O’Leary will get every chance

TOMÁS O’LEARY will be given “every chance” to prove his fitness to face France in tomorrow’s must-win Six Nations game against France.

The Ireland scrum-half has been unable to train at all this week after suffering a back spasm during last Saturday’s championship opener against Italy and the Irish management called in his Munster team-mate Peter Stringer on Thursday night as precautionary cover, with Leinster’s Eoin Reddan set to start if O’Leary isn’t fit.

Yet Ireland backs coach Alan Gaffney said: “We’ll give him every chance, every chance we can; just assess it tomorrow with the medical staff and then they’ll advise Deccie where they think it sits and then we’ll make the decision,” Gaffney said.

“He has suffered from it before but he has recovered, generally, and we expect that will be the same this weekend.

“I’d be pretty confident he’ll play but Peter Stringer’s come in as a precaution.”

Despite his inability to practice since returning from Rome, Gaffney insisted O’Leary was definitely on the mend.

“He hasn’t trained this week. He suffered it a bit during the game. He was a little bit stiff during the game and it’s just got a bit worse early in the week. It definitely has improved as the week’s gone on and we’re hoping that we get that further improvement over the next 24 hours.”

Meanwhile France full-back Clement Poitrenaud has warned Ireland that they should not expect Les Bleus to continue their free-flowing approach tomorrow.

“People should not count on me to run every ball that comes to me,” said Toulouse man Poitrenaud, who has been recalled to the starting line-up as an injury to Maxime Mermoz has seen Damien Traille moved into midfield.

“I have developed other facets to returning the ball other than running with it, which was perhaps my one quality when I began rugby. If I need to use my kicking game, I will employ it.

“The Irish know us, as they play against us regularly in the Heineken Cup. They know very well that we are above all fond of running the ball out of defence and they will be on their guard. It is imperative that we don’t focus solely on running it and to realise that we will have to kick the ball as well.”

With Ireland having struggled in Rome the visitors will start favourites, but Poitrenaud warned: “We cannot fall into the trap of thinking that they are weaker, out of form or disorganised because we will face another Irish side. We should pay more attention to their performances back in November, notably against the All Blacks where even if they did lose, they put up a good show.”