Peter O’Mahony and Chris Farrell face battle to earn Test recall

The pair are in self-isolation

The Ireland rugby squad training at the IRFU High Performance Centre yesterday. Picture: INPHO/Dan Sheridan

Peter O’Mahony and Chris Farrell’s hopes of featuring in Ireland’s return to Test rugby next Saturday could be scuppered by their enforced periods of self-isolation.

Head coach Andy Farrell has a big training session planned for his Ireland squad today at the IRFU High Performance Centre in Dublin ahead of Tuesday’s planned team announcement for next Saturday’s rescheduled Six Nations clash with Italy but both flanker and national vice-captain O’Mahony and centre Chris Farrell are not scheduled to enter the Irish “bubble” until tomorrow ahead of Monday’s training session.

The pair were deemed close contacts of their provincial team-mates, two senior Munster players, who tested positive for Covid-19 last week and required to self-isolate as a precaution, forcing them to miss this first week of Farrell’s Ireland training camp.

The Ireland boss was asked yesterday how any such absences would affect team selection, to which Farrell replied: “At this moment in time, we haven’t made a decision on that. We haven’t made a decision, this is the truth, on selection for the Italy game.

“We’re quite prepared to see how a newish squad comes together and unfolds and a couple of boys will fit back in with us on Sunday, train on Monday and we’ll see how they fall back in as well.

“Selection will be later on in the week, so we’ll see how next week goes.”

Positive tests and the impact on close contacts are set to be an ongoing feature of life in elite professional sport and Farrell admitted those currently in camp and able to train were naturally at an advantage.

“I think this tournament lends itself to that, with two games left in the Six Nations and then there’s a week’s break to look at everyone.

The guys that are in camp are in pole position at the moment, we’ll see how people handle that type of situation.

“Competition for places is great to have.”

A more traditional absence, the dislocated shoulder suffered by Jordan Larmour, has opened up the possibility of a Test debut at full-back for new call-ups Hugo Keenan of Leinster or Munster’s Shane Daly and both have made good first impressions with Farrell, though the claims of more-experienced back-three rivals such as Jacob Stockdale, Andrew Conway and even centre Robbie Henshaw are also being considered.

“So far, they’ve had two days in camp. So there’s a bit of water that needs to go under the bridge before we make that assessment.

“We’ve tried in the last couple of days to get some organisation in the team so we’ve got some cohesion for a full session tomorrow.

“We’ll see how that goes, but from what I’ve seen and from what I know they are stellar students of the game.

“That’s 100% for sure. They’re clever boys that seem to be able to pick things up pretty quickly.

I’ve no doubt the potential is going to be fantastic going forward for Ireland.