Farrell waits on Cian Healy calf scan, content Ireland 'figured it out' against Samoa
Ireland head coach Andy Farrell speaks with Peter O’Mahony, Craig Casey and James Ryan after the game
Andy Farrell admitted Cian Healy’s World Cup hopes will hinge on the results of a scan the veteran prop will have to undergo for the calf injury he sustained in Saturday night’s victory over Samoa.
Ireland were made to work hard for their 17-13 victory at Stade Jean Dauger, which sets a new national team record for 13 consecutive Test wins. Tries from Jimmy O’Brien in the first half, and second-half scores for Conor Murray and Rob Herring got Farrell’s team over the line as they signed off for next month’s World Cup in France with a 100 per cent record from their summer series games.
Yet with the head coach set to name his 33-man squad for the tournament on Sunday afternoon, there was concern for 35-year-old Healy, forced off in the 20th minute after going down at a scrum and needing to be helped off the field by the Ireland medics.
Asked for his thoughts on Healy’s injury, Farrell said: “Well you saw what I saw – he pulled up sharpish, didn’t he, and then struggled to walk off.
“It’s his calf so there’s something going on there. But rather than guess we have to take a picture and see how it goes.”
As to whether the Ireland boss was hopeful that Test centurion Healy would be fit to go to his fourth World Cup, Farrell said: “I don’t know, I wouldn’t know. We’ll get him back to Dublin and get him scanned and we’ll know soon enough.”
There were other less concerning injuries in the game for Ireland, while wing Keith Earls was withdrawn due to “a niggle” before the game.
“If it was a World Cup game he would have played but we decided not to take any risks,” Farrell said of Earls, before running through the on-field casualties.
“Jacob (Stockdale) was feeling his hamstring – felt like he couldn’t go, so we took him off. Good for Garry (Ringrose, his replacement) anyway to get a taste on the wing.
“Jimmy (O’Brien) has a sprain in his clavicle, so not too bad. Robbie (Henshaw) got a bang on the side of the shin and rolled his ankle, strapped it up, carried on – it will be sore in the morning but to be able to carry on probably tells you a little bit about that.”
Farrell said he was “delighted” by Ireland’s win and his team’s ability to problem solve in a game played in constant rainfall but said his team had not been unhinged by the serious-looking nature of Healy’s injury.
“No, no, I think we more so struggled early doors to figure out what was happening in the scrum, (assistant coach) John Fogarty sorted that out pretty well at half time.
“And I think that was the story of the game, we figured it out. Played some good territory in the second half and squeezed them and in the end of the day, three tries to one is pleasing when there were so many bits of the game that didn’t go our way.
“Delighted to get the win. It was a proper Test match, wasn’t it? I said during the week it would be good if it rained and we find out about ourselves. It was difficult conditions and things weren’t always going to go your way, especially against a good side like that.”
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