Ireland set to welcome back key quintet for Italy clash
G'DAY MACK: Ireland winger Mack Hansen. Pic: Ben Brady/Inpho
James Lowe and Ronan Kelleher are both “looking pretty good” to return for Ireland in Saturday’s final Guinness Six Nations round clash with Italy in Rome with attack coach Andrew Goodman admitting a successful title defence will rely on favours from Scotland and Wales.
Ireland are confident backs Lowe, fellow wing Mack Hansen, Garry Ringrose, and hooker Kelleher and prop Tadhg Furlong will all be available for selection when interim head coach Simon Easterby announces his matchday squad for Super Saturday visit to Stadio Olimpico.
The quintet all missed last Saturday’s Grand Slam-ending home defeat to France in Dublin, Lowe having experienced a back spasm in the pre-game warm-up at Aviva Stadium.
Ringrose was suspended following a 20-minute red card in the previous round’s victory in Wales, while Hansen had a quad injury and Kelleher missed out due to a neck issue.
Furlong, meanwhile, has finally overcome the calf and hamstring issues that have sidelined him since the eve of the campaign and Goodman confirmed on Tuesday that Ireland’s first-choice tighthead prop had been cleared for selection.
Of Lowe and Kelleher, the attack coach said: "They were both out there on the field today running around, so it's looking pretty good. They're both making good progress.
“Tadhg was back training. He's been involved with the team the last little bit but was out there and fully involved today. Obviously Garry is back from his suspension as well and Mack Hansen is available."
Asked if Furlong was definitely available to play for Ireland for the first time since last summer’s drawn Test series in South Africa, Goodman replied: "Yeah, he's available to play.
"It's great for him. It's been a tough period for him. With Tadhg and the history of the injury, we had to make sure he's right. We didn't want to get him back in and have another setback so we've been a little bit cautious with this one to make sure that he's 100 per cent right, so he can come back in and feel confident and comfortable."
The only other apparent concern from Tuesday’s training session at the IRFU High Performance Centre Abbottstown was strapping on the knee of fly-half Sam Prendergast but Goodman said: "He's just had a cut, nothing major there. He'll be fine, yeah."
As for the mood in the Ireland camp following the devastating 42-27 loss at home to France at the weekend, Goodman admitted it took time for the players to regain their positivity for the task ahead.
"It was a very restless couple of nights post-Saturday's performance. It was tough to watch and even tougher to watch back so there's a lot of analysis that goes into it as a coach and conversations as a coaching group.
“The first place we look is where we could have been better as a group of coaches to set the players up. The players come in on Sunday, we connect back up on Monday. The energy is obviously down a little bit because it's a performance we weren't proud of.
“We had a good week leading up to it and there were reasons around 50th caps (for Caelan Doris, Finlay Bealham and Jack Conan) and some great men (Cian Healy, Conor Murray and Peter O’Mahony) playing their last home game, as well as destiny being in our hands.
“Now that's taken away so it was a tough couple of days. So on Monday, energy levels get built back up and we have to come back in bouncing today because the most important thing now is a response.
"We need to go out there and put out our best performance and for our fans, we want to give them something good to watch."
With the Italy game first up on Saturday at 2:15pm Irish time, Ireland can only try and win with a bonus point and hope it is enough to keep them at the top of the Six Nations standings by the end of the three final-round fixtures.
England sit a point ahead of the Irish and play Wales in Cardiff in the 4:45 kick-off, before leaders and new title favourites France will start the weekend with a two-point lead on Ireland and entertain Scotland in Paris in the final game of the championship at 8pm.
The Irish need some favours, Goodman agreed.
"Exactly. Go Wales. Go Scotland. Anything's possible so we've got to focus on our performance. We want a performance that we're proud of but also that our fans are proud of.
“Off the back of that, we'll be hoping Finn Russell can weave some magic in France and we know how tough Wales are at home and they finished well on the weekend and hopefully take some good confidence from that game."
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