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Rob Kearney is Ireland's latest injury blow
By Online Editors
Ireland's injury crisis has continued with Rob Kearney the latest player to emerge as a major doubt for Sunday's Pool A opening clash against Scotland.
The veteran full-back is believed to be struggling with a calf problem sustained in training earlier today.
He is now a major doubt for the Scotland game, and the clash with Japan six days later, according to The Irish Times.
Kearney's setback comes on the back of the news that Ireland are also expected to be without Robbie Henshaw, who is suffering with a hamstring injury.
While Ireland are well stocked with options in the centre, with Bundee Aki, Chris Farrell and Garry Ringrose all fit and available, Kearney's absence would represent a major blow for Joe Schmidt.
Jordan Larmour is the most likely to start in Kearney's place, but has endured some difficult outings at fullback. More recently, Schmidt has tended to use Larmour on the wing.
Munster's Andrew Conway is another option, but has rarely played in the position for Ireland.
Schmidt played Henshaw at full-back during the Six Nations defeat to England earlier this year as he looked to boost his options in the position, but the experiment was abandoned after the Leinster played endured a difficult outing.
Ireland are expected to provide an update on Kearney's fitness early tomorrow morning.
There are also doubts surrounding the fitness of Keith Earls and Joey Carbery.
Earls limped off the pitch in Ireland's final warm-up game against Wales and has yet to train fully in Japan. Joey Carbery, who has been sidelined since the opening warm-up game against Italy, is expected to train fully later this week as he continues his recovery from an ankle problem.
The Rugby Pod on Ireland's chances in Japan
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Latest Comments
Ce n’est pas Hastoy sur la photo, c’est Zack Henry😉
Go to comments“Accidental because of the poor performances under Borthwick at the start of both Six Nations campaigns.”
England didn’t start the six nations this year especially badly. They lost narrowly away to Ireland, who hadn’t lost a 6N match in Dublin since 2021 and hadn’t lost to England in Dublin since 2019. The next week England beat France.
“Murley and Sleightholme got injured during the tournament, would Roebuck have played otherwise”
You’re mistaken; Sleightholme got injured after he was dropped.
“The two Curry brothers started against Ireland and weren’t effective”
i) They played great against Ireland. England didn’t get the win (obvs) but general consensus among most who watched the game was that the Curry brothers were among England’s best players.
ii) What has this got to do with anything? Are you suggesting that Borthwick selected them against Wales by accident?
“Slade was first choice for a long time”
Yes, and then he was dropped. Again, what point are you trying to make? Do you think Borthwick dropped him by accident?
“Neither of your rebuttals really oppose my point of view that he has possibly stumbled onto a winning team by the end of this Six Nations”
I guess if you just preface everything you say with “possibly” then its impossible to ever really disprove your view. Yeah, its possible that his selections were accidental, but there is zero evidence to suggest that this is the case.
“There were newspaper reports after the Scotland game last year regarding a move from the players to change the way England were playing, with the line one prominent back never or barely touched the ball during training. You can look that up and the performances in the Ireland and France games last year also backed up this report.”
I don’t think the performances against Ireland and France backed this up at all. The style of play England tried to implement against Scotland was pretty much the same as they did against Ireland and France, just with a much higher rate of handling errors. The way Ford told it on FTLOR, England always wanted to play that way.
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