Gaffney confident despite injury setbacks

FOR a banged-up, beaten-down bunch supposed to be staring down a third defeat on the bounce, the mood in the Ireland camp yesterday was, like the winter sun that shone through Auckland: surprising.

Only positive vibes pulsed through the team hotel and later, after almost 30 hours of airplane cabin pressure was blown out of the system during a training session at Mt Smart, the collective enthusiasm seemed to be lifted further.

Shorn of almost a full team’s worth of regulars, those that remain standing have no intention of lying down to Saturday night’s vaunted hosts in New Plymouth.

Ireland assistant coach Alan Gaffney said: “It was always going to be tough. It’s probably a touch tougher again (with the injuries). But we’re still confident with the squad we have. We’re coming out here confident in our abilities.

“It’s going to be a tough day at the office but most of these guys have played together over a long period of time. So we don’t think that the injuries will affect us. We’re going to go out there with lots of confidence.”

Six Grand Slammers will be convalescing back home this week but Gaffney insisted those that made it this far can carry the fight to the mighty All Blacks.

“We’ve still come out here with what I would consider to be a strong squad, even though we’ve left a lot of guys at home with injuries. That depth has been developed over a number of years and hopefully will be going forward as far as we’re concerned.”

Gaffney also revealed that many players will start both the All Blacks clash on Saturday night and the daunting date with the New Zealand Maori just six days later.

“There’s no doubt some of the guys on the weekend will be called upon again (against the Maori). Mathematically they have to be because we’ve only got 30-odd out here!.”

In front of a native media throng that numbered almost 20, Paul McNaughton, the Ireland team manager, was eager to respond to some of the criticism thrown in Ireland’s direction prior to their arrival in New Zealand.

A number of Kiwi pundits hit out at Declan Kidney and his support team for eschewing the opportunity to bond with the locals in Taranaki all week, instead preparing in Auckland until Thursday afternoon.

But McNaughton outlined Ireland’s reasoning for the dual location build-up.

“It was never an issue of Auckland over New Plymouth,” he insisted. “There are two things: one, the recovery issue is a major issue. We played Friday night against the Barbarians at 8pm Irish time. We were up at 5am to get a 7am flight.

“We were 29 hours on two planes so the concept of getting to Auckland and getting the guys on another plane today just wasn’t on.

“The other issue is that in the World Cup we’ll be playing a game in Auckland, we’ll be paying a game in New Plymouth and we’ll playing a game in Rotorua. So the opportunity to spend some time in Auckland acclimatises us to what’s on offer here and then New Plymouth. It was all about what was best from a recovery point of view. Purely on that and we’re happy that we made the right call on that.”

McNaughton revealed that a decision on whether Jerry Flannery and Shane Horgan will join the Ireland squad is expected to be made in the next 24 hours.

“Jerry is getting a scan on Tuesday morning when the injury settles down and depending on the results of that scan he may join us,” McNaughton said. “If the scan is clear he’ll be with us and he will travel on Tuesday but he won’t be in consideration for this game.”

Horgan is still undergoing tests for the stomach complaint which forced him to withdraw from the match at Thomond Park. “Shane Horgan is just continuing with some tests and again we’ll make a call on bringing him out on Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest and again he won’t be considered for the All Blacks game.”

There was better news regarding fly-half Jonathan Sexton, who has recovered from the infection in his gum close to where he had recent surgery on his jaw, and will be available for selection for the New Plymouth showdown.