Feek backs rookie Fitzpatrick to pass big test
Ross was rated extremely doubtful yesterday, and Feek revealed a decision will be made on the position tomorrow morning.
“The hip area where he’d done his hamstring... is pretty crucial in terms of power output and all that,” said the Kiwi on Ross’s injury.
“We just did a little assessment on him today and he’s not quite there and we don’t want to risk him.
“Okay it’s the All Blacks, you need you best players available but you also can’t risk the player.
“We’ve a day off tomorrow so we’ll probably leave him alone, see how he wakes up on Thursday morning.”
Feek has backed the inexperienced Fitzpatrick to step into the considerable void left by Ross if needed. The young Ulster prop missed six months of last season due to a serious neck injury and has featured sparingly for Ulster due to the presence of New Zealand tighthead John Afoa up north. The prospect of facing a seasoned veteran such as Tony Woodcock is not an ideal situation for a tighthead on his first international outing but Feek has no fears for the youngster.
“The experience he’ll get out of it will be massive especially against [Tony] Woodcock,” said the scrum guru on Fitzpatrick’s potential showdown with the 83-cap All Black loosehead,
“If you look at his physique he’s got quite narrow shoulders, so that’s a little difficult to scrum against,” Feek explained.
“He’s smart. He knows what’s going on there and the beauty of it is that if he does start [on Saturday] he’s got Rory [Best] next to him, which is his old mate from Ulster, and Dan Tuohy behind him if he starts.’’
Ross’s potential unavailability again highlights the dearth of quality props available to Ireland. The problem is not an old one and has existed since the beginning of the millennium.
Feek sees no immediate solution to the issue and insists that the difficulty in developing technically-efficient props is not just unique to Ireland.
“You look at France, who have they got behind Nicolas Mas? Then you’ve got Dan Cole (of England), if he was missing, who’s there? Tighthead is such a rare thing to get. Adam Jones has played a lot of tests for Wales and has hardly ever been injured.”
The position is so specialist and demanding that top-class tighthead’s are commanding some of the highest salaries in Europe such as Ex-All Black Carl Hayman who is on a multi-million euro contract with French giants Toulon.
Feek, however, refused to blame the presence of overseas props in the provincial system for Ireland’s failings in the frontrow department.
“It’s not like they’re falling out of trees at the moment either,” said Feek on Ireland’s prop stocks.
“You can’t put a 21-year-old out there into Heineken Cup or against a team like the Ospreys or something like that. You need to be ready to go.”
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