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Sexton and Henshaw ruled out for Ireland's trip to Twickenham
By Ciarán Kennedy
Ireland will be without captain Johnny Sexton and centre Robbie Henshaw for Saturday's Autumn Nations Cup game against England at Twickenham with the Leinster duo both ruled out through injury. Sexton limped off during the first half of Friday's 32-9 win while Henshaw sustained an adductor strain during the same game.
The IRFU have now confirmed that Sexton won't be available following a scan on a hamstring strain, with Henshaw also ruled out.
Sexton's replacement Billy Burns was also forced off against Wales for a head injury assessment, with scrum-half Conor Murray stepping into out-half to see out the game for Andy Farrell's side.
Burns is following the return to play protocols but is expected to be available for the trip to Twickenham, with the Ulster out-half due to take part in media duties later today.
Farrell will also have Iain Henderson available for selection, with the second-row returning to training after missing last week's Aviva Stadium clash due to an unspecified medical issue.
The news is less positive on Jacob Stockdale. The Ulster back was a late withdrawal from the team to play Wales after picking up a calf problem, and the IRFU have stated that he will continue to rehab the issue with a view to resuming training later in the week.
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Latest Comments
The boy needs to bulk up if wants to play 10 or 11 to handle those hits, otherwise he could always make a brilliant reserve for the wings if he stays away from the stretcher.
Go to commentsIn another recent article I tried to argue for a few key concept changes for EPCR which I think could light the game up in the North.
First, I can't remember who pointed out the obvious elephant in the room (a SA'n poster?), it's a terrible time to play rugby in the NH, and especially your pinnacle tournament. It's been terrible watching with seemingly all the games I wanted to watch being in the dark, hardly able to see what was going on. The Aviva was the only stadium I saw that had lights that could handle the miserable rain. If the global appeal is there, they could do a lot better having day games.
They other primary idea I thuoght would benefit EPCR most, was more content. The Prem could do with it and the Top14 could do with something more important than their own league, so they aren't under so much pressure to sell games. The quality over quantity approach.
Trim it down to two 16 team EPCR competitions, and introduce a third for playing amongst the T2 sides, or the bottom clubs in each league should simply be working on being better during the EPCR.
Champions Cup is made up of league best 15 teams, + 1, the Challenge Cup winner. Without a reason not to, I'd distribute it evenly based on each leauge, dividing into thirds and rounded up, 6 URC 5 Top14 4 English. Each winner (all four) is #1 rank and I'd have a seeding round or two for the other 12 to determine their own brackets for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. I'd then hold a 6 game pool, home and away, with consecutive of each for those games that involve SA'n teams. Preferrably I'd have a regional thing were all SA'n teams were in the same pool but that's a bit complex for this simple idea.
That pool round further finalises the seeding for knockout round of 16. So #1 pool has essentially duked it out for finals seeding already (better venue planning), and to see who they go up against 16, 15,etc etc. Actually I think I might prefer a single pool round for seeding, and introduce the home and away for Ro16, quarters, and semis (stuffs up venue hire). General idea to produce the most competitive matches possible until the random knockout phase, and fix the random lottery of which two teams get ranked higher after pool play, and also keep the system identical for the Challenge Cup so everthing is succinct. Top T2 side promoted from last year to make 16 in Challenge Cup
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