No news is good news for the Irish rugby team on the injury front on the opening week of the 2017 RBS Six Nations Championship. A squad update is always the first task on the order of business.
New @IrishRugby team manager Paul Dean has mostly positive news in his first injury update. pic.twitter.com/j8guBD7BKe
— Ross Lindsay (@Ross_A_Lindsay) January 30, 2017
How's Johnny? Back training tomorrow.
What about Seanie? Fine.
Earls? No issue.
Conway? Out.
That's a shame but he was unlikely to start.
If only it could stay this way for the entire tournament. For all the ups and downs, tries scored, points kicked, every team's campaign will rest on when and how many crucial injuries occur.
Ireland's Grand Slam in 2009 and the back to back Six Nations titles all came thanks to a relative lack of injuries. The disappointing World Cup exit to Argentina, last year's below par Spring showing and Ireland's only ever Six Nations defeat to Italy, can all be attributed to a lack of key players. Peter O'Mahony ended up on the wing on that gruesome day in Rome in 2013. That was also the last year Scotland beat us in the Championship.
A number of ex-England internationals have been wheeled out on TV over the last week proclaiming they see no reason why the Red Rose can't win a second successive Grand Slam. Here are two. The lack of Big Billy Vunipola and his little brother Mako. Not to forget they are also without former captain Chris Robshaw. England could James Haskell, Joe Marler and Anthony Watson fit by the time the Sweet Chariot rides up Lansdowne Road over the St Patrick's weekend. It is however, impossible to know what the Irish squad will look like by then.
Joe Schmidt's luck ran out at the World Cup. Paul O'Connell, Johnny Sexton, Peter O'Mahony and Jared Payne's injuries, compounded by the loss of Sean O'Brien to suspension meant Ireland were out of the tournament after just twenty minutes of the quarter final against Argentina. November's win over Australia, despite having scrum half on the wing and out half earning his third cap at full back, shows how Joe has redouble his efforts to control in uncontrollable. Ireland are nearing a era where they have cover for every position. There are still areas of concern though and Jared Payne is already a massive loss. That is why libations should be pored over the coming weeks, in the hope that Johnny Sexton, Conor Murray, Rory Best and Robbie Henshaw come through the tournament unscathed.
