Stomach bug hits Ireland’s match preparations

Ireland’s preparations for the second Test of their tour of North America have been hit by a stomach bug that has laid a number of the squad low.

Up to eight players have been isolated from the rest of the squad, who trained at Canada College yesterday afternoon, ahead of the meeting with Canada in Toronto on Saturday.

Having already lost Simon Zebo to the Lions, interim coach Les Kiss has selection headaches as he approaches a tricky tie against a side who have won their last four Tests, including a bad-tempered victory over Tonga on Saturday.

The Australian remained coy on the identity of his ill players but it is believed that up to eight sat out training last night. Kiss was already contemplating change with Paddy Jackson and Andrew Trimble likely to come into the fold. But he admitted that the bug, which appears to last about 24 hours before leaving the system, has disrupted his match preparations.

Players will have to be able to prove their fitness tomorrow.

“There will be some changes. The way I’ve looked at it, it has been a long season with a lot of playing minutes and a lot of games,” he said.

“We had a good investment last week from a young squad who turned up with five new caps and three first starts and there is a lot of emotional investment in that.

“There are some injuries so, will it keep them out? Probably not, but it affects their prep and you’d like some form you can gauge, so we will have to adjust our plan and put a lot into Thursday’s session.”

Kiss expects a tough test from the Canadians.

“From what we have seen, they are a very good team,” he said.

“Their form is very good and they are four matches into the season and their combinations are working, albeit they have not settled on a solid 10-12 combination. I’d expect they will be better prepared, for sure.

“I’d like to think we can create things and be more clinical and improve our lineout, have a better platform for the backs to play off.”

Canada have plenty of problems of their own, with three players undergoing IRB concussion protocols after an intense battle against Tonga last weekend while New Zealand born coach Kieran Crowley is already without Clermont’s Jamie Cudmore and Glasgow’s DTH van der Merwe.

“The boys are pretty battered and bruised after two games in four days. We have five or six guys we’re sweating on and will finalise our team on Friday,” Crowley said.