Three more out as injuries mount for coach Kidney

IRELAND’S growing injury list has claimed Jamie Heaslip, Shane Horgan and John Hayes, all of whom have become the latest players to be ruled out of the Six Nations opener in Italy in eight days.

With wing Andrew Trimble having been discounted for the Italy game due to injury on Monday, hooker Jerry Flannery not due back until the third game at least and full-backs Geordan Murphy and Rob Kearney previously scratched for the championship, the final round of Heineken Cup group matches last weekend exacted a further heavy toll on the Irish camp as it convened in Limerick yesterday for the first Six Nations training session of the campaign.

Trimble, Horgan, Hayes and Heaslip were yesterday ruled out by manager Paul McNaughton, each for the first and probably second games of the championship, with Ireland welcoming France to Dublin on February 13.

Leinster wing Horgan has a knee problem, his provincial No.8 Heaslip a badly bruised ankle and Munster tighthead prop Hayes a grade two groin tear, while there also remains doubts over the availability of wing Tommy Bowe (knee) and hooker Rory Best (rib).

“Tommy is getting consultation about results of a scan in the UK, he will be joining us tomorrow and we’ll have more of an update tomorrow,” McNaughton said yesterday.

“Rory Best popped a cartilage a couple of weeks ago and he’s still doubtful, he hasn’t been able to do too much.

“Other guys who haven’t been training but expect to be fit are Denis Leamy, Stephen Ferris, Gordon D’Arcy. It’s the usual fare really, after Heineken (Cup rounds) five and six, quite attritional, so there’s quite a few guys with knocks.”

The bumps and bruises have also impacted on the Irish A squad. The Wolfhounds play Scotland A at Netherdale on Friday in a game that could have some significance on Declan Kidney’s selection for Rome next Tuesday with the likes of Tony Buckley and Tomás O’Leary being given an opportunity to get game-time in a bid to stake a claim.

Connacht’s Gavin Duffy was dispatched from the senior squad to join the As, who leave for Scotland today, while Ulster centre Ian Whitten has been called up as replacement for Connacht’s Keith Matthews, who is injured with Connacht lock Andrew Browne in for Munster’s Donnacha Ryan.

McNaughton does not expect any of the injured senior squad to be out beyond the opening two matches while Flannery was expected to play for Shannon or Munster in two to three weeks as he recovers from a calf problem.

Heaslip, meanwhile, spent the day in England seeing a specialist about a bruised ankle bone but the Ireland manager’s chief concern was the narrowing of options in the Irish back three. “We’re hoping that everything is okay with Tommy. He can play on the right wing. Shane can, Andrew can, so it’s two down out of three. Tommy will hopefully be okay but we won’t know until after he leaves the surgeon.”

As for the sheer number of injuries, he added: “I don’t want to go overboard but it’s probably a bit more than usual.

“I don’t think we’ve been here calling time on four of them for first two matches and obviously we’ve had Geordan Murphy and Rob (Kearney) out too and that’s a bit of a blow but I’ve seen other countries (injury lists) and it is (rounds) five and six of the European Cup campaign.”

Defence coach Les Kiss admitted the problems were worse than his previous two campaigns with Ireland but the reaction from the fit players had been impressive across both squads.

“It’s a balancing act because we have the A game and some guys we need to get some game time into. We wanted to definitely have a set-piece focus in this training camp, so one of reasons why we didn’t want to send Paul O’Connell (to the As), get him back here working with us and give Devin (Toner) and Dan Tuohy and Donnacha Ryan until he was out injured, a chance to forge that position in the A squad. So it’s a balance between game time and preparation time. In these times you have to put your hand up and ask for guys to come in, and they’ve been fantastic in what they’ve done for us so far.”

Kiss said the injuries did not change his view that Ireland was ready to put the disappointments of a poor end to last year’s Six Nations and the subsequent slump through the summer and autumn behind the squad and look forward to this year’s championship.

“We do need to really put down a marker and live up to what expectations we have of ourselves to make the Six Nations a good one. Do we think we can win it? Yes but we have to do some good strong work to get there and back our panel. We have to now, because we’ve a good few injuries.”