Earlier today Ireland kicked off there playing preparations after 6 weeks of pre season training that took in numerous venues like Galway, Limerick and also the new training facility in Abbotstown where the IRFU, FAI and GAA have dedicated training facilities. Looking at those weeks Ireland have put in some hard graft in preparation for the upcoming World Cup.
Italy came to town with a much changed side from last season’s 6 Nations where Conor O Shea wanted a performance and for some of his charges to step up to the mark and put a hand up for team selection heading into the 2019 campaign.
For Joe Schmidt it was a opportunity to test out some new players like Jean Kleyn, Mike Haley and give guys like Dave Kearney a chance to stake a claim for selection for Japan 2019. The game itself was scrappy from the 1st minute to 80 minutes and will more than likely be just remembered for the injury to Joey Carbery that saw him leave the field after 49 minutes to be replaced by Jack Carty. Here’s hoping the news of Carbery’s injury will be positive when Ireland gather again in the middle of next week.
Although the performance won’t have any sides quaking it still threw up a number of decent performances from Andrew Conway, Chris Farrell and Joey Carbery before injury forced him to depart to let Jack Carty take his chance for the final 30 minutes. Carty for his part played well in the final 30 minutes even if the game dropped in intensity in that final quarter, he still found touch with two wonderful kicks to push Ireland up field.
Other stand out performers were Tadgh Beirne, Kieran Marmion and Devin Toner who rolled his ankle but should be in contention to face England in two weeks time. The work will need to be put in to see can the level of performance improve before they face England in match two of four.
Ireland will know the performance levels will need to get much better and the supposed heavy hitters will need to hit the ground running when they get back in harness whether that is against England or the two fixtures against Wales home and away. It’s two weeks until England in Twickenham and let’s hope the news on Joey Carbery will be positive later in the week.
Here is the side I would select to face England :
15 Will Addison
14 Keith Earls
13 Chris Farrell
12 Robbie Henshaw
11 Andrew Conway
10 Ross Byrne
9 John Cooney
8 Jack Conan
7 Peter O Mahony
6 CJ Stander
5 Iain Henderson
4 Tadgh Beirne
3 John Ryan
2 Sean Cronin
1 Dave Kilcoyne
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16 Niall Scannell
17 Jack Mc Grath
18 Andrew Porter
19 Devin Toner
20 Jordi Murphy
21 Kieran Marmion
22 Jonathan Sexton
23 Jacob Stockdale