Ireland hopeful Garry Ringrose’s will not be banned for rest of Six Nations campaign

Ringrose received a 20-minute red card under the current World Rugby bunker review law trial having been yellow carded by referee Christophe Ridley in the first half of Ireland’s victory over Wales in Cardiff.

MARCHING ORDERS: Garry Ringrose of Ireland leaves the pitch after being shown a yellow card by referee Christophe Ridley. Pic: Ben McShane/Sportsfile.

Ireland are hopeful Garry Ringrose’s Guinness Six Nations campaign will not be brought to a premature end following his red card offence at Principality Stadium on Saturday.

The outside centre received a 20-minute red card under the current World Rugby bunker review law trial having been yellow carded by referee Christophe Ridley in the first half of Ireland’s victory over Wales in Cardiff.

Interim head coach Simon Easterby had conceded during his post-match media conference that the head-on-head contact with Welsh inside centre Ben Thomas may “possibly” have resulted in a straight red card under the previous foul play disciplinary process but argued the point was moot.

Instead, he later went into bat for his player, who could face a suspension of between two and four weeks when his case is expected to go before an independent disciplinary panel later this week.

A two-week ban would take into account Leinster’s URC home game against Cardiff this Saturday as well as the following weekend’s pivotal Six Nations clash with France, also at Aviva Stadium seven days later, while there would be a possibility of a week’s reprieve for completing so-called tackle school, the player education process that is often made available to erring players.

"You know Garry, he's not a malicious player,” Easterby said.

“The speed at which he works is why that happened. He accelerates so hard off the line, just gets his timing wrong and unfortunately that's it. It felt like he maybe was a bit lower than they thought and he did try and dip but not enough. We'll have to wait and see how they view that."

Ireland will regardless prepare for the likelihood of Ringrose’s absence for the France game on March 8 with Robbie Henshaw likely to revert from inside to outside centre and Bundee Aki set to return to the number 12 jersey following his barnstorming performance off the bench as the 20-minute red-card replacement on 51 minutes.

With another championship rest week about to begin and a 14-day turnaround to round four, Easterby said he was optimistic captain and No.8 Caelan Doris would pass fit to face the French having missed the Cardiff victory with a knee injury sustained in the round-two win in Scotland.

“He's done really well,” the interim boss said of Doris.

“He ran yesterday out on the pitch during the captain's run. We'd be confident he's trucking in the right direction and hopefully we see a bit of an improvement as the week goes on.”

Jack Conan, Doris’s replacement at No.8 for the 27-18 win over the Welsh, opened the scoring for Ireland on Saturday but was withdrawn shortly after half-time with tightness in his back but otherwise, the IRFU will be performing running repairs ahead of their next game.

“(Mack) Hansen had cramp, a couple of guys felt like they had cramp. In terms of injury worries, as far as I'm aware there were none. Obviously Jack's back was the only one. He felt he was struggling to open up. That happens in games sometimes, I think his foot fell awkwardly.”

Back-rower Cian Prendergast was a late withdrawal from the Ireland bench in Cardiff due to illness and was replaced by Ryan Baird while Easterby also gave hope that absent front-rowers Tadhg Furlong (calf/hamstring) and Ronan Kelleher (neck) would become available for selection to face the French.

"They're kind of similar. We expect them to back with us next week and we're hoping that they'll come through.”