Ireland call for Stringer

PETER STRINGER was last night called into the Irish squad as precautionary cover for back injury victim Tomás O’Leary.

Scrum-half Stringer was due to take part in Munster’s Magners League game against Treviso this weekend, but he will now remain with the Ireland squad until Sunday.

Team manager Paul McNaughton said: “Tomás has had a stiff back which has not sufficiently improved over the course of the week, so we felt it was prudent to call Peter up to remain with the squad. Tomás is not ruled out of the game, but we will wait and see how he progresses over the next 48 hours before making any decisions on changes to the match 22.”