Jonathan Sexton has been ruled out of Ireland’s Six Nations opener against Scotland this Saturday but the reaction from camp is that the squad is “blessed” with cover in the absence of their first-choice out-half, writes Brendan O’Brien.
Tormented by hamstring and calf injuries this last two months, it is a re-occurrence of the latter which has done for Sexton this week with a tightness in the muscle at training on Monday forcing head coach Joe Schmidt’s hand.
Ireland will also have to make do without Munster captain Peter O’Mahony who faced a scan on Tuesday afternoon after feeling a tightness in his calf in training, while Andrew Trimble is another doubt after reporting a similar twinge in his groin.
Sean O’Brien and Keith Earls, on the other hand, are supposedly good to go.
And as for Sexton?
“The update is he ran yesterday afternoon and just felt a little bit of tightness in his calf,” said forwards coach Simon Easterby on Tuesday afternoon. “We believe it right not to push him through the week and risk potential further damage.
“So he won’t be available this weekend. He’s obviously had a number of lower limb injuries, one (of which was a hamstring which we have managed along with Leinster through the Christmas period after the autumn.
“We redressed the balance there in terms of the hamstring. He picked up a calf (injury) in the Castres game. He only managed 20 minutes in that game. He had to come off. As a result of that little calf strain he’s got we don’t want to compromise his calf any further.
“We felt it best to leave him out this week and make sure that he is right for the upcoming games.”
Easterby later expressed a confidence that the Leinster back will return to fitness at some point during the Six Nations but that was as far as any detail went. Ulster’s Paddy Jackson will deputise in his absence.
Jackson has done that with aplomb before, most recently last summer in South Africa, but it is at that point that some alarm bells begin to ring for Ireland given it then falls between Ian Keatley and Rory Scannell to provide cover on the bench.
Keatley hasn’t played for Ireland since starting against Italy in the 2015 Six Nations and his Munster colleague is a centre by trade who can fill in at ten at a pinch. All of which begs the question as to why Ian Madigan hasn’t been called in.
Madigan has 30 caps for his country. Keatley has earned just four and Scannell has yet to make his debut but Easterby explained that it is Madigan’s current station in France with Bordeaux-Begles which has counted against him.
“Unfortunately he couldn’t be with us last week anyway because he was on the bench for Bordeaux against Clermont so it compromises his position with us when he is not playing in Ireland and we are trying to support those guys who are staying here.
“Circumstances may allow us to look outside of that but as it happens at the moment we have got those three guys in and Mads hasn’t been selected in the squad. He couldn’t be included last week so that hasn’t really helped his cause.”
It is far from an ideal situation given Keatley and Scannell’s inexperience at the level and Easterby countered the added fact that neither are the regular ten for Munster with the observation that Madigan has had to ‘ride the pine’ quite a bit this season himself.
Madigan may well be called in at some point this next two months now that the official World Rugby international window has kicked in and Bordeaux would be obliged to release him but that depends on Sexton’s fitness going forward for a start.
“Any player goes through periods where they have a number of injuries and we are fortunate that we have good guys who can come in and be competitive in that position,” said Easterby. “We are blessed with those tens that are available to us.
“Johnny is obviously unavailable and Joey Carbery, who came in during the autumn, is unavailable but players go through injuries. That happens. The longer we linger on it the less effective we can be so we have to move forward.”
