Andy Farrell plays down trio of injury concerns after Italy win

POSITIVE INJURY UPDATE: Ireland head coach Andy Farrell has given a positive update on the fitness of three injury concerns arising from Saturday night’s World Cup warm-up against Italy in Dublin. Pic: ©INPHO/Ben Brady

Ireland head coach Andy Farrell has given a positive update on the fitness of three injury concerns arising from Saturday night’s World Cup warm-up against Italy in Dublin.

Jack Conan came off just before the interval, Jimmy O’Brien didn’t re-appear for the second-half and Craig Casey lasted just a handful of minutes on the restart before making way for Caolin Blade.

“They seem not too bad,” said Farrell. “Jimmy’s shoulder has shut down a little bit. Jack has lost power in his foot, Craig had a tight back which led to tightness in his hamstring.” 

Farrell expressed himself pretty happy with the 33-17 win against the Azzurri and the fact that three players – Tom Stewart, Calvin Nash and Ciaran Frawley – got a win on their debuts, but admitted that the performance wasn’t what he had been hoping for.

“Delighted to get the win, it matters to us when we play at the Aviva. Probably moreso because of the three lads who were making their debuts, they can look back on their debut as a nice memory.

“We all know really that it was a bit clunky to say the least at times. Some really good stuff in terms of possession and convert in spades and we weren’t able to convert that. That’s the story.” 

It was a pretty routine first hit-out of the season for a squad that had spent the last six weeks training. The first World Cup game against Romania is still over a month away but individuals did impress through the evening.

Among them was Jack Crowley, the young Munster out-half who was making just his third cap. Crowley was impressive at ten in the first-half and slotted in at full-back after the break when Frawley was given his first shot at No.10.

Farrell was clearly impressed.

“Jack did well. First-half he controlled the game very well. He didn’t overplay too much. There’s a few things we’ll chat about but it’s another experience where he started at ten and he ran the week. He’ll get massive confidence from that.”