Not surprisingly, Mike Ross has been ruled out of Ireland’s first of three tests against New Zealand this Saturday due to the grade one hamstring tear he suffered for Leinster in the Rabo final last Sunday week.
The net effect means that Declan Fitzpatrick, the 28-year-old Ulster prop, becomes the second uncapped player to face the All Blacks at Eden Park after the surprise inclusion of Simon Zebo on the left wing, with the uncapped 27-year-old Connacht prop Ronan Loughney promoted to the bench.
The English-born Ulster lock Dan Tuohy will also make his first test start after making the first of two appearances of the bench on the summer tour two years ago and scoring a try with his first touch in the 66-28 defeat to the All Blacks in New Plymouth. He starts after a stellar season with Ulster alongside Donnacha Ryan, to the exclusion of Donncha O’Callaghan.
The prevailing medical view was that a grade one tear takes three weeks to recover on average, and it had always looked as if Ross was in an unlikely race against time, all the more so with two more tests to come.
“Mike trained this morning and before we went out we were quite optimistic that he would come through the session,” said manager Mick Kearney. “He did the warm-up fine and when we went into team manoeuvres he just felt a bit of a twinge. The physios took him off and examined him and just felt it was more prudent to actually leave him off.
“Hamstrings, by nature, can take a while and you don’t really know when they’re going to be right, but I think we would be optimistic about next week. But probably the right thing to do was to pull him out this morning.”
As to whether any more damage might have done, Kearney adamantly maintained: “No. Definitely not, no. No more damage done. It will just probably take an extra two or three days’ rest.”
Nor did the surprises stop with Zebo and Tuohy. Keith Earls has been retained in midfield alongside the returning Brian O’Driscoll, which means Gordon D’Arcy misses out, as does Andrew Trimble in light of Fergus McFadden being chosen on the right wing. Furthermore, Trimble and D’Arcy also miss out on the match-day squad, with Darren Cave (who won two caps on the Americas tour of 2009) chosen on the bench.
Facing into his last of seven tours to New Zealand, O’Driscoll said: “We’ve said it for a few years that at some stage in the future, whether it be this year, next year or in 20 years time, some time an Irish team is going to beat the All Blacks before the world implodes. We just have to make sure to try and make it now rather than waiting for our kids, or our kids’ kids, to see it happen.”
“Beyond a World Cup, I’ve managed to tick a lot of boxes along the way with the Irish side; beating the other Southern Hemisphere nations, obviously beating Australia in the S.H last year,” O’Driscoll added. “This is one that has eluded us, this group of players, and Irish players in general. It speaks volumes for the enormity of the challenge in front of us.”
NEW ZEALAND v IRELAND
Eden Park, Auckland, Saturday (kick-off 8.35am Irish time). Ref: N Owens
(Crusaders) Israel Dagg 15 Rob Kearney (Leinster)
(Crusaders) Zac Guildford 14 Fergus McFadden (Leinster)
(Hurricanes) Conrad Smith 13 Brian O'Driscoll (Leinster, capt)
(Chiefs) Sonny Bill Williams 12 Keith Earls (Munster)
(Hurricanes) Julian Savea 11 Simon Zebo (Munster)
(Crusaders) Dan Carter 10 Jonathan Sexton (Leinster)
(Manawatu) Aaron Smith 9 Conor Murray (Munster)
(Blues) Tomy Woodcock 1 Cian Healy (Leinster)
(Highlanders) Andrew Hore 2 Rory Best (Ulster)
(Crusaders) Owen Franks 3 D Fitzpatrick (Ulster)
(Chiefs) Brodie Retallick ; 4 Dan Tuohy (Ulster)
(Crusaders) Sam Whitelock 5 Donnacha Ryan (Munster)
(Hurricanes) Victor Vito 6 Peter O'Mahony (Munster)
(Crusaders, capt) Richie McCaw 7 Sean O'Brien (Leinster)
(Crusaders) Kieran Read 8 Jamie Heaslip (Leinster)
New Zealand Replacements:H Elliot (Chiefs), B Franks (Crusaders), A Williams (Blues), A Thomson (Highlanders), P Weepu (Blues), A Cruden (Chiefs), B Smith (Highlanders).
Ireland Replacements:S Cronin (Leinster), R Loughney (Connacht), D O'Callaghan (Munster), K McLaughlin (Leinster), E Reddan (Leinster), R O'Gara (Munster), D Cave (Ulster)
