Paul O’Connell pleased to welcome big guns back ahead of Scotland trip
With next Sunday week’s Six Nations Championship showdown against Scotland at Murrayfield Stadium fast coming into focus, Ireland forwards coach Paul O’Connell acknowledged it is a welcome sight to see Robbie Henshaw, Tadhg Furlong, Jamison Gibson-Park and Johnny Sexton all making a return to the training pitch.
Whereas last Saturday’s victory over Italy in Rome was the only game Sexton has missed thus far in the tournament, Henshaw, Furlong and Gibson-Park are yet to see action in this spring international window.
However, their appearance at today’s open training session at the Aviva Stadium suggests they have sufficiently shaken off their respective wrist, calf and hamstring injuries of recent weeks and are expected to be available for the closing two rounds of the Championship.
“There’s a few of them back. Tadhg Furlong trained today. Jamison trained today, Johnny and Robbie trained. They’re all very good players, they obviously have a lot of IP in terms of how they play the game. They make the group feel good as well with that kind of experience,” O’Connell explained.
“They speak very well, they generally have a lot of logic to add whenever we have problems to solve. It’s been brilliant to go these three games unbeaten without some of those guys. For them to come back in now hungry, with a bit of a different voice and a different perspective as well. It’s brilliant.”
In addition to losing Gibson-Park in the hours leading up to their tournament opener against Wales on February 4, Andy Farrell and his coaching team were also forced to make do without the services of replacement loosehead prop Cian Healy.
The veteran Leinster front-row was one of four players who didn’t take part in training at the Lansdowne Road venue due to injury – Garry Ringrose, Stuart McCloskey and James Lowe being the others. Ringrose is still on the road to recovery from the calf injury that forced his withdrawal for the Italian game, but O’Connell believes the outside centre and the remaining members of the absent quartet will be back in the groove sooner rather than later.
“Garry didn’t train today, but from what we believe he’s going to be fine. A few guys were looked after today. James Lowe didn’t train. Stuart McCloskey didn’t train, Cian Healy and Garry Ringrose didn’t train,” O’Connell added.
“Garry nearly played last week, but pulled out on Friday morning with his calf. I don’t see any problem with those four guys who didn’t train today, but we’re just trying to look after them.”