him get on with, but in terms of what he’s doing here, he’s focused on trying to perform if selected this week.”

There are others who’ll be pretty miffed at missing out on the victory over the All Blacks and one of those is Seán O’Brien. He played 57-minutes in Leinster’s 33-10 victory over Zebre at the weekend and while delighted for his Irish teammates would naturally like to have played.

“I’m obviously disappointed not to be over there and involved. But the lads put in a serious performance and effort, you could only be happy for them. There’s a great buzz round the place today and yesterday. It was brilliant, but on a personal level not great; possibly a week too soon for me. That’s just the way it goes sometimes.

“You are disappointed that you could have been there. But that’s life, you’ve to go through these things but I’m looking forward to getting back on the field this week hopefully and that’s all I’m thinking about now.”

So did he watch the game? “We got to the airport in Zebre and we got the first half, well, nearly all the first half and then we were on the plane. I kept popping up to the pilot and asking him to check the score. He did, eventually. We didn’t see any of the second half.

“For me it’s missing out on any international. I want to play rugby and I want to play at this level. I’ve been out a good while away from the international scene. It’s not until you’re away that you really do miss it. You miss the environment, miss the lads and miss the big games. It’s a tough place to be when you’ve a long-term injury because you want to be playing every week.”

So did he dispute Joe Schmidt’s call to leave him out of the travelling party? “Yeah, I wouldn’t say I completely agreed with it. But that’s the call that they made. I did need more game time, but you always back yourself if called upon to do a good job.

“Looking at it now, I’m probably better off getting more game time like I did at the weekend and being introduced back in this week. I’m extremely motivated. I’m looking forward to the week in training, looking forward to the competitive nature of it that will be this week and hopefully get the nod to go back out there with a green jersey on.”