Knee injury places doubt on Ciaran Frawley for Fiji tie

IN DOUBT: Ciaran Frawley of Ireland offloads as he is tackled by Marino Mikaele-Tu’u and Tevita Mafileo of All Blacks during the match between Ireland A and All Blacks XV at RDS Arena in Dublin. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Ciaran Frawley’s hopes of earning a first cap against Fiji next week are in doubt with confirmation that the Leinster out-half jarred a knee during Ireland ‘A’s heavy defeat to an All Black XV at the RDS on Friday night.

The 24-year old came off seven minutes after the interval and was replaced by Munster’s Jack Crowley who will come into the picture for the second of the November internationals if Frawley is restricted to sick bay.

He will be assessed on Saturday morning.

Ireland were already 26-7 in arrears by the time his evening ended. The score come the final whistle stood 47-19 with the visitors claiming seven tries to just three from their hosts on what was a chastening night for Andy Farrell’s second string.

“The standard of the opposition was top drawer and it’s great that it was that way because it’s all about the experience and the only thing that matters in this experience that we faced tonight is the learnings from it,” said the Ireland head coach.

“I’ve just said to the lads that it’s what they make of this now. It’s what they make of the performance itself and how you break it down and how you take it back to your daily lives, whether you adjust things and see where you are really at.

“In that regard you want them to feel a completely different experience and they certainly got that tonight.” The Kiwis were far more slick and sound in their execution than an Irish side that was undone by the opposition and by its own shortcomings. Captain Craig Casey said more or less that in the aftermath.

“We shot ourselves in the foot a bit in the first-half and it gave them points,” said the Munster scrum-half. “We need to manage the game better and our discipline wasn't good enough either.

“So it just let them in and they grew from there. It's a hard way back when the All Blacks are playing like that but yeah, disappointing.” For Farrell there is no time to dwell on this with his senior side facing the world champion Springboks at the Aviva Stadium late on Saturday afternoon but then the main man didn’t sound in any way despondent.

He has talked up the benefit of this dual week consistently and he wasn’t about to change that, even on the back of a 28-point loss here.

“It's been super positive. These lads have 100% helped no end to prepare the lads for tomorrow, so hats off to them for that. We'd a 37-man squad that came in first up, and the first week all of them were training to prepare for South Africa.

“Some of them, with 12 added to the group, have gone on a different course over the last few days which has been challenging for them. The continuity for the squad that's taking to the field tomorrow has been top drawer.”