'It’s completely bizarre': Tadhg Beirne a rare beneficiary of lockdown

Tadhg Beirne at Ireland rugby squad training yesterday. Picture: INPHO/Dan Sheridan

There are few moments, perhaps, that better epitomise the vagaries of professional sport in the midst of extraordinary times than the naming of Tadhg Beirne in the Ireland team to face Italy on Saturday.

Had this Guinness Six Nations fixture been played as scheduled on March 7, the Munster lock would not have been in the Ireland camp, let alone Andy Farrell’s matchday squad given the fractured ankle he had suffered three months earlier at Saracens.