Baird out, Ireland hopeful Furlong and O'Toole will be available for Fiji
Tadhg Right, Furlong, In? Rugby Training Session Tadhg Beirne Cardy/sportsfile During Back Ramsey Ireland And Pic: An
Ireland hope to have both Tadhg Furlong and Tom O’Toole available for selection ahead of Saturday’s Autumn Nations Series clash with Fiji.
The tighthead prop duo both missed last Friday’s 22-19 victory over Argentina through injury, first-choice Furlong having also missed the November opener loss to New Zealand with a hamstring strain.
Finlay Bealham started both games in Furlong’s absence and was backed up by replacement O’Toole, only for the Ulster front-rower to sustain a head knock against the All Blacks and miss the win over the Pumas.
Thomas Clarkson was promoted to the Ireland bench in his stead and made an assured Test debut at Aviva Stadium last weekend but head coach Andy Farrell now has all four fit and available ahead of Thursday’s team announcement for the Fiji game with scrum coach John Fogarty on Tuesday optimistic Furlong will come through the rest of the training week to win his 79th Ireland cap this Saturday afternoon against the Flying Fijians.
Fogarty’s injury update also confirmed lock/flanker Ryan Baird will miss the third of Ireland’s four Autumn Nations Series games in Dublin having sustained a head injury shortly after entering the field against Argentina as a replacement.
“Ryan is out, yeah”, the assistant coach said. “And the two boys are back in, they trained today. Hopefully they will get through the week.” Asked specifically about Furlong’s well-being, Fogarty added: “Good, good. Full of energy.
“So, yeah, he got through the session today and he will be assessed as we go along.
“I’d say bullish, he’s eager to get back and excited to be in and around the team again. It’s lonely when you’re outside of that. He’s excited to be in and around the team, and we are excited as well.
“He’s back on time. He’s ready to go. If he was back last week and ready to go, he would have been up for selection and then the coaches will decide. He is back in training and he has got through that session today.”
Fiji will arrive at the Aviva on the back of a historic first victory over Wales in Cardiff two weeks ago and a come-from-behind defeat of Spain in Valladolid last weekend, though they started their November campaign understrength and suffered a big loss to Scotland in their opening Test.
Their uptick in form and consistency suggests Irish head coach Farrell will not make as many alterations to his side as in previous November Test windows against a Tier-2 side.
Farrell had warned last Friday against wholesale changes for the Fiji encounter when he stressed the need to introduce new blood with the support of experienced players around them and with two less than fluent performances so far this month, Fogarty on Tuesday said: “I think it’s important that we are doing right by everyone in our side, continuing to look for a performance.
“Fiji have improved. We played them two years ago and they’ve certainly improved. You see that through the Wales game, they didn’t quite have the full side out in that Scotland match, but they’re a dangerous side.
“So, it’s important that we are focusing on developing a good performance. Andy and ourselves will select accordingly.”